DKHMER GAY

FRIDAY

Chicago Pride Fest
The weekend kicks off on Friday, June 24th with this two-day event hosted by Northalsted Business Alliance. The festival features food and other vendors as well as a lineup of arts and crafts.
It also features two stages of entertainment and boasts an impressive lineup of performers including Crystal Waters, Kim English, Deborah Cox, Ultra Nate, MYA, Inaya Day, and many more.

Hours:
Fri., June 24: 4 - 10 pm
Sat., June 25: 11 am - 10 pm

Location:
On Halsted btwn. Addition & Broadway
3700 N. Halsted St
Chicago, IL 60613

Check out the official site for more info.
Backlot Bash
Celebrating its 8th year. The annual 3-day event takes place in the parking lot behind Cheetah Gym, 5248 N. Clark. For list of entertainers, djs, age requirements, hours, cost, etc. check out the official website.
SATURDAY

Dyke March Chicago
Community members come together for an alternative to the official Pride Parade in Boystown to celebrate the beauty and diversity of the Lesbian Community.
Hours: Starts at 2:30pm
Location: Starts at 7054 S. Jeffery Blvd.
Other Saturday events include:
Pride Walk & Run
"Proud To Run" 30th Annual event includes a 5k & 10k & 2 mile fun walk presented by Frontrunners/Frontwalkers Chicago in Lincoln Park, Montrose & the lakefront. 8 AM. $30. Proceeds benefit local community organizations. www.proudtorun.org.
Sailboat Excursion- "A Gay Pride Golden Sail Adventure Sunset Cruise" by Class "C" Entertainment. 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM (Board 4:30 PM sharp) at Burnham Harbor, 1559 S. Lake Shore Dr. Tickets: $35 (Advance purchase only).
SUNDAY

The Parade
Chicago’s 42nd Annual Pride Parade will feature Grand Marshal Fernanda Rocha—the first lesbian cast member on the Bravo show, The Real Housewives of Orange County. The parade will line up at the corner of Halsted (800 West) and Belmont (3200 North). Step off from the Halsted/Belmont corner at 12 Noon and proceed north on Halsted (to Broadway); then south on Broadway (to Diversey); then east on Diversey (to Cannon Drive) in Lincoln Park.

Other Sunday events include:


Street Fest
An event sponsored by Gay Chicago with portions of proceeds benefiting PFLAG. Featuring vendors and live performances from 4pm-10pm located on Glenwood, between Morse and Lunt, at Morse Red Line.
Block Party
Located in the parking lot of the Lake View Lutheran Church, 835 W. Addison. 4 PM to 8 PM. $5 donation (gets you a Pride wristband good for two drinks). Proceeds support The Crib - an emergency shelter for young people and Stand Up for Kids - a street outreach service.)
For a full listing of Chicago Pride events throughout the month of June visit the offical site.
Don't forget to send us your Gay Pride photos and upload videos from your phone! You could be featured in our Gay Pride Gallery.

Get your phone ready….It's about to get a whole lot of awesome apps.
 Queer ?'s—Free
See someone you like in the infinitely long port-o-potty line, but don’t know what to say? The Queer ?’s app will have you guys getting to know each other in no time! You’ll delve into randomly generated questions about sex, love, relationships, diversity, coming out, health, family, and politics relevant to the queer community and point of view.
Bump – FREE
Giving your number to the “hottie at 2 o’clock” is easier than ever thanks to the Bump app. You select the info that you want the other person to receive (phone number, email, and that photo that accentuates your washboard abs perfectly), then bump your phone-in-fist into his/hers. Chances are that won’t be the only contact you two make. Now you can move on to “oh-man-he’s-sexy, at 9 o’clock” within minutes! Talk about efficiency.
 
 iReject —$0.99
We’ve given you a couple apps to help move you a little closer to a love connection, but what if you’re approached by someone who makes you want to turn and run the other way? Get the app to give that creepy guy the hint to get gone so you can get your pride on! iReject is the answer. For those of you how have just been asked whether your mom was a baker because you've got nice buns, send them away with one of the apps generated rejection lines, ranging from the moderately polite to the outright insulting.

LocalMind - FREE
If you’re trying to find out which of the many lavish parties and gay-friendly bars has the sweetest eye candy, LocalMind is what you need. You send a question to one of your friends who has checked-in to a particular location via Foursquare, Gowalla, or Facebook, and receive an answer from that person in real-time. This is definitely more hipster than Hollywood. That doesn’t mean all your questions have to be about the capacity and ambience of the scene. It’s pride… use your imagination!!!
 
Don’t Dial! -  $0.99
We’ve all been there. You’re a drunk, hot mess, but you think you’re King of the world! So you pull out your phone to hit up the no good cheat who broke your heart. Thanks to the “Don’t Dial!” app, his contact info is locked away for the next 24 hours! This is because you know yourself too well and you took all precautions to make sure you have an incredible time at pride. Just open the app, select which contacts to lock, determine how long you want them to be locked, and confirm! You are single, so go mingle, baby!
 
