www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

• Pride Guide 2009

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Pittsburgh and Cleveland trash meet in drag softball

by Rob Gallagher

Cleveland-In 2006, North Coast. Softball started a tradition. It is called Drag Ball and is similar to the Columbus Bat 'n' Rouge fundraiser softball game, both played the day after Pride. Players from the North Coast Softball league dress up as the opposite gender to play softball.

Admission is $5 and the proceeds go and players dressed as famous people to league costs. The game lasts less than two hours and is meant to be a fun, campy, adult themed event in which the LGBT and their allies come together in a twist on softball and drag!

Also in attendance will be the Blazing River Freedom Band, trashy gay cheerleaders, and a DJ for your entertainment.

In 2006, the theme was '70s vs. '80s,

60 groups in Pride parade

Cleveland-The Cleveland LGBT

Pride parade will step off at noon June 20 from West Third St. and St. Clair Ave.

As of June15, 61 contingents were listed in the parade, but Pride organizers note that anyone may march.

The parade will proceed north on West Third to Lakeside Ave., then east to East 9th St., then north to the festival at Voinovich Park.

•

Blazing River Freedom Band

Grand Marshals

•

Dreamriders Women's Motorcycle Club

Emmanuel Fellowship Church

Euclid Avenue Congregational UCC

Melissa "Cha Cha" Figuroa

• Faith United Church of Christ

Franklin Circle Christian Church DykeMoms

GLSEN Northeast Ohio

John Marshall Gay Straight Alliance

Shaker Gay Straight Alliance

GLBT @Case

Akron Area Pride Center Youth Group

PFLAG Cleveland

Pride of Cleveland Scooter

Time Warner Cable

• Trinity Cathedral GLBT and Allies

Old South United Church of Christ

Pilgrim Congregational UCC

Plymouth Church of Shaker Hts. UCC Mercy for Animals

Southwest Unitarian Universalist Church

•

West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church

•

Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron

Unitarian Universalist Society of Cleveland

Liberation United Church of Christ

AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland

A Man's World

KAIL, New Age In Leather

CLAW, Clev Leather Awareness Weekend

Cocktails Bar

•

Clinic Pride

•

Cle Missionary Sisters Perpetual Indulgence

LGBT Community Center of Greater Cle Lovari

Human Rights Campaign of Cleveland

Jennifer Brunner Committee

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Equality Ohio

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Cleveland Stonewall Democrats

Stonewall Democrats of Summit County Fusion

Cleveland Fetish Community

•

· University Circle Inc.

Cleveland Kings and Girls

Devinity

TransFamily

• Le Femme Mystique Burlesque

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Cleveland Couples Together

Joseph-Beth Booksellers

•

Misssy

Ask Cleveland

Rainbow Wranglers

• North Coast Bowling Assoc.-Sunday

•

North Coast Softball

Continental Airlines

• Ms. CoCo

• Revol

•

Friends

Mary and Tom

from those eras like the Golden Girls, Starky and Hutch, Sunny and Cher, Carrie, and more.

In 2007, the theme was Good Girls vs. Bad Girls. Famous divas and queens faced off, such as the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy, Tina Turner, Paris, and others.

Last year, the theme was Heroes vs. Villains, with the likes of Lara Croft, Supergirl, the Riddler, Xena and-more.

For 2009 there will be a new twist in Drag Ball IV. This will be the first year we have another city coming to challenge us! The

Fisher

Continued from page 2

Huffington Post call for marriage equality on June 10.

"It is time to make that right available to all American couples, whether they are heterosexual or same-sex," Brunner wrote. "This is a family values issue."

With a fundraiser set for June 14 at the home of a Cleveland-area gay couple, the Fisher campaign gave the statement it said supports "gay marriage" to the Plain Dealer, according to spokesperson Julie Van Eman.

Plain Dealer reporter Mark Naymik noted on his blog June 10 that "[Fisher] did not say so as clearly as Brunner."

The next day, the Columbus Dispatch also reported that Fisher "supports gay marriage."

Both dailies quoted Fisher's HRC dinner comments in the April 10 Gay People's Chronicle.

However, the statement came from the campaign, not Fisher directly, and seems to imply only that he would not oppose marriage.

theme will be "Cleveland Trash vs. Pittsburgh Trash."

This year's game will be at 2:30 pm on June 21 at the Gordon Park, on East 72nd Street just south of the Interstate 90 exit.

So join in this tradition the day after Pride and come watch the best of campiness and trash as Cleveland tries to finally beat Pittsburgh in something!

More information about the game and North Coast Softball is available at www.northcoastsoftball.org.

Rob Gallagher is commissioner of the North Coast Softball league.

This raises questions of whether Fisher's position has actually changed, why the words "gay marriage" were chosen instead of "marriage equality," and how strongly Fisher would advocate for marriage if elected.

Ohio's other U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown, also a Democrat, was elected in 2006 on a platform supporting marriage equality.

"I am fully and completely in support of [same-sex] civil marriage,” Brown wrote on a Gay People's Chronicle questionnaire. "In my view, there is no reason why the same legal benefits extended to opposite sex couples should not be extended to loving, committed same-sex couples."

Fisher's campaign was asked to make Fisher available to elaborate and clarify the position.

They declined.

Campaign manager Geri Prado said in an e-mail, "Lee is unavailable, but we don't have anything to add at this time."

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