Gayest and Greatest

Wild About

Favorite Community Organization (social): H.A.T.C.H. (Houston Area Teen Coalition for Homosexuals) 713/942-7002

H.A.T.C.H. may be our community’s most needed and hope-inducing organization. Founded in 1991 (coming out of a group for gay teens at the Unitarian church), the Houston Area Teen Coalition of Homosexuals provides a place for a lively spirited group of teens and young people to come together and be themselves in a loving safe environment, from the sometime-raucous, sometimes-serious Friday night gatherings, to their Take-Back-the-Prom annual event. Hurrah for the H.A.T.C.H.-lings, their dedicated adult counselors, and to their dedicated president Kevin Davidson and director Carol Patrosi

Favorite Community Organization (charity): Houston Buyers Club
3400 Montrose, Suite 605 (next to Body Positive), 713/520-5288
Fred Walters Jr. formed the Houston Buyers Club five years when he saw the acute need for affordable nutritional supplements for those with HIV/AIDS, which are often very expensive. Since then, the nonprofit group has become an information central for how to manage the side affects associated with the disease. When Walters started the HBC, he tells us they served six people–today they serve over 2,200! Come on out and show your support for this inspired organization by attending the World AIDS Day Health Fair at Bering United Methodist on December 1.

Best Fundraiser of the Year: Bunnies on the Bayou
Need a little Easter perk-you-up? How about hundreds and hundreds of folk in bunny ears and costumes galore bouncing super balls all around the Wortham Pavilion’s waterfall raising money for the grassroots organizations that need it most. Now that’s the way to break Lent.

Best Art Gallery: Museum of Fine Arts
1001 Bissonnet 713/639-7300
Houston has busted its collective arts-and-fundraising butt in the past 10 years to move our fair city out of the cow-town category and into the national spotlight as a progressive, art-friendly town, and nowhere is the success of this effort more visible than at the MFA. Now with their monumental new building doubling their capacity and scope, the MFA is even better situated to take a place in the national art dialogue. Many Houstonians don’t realize the scope of programs and exhibits sponsored in whole or part by the MFA, including the lovely Bayou Bend (historic home of leading Houston socialite Ima Hogg) and the Glassell School of Art. Check out the MFA’s web site at www.mfah.org, become a member, and support the art gallery you chose as your favorite.

HALL OF FAME
Best Theater: Alley Theatre
615 Texas Avenue 713/228-8421

The Alley is, hands down, the leading theater in the Southwest. Under the leadership of artistic director Gregory Boyd, the Alley brings Houston perhaps its finest quality live theater. Treats like Michael Wilson’s sensitive past production of classics like A Streetcar Named Desire (with our own local diva, Annalee Jefferies) as well as the current The Glass Menagerie with doyenne Elizabeth Ashley are interspersed with some less inspired choices (do we really have to see A View from the Bridge again?), but over all, the Alley delivers, year after year. If you missed the company’s production of the epic Angels in America several years ago, you missed one of the best productions in Houston ever.

Best Concert of the Year: Tina Turner
Sorry, guys, Tina’s still got the best legs going, even at 60-plus years. Her explosive energy and tell-it-like-it-is attitude make her a favorite of many, gay and straight, but in concert, she is truly at her best. Supposedly, this tour was her last; Tina says she has retired from live performance. For those of you who got to see her last tour, we hate you, we hate you, you lucky, lucky things!

Favorite Place to Go in Galveston
Dateline Hollywood! The Hollywood Guest House is your favorite destination in Galveston, unless you count the beach itself, which got the most votes overall. Different parts of the beach were mentioned, everything from "the gay beach" (a.k.a. Stewart Beach) to "a walk on the beach" to "the nude beach." (Although there is some nudity on East Beach, the real au-natural hangout is near Winnie on Boliver Island: after you take the Boliver Ferry, drive about 35 miles; when you come to the "Road Closed" sign and an arrow pointing left to Winnie, go around the barricade, and the nude beach is down four miles. Arrests have been made at both locations, so do be cautious.) Also mentioned was the long-enduring Kon Tiki Bar–can you believe that place is still rocking? Whatever their ultimate destination, you love to make your getaway to Galveston, Houston’s gay-friendly little sister on the Gulf.

Best Place for a First Date
Talk about diversity! Responses varied from the cautious (Starbucks) to the elegant (Anthony's Restaurant) to the lusty (my bedroom). Maybe all three, in that order?

Best Place to Find a Lover for the Night: Club Houston
Unless you happen to be female, of course!

Best Place to Find a Lover For Life
Once again, a range of ideas, the most accurate one, perhaps the pithy "When You're Not Looking!"

Favorite Place of Worship
Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church has been a mainstay in our community for many years now, standing up against hatred and divisiveness by providing a place of serenity and acceptance for all.

Favorite Annual Gay Event: PRIDE PARADE
Oh, yes! We love Houston Pride, even back in ancient history when we had to stand sweating in the daytime June heat to see the parade participants, makeup running in rivulets down their faces, streaming and screaming down Westheimer. Thank God our wonderful Pride Committee moved the parade to the evening, when at least we are not in danger of heatstroke! Pride Month in Houston is more than just the parade, of course, but this yearly show of unity and celebration in the face of prejudice and condemnation helps knit the fabric of our community together. When Mayor Lee Brown became the first Houston mayor to ride in the parade, we witnessed a milestone in the struggle for gay rights in our city. Kudos to Mayor Brown for his courage to fight discrimination in all its forms.

Lauren Johnson recently returned from Los Angeles to roam the streets of Montrose re-discovering the gayest and greatest of her native Houston. Currently, she contributes to magazines such as OutSmart and Curve while hurrying to finish the script for a lesbian horror film that starts production in December.