GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

January 26, 2007

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Services are funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Information provided by: The Cuyahoga Regional HIV Services Planning Council.

Stonewall

Continued from page 1

continued. "I will be the main contact for our volunteers, matching their wants to our needs, training incoming new volunteers also for the effectiveness and accountability of the hundreds of volunteers for our annual Pride parade.”

"I am again the main contact for our groups. I am here to offer Stonewall's support to our groups, as well as assist with advertising and public relations for our groups," she said.

She concluded, "Finally, I am here to provide a much-needed intake and referral post for the LGBT community."

Bishop comes from working in the Medicaid office of the Ohio Department of Mental Health, and is a full-time student at Ohio State University. She will receive her bachelor's degree in social work next year.

With her background, one of her longterm priorities is the "implementation of a support network via the intake and referral center here at Stonewall. It is my dream to be able to have the resources and support necessary to become a fully functioning I/R center."

"There should be no one who walks into our doors that leaves empty-handed. If you have a need, be it financial, mental health or legal, I will be able to match you with the best person or agency to take care of it," she said. "Every community has a human services agency. The LGBT community should be no exception."

"For us, Stonewall needs to be synonymous with help, answers and support," she enthused.

Simpson's task is paradoxically both simpler and much more difficult: She needs to take a well-established, popular event and keep it that way. That involves bringing back the best of previous years while also working out issues that arose in the past.

"We have secured funding to bring back the banners on High Street again this year," she stated, noting that the Pride Walk, 5K run and the Pride Cruise-In will return this year, along with the art show and expanded history programs, to create a month of Pride programming.

The most difficult issue she will have to tackle, however, is collecting admission to the festival.

"One thing we're going to try to do this year is to educate folks about Pride and how important it is for them to pay the $5 at the gate," she noted. "A lot of folks don't realize that Pride is Stonewall's major operating fundraiser for the year, and enables us to offer and expand the programs and resources that are available at the center."

'Stonewall needs to be synonymous with help, answers and support.'

"It costs us about $75,000 to put the festival on," she explained. "It really hurts our community when people sneak in."

"Besides, look at what you get for $5: a full day of 100,000 gay and gay-friendly people, an awesome parade, great local and national talent, and merchandise and information booths," she exclaimed. "It's a very inexpensive way to individually support our community and help it to grow."

Last year saw the introduction of 3000steps.com, a pledge website that brought in more donations for Stonewall Columbus. The site will be used again this year, and Stonewall plans to bring it to the public's attention much more than last year.

"We're going to be pushing www.3000steps.com this year, which was donated by the Union Station Foundation," Simpson said: "Individuals, clubs, businesses, et cetera can pledge per step for the parade. This is a great way for small businesses to contribute and support us by getting folks to sign up under their name.'

Rothan is continuing in her role as in. terim center director while the board prepares to find a permanent replacement as well as an executive director.

Lets go somewhere romantic for dinner!

Okay... where?

Dreamgirls

Continued from page 8

more of a lifetime achievement compensation than a true evaluation of who was the best this year.

No one has looked as good on screen in a long, long time as Beyonce Knowles does here. She's gorgeous and her acting is competent. But a Golden Globe nomination? Give me a break! As the faux Diana Ross, Knowles works the sexiness quotient to its max, but overall it is a tepid performance and the awards buzz around her leaves one with very little faith in the awards system.

Jamie Foxx is the one who steals that show and has the best performance of the film. But his quiet menace is no match for the over-the-top histrionics of the others. He goes unnoticed and underappreciated. If anyone deserves a nomination here it is him.

Condon was perhaps the right man to tell this story. His last two directorial outings were classy films with Oscar potential. Gods and Monsters was a beautiful story about and older gay man struggling with art and life. Kinsey boldly told the story of the man who revolutionized modern sexuality. In both those films, far stronger than

Dreamgirls, Condon seemed focused on simplicity and truth. Here he seems to have lost his way, blinded by enough sequins to make Liberace blush with modesty.

Condon's script and directing seem nfocused and overly grandiose. The human elements get lost. The characters, because the film tries to focus on so many, don't get completely developed leaving one cold to them all.

The multiple ways in which songs are used in the film also don't work cohesively. Sometimes they are as part of concert performances and other times the characters sing in interaction with one another. Condon hasn't managed to meld these seamlessly and it seems like we are watching a stage play from multiple angles, but never a movie in its own right.

Sad to say, this reviewer thinks that Dreamgirls' only genius is the buzz machinery that surrounds it. Like it or not, the one who stands on the treetop (in sequins galore to boot) and warbles the loudest is likely to get the attention, deserved or not. If the Academy gave an Oscar for Best Publicity Campaign Despite Mediocre Filmmaking, I'd be the first one to give Dreamgirls its due.

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