SMS Replier - $19.95 Lifetime Licence
This app will prevent you from being the last one to show up to pre pride brunch because you got pulled over, AND it will help you get there in one piece! SMS Replier kick into action by detecting your speed and responding to your contacts so calls and texts don’t go ignored. This app goes beyond the scope of being “pride ready.” With SMS Replier, you will be set for life!

Out Magazine Guides—Free
You will stay on top of the best gay bars, restaurants, shops, nightlife, and hotels in your area firsthand with the help of Out editors’ local city guides. Out's intel comes from each city's top party hounds, retail therapists, and gastronomic elites. These gays are in the know, and they’re passing on these jewels to your iPhone so you can look like the hero when you suggest an awesome alternative destination. No matter where you’re celebrating pride, from the hottest parties to the chillest lounges, Out Guides have got you covered.

Can I Drive Yet?—$0.99
Now, this is for entertainment only, but this cheeky app will help you decide if you are ready to drive home at the end of the night. Input some info about yourself and what you’ve had to drink, and “Can I Drive Yet” will act as your breathalyzer. Sadly/Luckily, no blow needed! Using standards available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it will estimate your blood alcohol content to help you decide, more accurately, if it really is safe to drive. If you are seriously using this app, that’s a pretty good sign you shouldn’t be driving, so don’t risk it. Perhaps this app can influence your designated driver to reconsider taking that last drink to top off the pride celebration.
Instagram – Free
Instagram is going to be the best way to capture and share all those pride moments with your friends and with us at Gay.com! “Pick from one of several gorgeous filtered effects or tilt-shift blur to breathe a new life into your mobile photos.” You will be able to keep these remnants of a time shared with your LGBT family, and start tracking how much sexier you become with each pride celebration.

Taxi Magic—Free
This is the first online taxi booking service that is directly integrated with taxi dispatch systems, so no phone call is needed. “Taxi Magic” can be that 4-seater limo you didn’t get the chance to book for you and your divas! You will be taken from your home or hotel to the metallic gates adorned with rainbow flags welcoming you to pride. Find a taxi based on your location, book with a few taps, track the arrival of your chariot, AND you can even charge it to your card and get an e-receipt; all the power is in the palm of your hand! Can you imagine an easier way to get a safe ride home at the end of the night, no matter who’s wasted or where you end up for the after-party?

Hotels in the Preferred Pride Collection are also active supporters of the LGBT community and must be either TAG Approved (Travel Alternative Group) or belong to IGLTA (International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association) in order to be eligible.
“Preferred Pride is more than just another LGBT seal of approval; the program was created to unite Preferred’s diverse community of independent hoteliers around the world who are committed to the LGBT community,” said Rick Stiffler, Preferred Hotel Group executive director, leisure sales. “It is a global initiative that enables hoteliers to learn about and better understand the needs and preferences of the LGBT traveler.”
“As part of the Preferred Pride program, diversity training is offered to hotels to provide insight in best practices in serving the LGBT community from check-in to check-out. Participating hotels may choose to assign an internal ambassador who has completed the training and will champion the activity within the hotel. Training suggestion examples include providing bathrobes, slippers, and toiletries befitting same sex couples; having a knowledgeable concierge who can provide a list of the area’s best attractions, dining and nightlife; or simply including publications within the hotel that acknowledge the specific guest’s interests. In addition, training will provide the hotels with ideas on how they can take a more active role in their local LGBT community through activities, sponsorship and support.”
For more information and special package deals, check out the Preferred Pride Website.

“Go big or go home, wooooh!” is the only thing I can remember some random drunk guy saying at some random party at someone’s random house in Palm Springs proper.
Let’s go over some big fat facts about the city, then, so we can decide if we stay or go home: Big fat desert? Don’t go home. Big fat pool?  Don’t go home? Short film festival? Definitely, don’t go home (“it’s not always about the length.” Right?)
Here are some things to remember: From June 21-27 the Palm Springs International ShortFest will screen a total of 331 films, selected from more than 3,000 entries submitted worldwide. Out of those, 50 of them are LGBT-centric, separated into six programs by theme. Follow the jumb for more information and video on good things that come in small packages.
Per the 2011 Palm Springs International ShortFest website.
Pride, The Past and the Present — Gay life is infinitely more varied than its portrayal in the popular media, and this selection of gay shorts addresses both the pride and the prejudice gay men have dealt with through the years.

Queer As Folk — A great selection of queer shorts touching on subjects as diverse as Fire Island time share buddies, gay marriage, life in a massage mill, a strikingly liberated Scottish transvestite and parenthood further explore the range of gay experience.
  The Gay!la - His: Pushing the Homosexual Agenda — For all the homophobes who think that there’s    some kind of unified gay plot to take over the world, here’s a selection of diverse short stories that illustrate how gay men are too busy dealing with life to bother with hatching a unified conspiracy.

The Gay!la - Hers: Les Girls — The pursuit of happiness in all its manifold guises gets the spotlight in this terrific package of shorts dealing with la vida lesbo.

Girls' Night Out — A deliciously disparate collection of short films about girls who want to be with the girls, spanning the globe from Japan to Spain and from Chile to Ireland.

Coming Out — The light and freedom outside of the closet beckons for each of the protagonists in this selection of gay shorts about taking those first steps toward acknowledging you’re a gay man.

Following the moving first feature, the second screening will be the award winning film Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria. The film originally aired as a part of KQED’s independent film series and tells the lesser-known story of the local act of assertion at San Francisco’s Compton’s Cafeteria which occurred three years be fore the Stonewall riots.
The Castro Theatre is located at:
429 Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
Seating is limited. Visit the official site for more information and to reserve seats for this event.

After hospital stays and what he described as “two months of being completely psychotic and paranoid,” Hersch seemed to be on the mend when he was sidelined by a bout of pneumonia. It didn’t look good. He had septic shock and his kidneys had shut down.
“Hersch essentially spent the next two months in a coma, and when he came out he found himself unable to talk, eat, or walk,” Winston Gieseke writes in HIV Plus magazine. “The future of his career was uncertain. Doctors weren’t sure he’d ever be able to play the piano again.”
But Hersch resolved to continue making music.
“My hands went through lots of phases of being swollen, being stiff, being weak, being painful,” he says, “but I just fully assumed I was going to get back on the horse.”
Over the next several months of extensive rehabilitation, Hersch was plagued by vivide memories and visions from his coma dreams. Even though he rarely remembered his nightly dreams, he found himself unable to shake these ones.
“They were very specific: colors, smells, textures, sounds, people in my life. I thought, I should do some kind of music piece with this.”
Working with writer and director Herschel Garfein, who’s best known for his operatic adaptation of Elmer Gantry, Hersch turned the memories into My Coma Dreams.
“It’s what they call a ‘festival piece,’” Hersch says of the 11 instrumentalists and actor-singer who narrates the show using the composer’s own words. “There’s too much music for to be classified as a theater piece, and too much theater for it to be a musical piece.”
“It’s not a jazz piece per se,” Hersch volunteers. Fans of his jazz work may be surprised.
“It’s a mix of musical languages. Stylistically, I did not limit myself to what I was going to write and in what style. I just let the dreams take me where they wanted to go.”
As for his own amazing recovery, Hersch says a large contributor to his good health is his partner, Scott Morgan. With a viral load that has been undetectable for more than three years, Hersch hopes the music will inspire hope in other HIV-positive people.
“When I was diagnosed, I was not yet 30,” he says, “and I never thought I’d be 40. Now I’m 55, and I’m thinking 60 is a no-brainer.”
Read more about Hersch’s amazing journey in the original article on HIVPlusMag.com.

Watch Teresa's video on Positive & Proud.
Watch Jason's video on Positive & Proud.
Watch more "Deciding Moments" from Greater Than AIDS.

After hospital stays and what he described as “two months of being completely psychotic and paranoid,” Hersch seemed to be on the mend when he was sidelined by a bout of pneumonia. It didn’t look good. He had septic shock and his kidneys had shut down.
“Hersch essentially spent the next two months in a coma, and when he came out he found himself unable to talk, eat, or walk,” Winston Gieseke writes in HIV Plus magazine. “The future of his career was uncertain. Doctors weren’t sure he’d ever be able to play the piano again.”
But Hersch resolved to continue making music.
“My hands went through lots of phases of being swollen, being stiff, being weak, being painful,” he says, “but I just fully assumed I was going to get back on the horse.”
Over the next several months of extensive rehabilitation, Hersch was plagued by vivide memories and visions from his coma dreams. Even though he rarely remembered his nightly dreams, he found himself unable to shake these ones.
“They were very specific: colors, smells, textures, sounds, people in my life. I thought, I should do some kind of music piece with this.”
Working with writer and director Herschel Garfein, who’s best known for his operatic adaptation of Elmer Gantry, Hersch turned the memories into My Coma Dreams.
“It’s what they call a ‘festival piece,’” Hersch says of the 11 instrumentalists and actor-singer who narrates the show using the composer’s own words. “There’s too much music for to be classified as a theater piece, and too much theater for it to be a musical piece.”
“It’s not a jazz piece per se,” Hersch volunteers. Fans of his jazz work may be surprised.
“It’s a mix of musical languages. Stylistically, I did not limit myself to what I was going to write and in what style. I just let the dreams take me where they wanted to go.”
As for his own amazing recovery, Hersch says a large contributor to his good health is his partner, Scott Morgan. With a viral load that has been undetectable for more than three years, Hersch hopes the music will inspire hope in other HIV-positive people.
“When I was diagnosed, I was not yet 30,” he says, “and I never thought I’d be 40. Now I’m 55, and I’m thinking 60 is a no-brainer.”
Read more about Hersch’s amazing journey in the original article on HIVPlusMag.com.