GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com Volume 25, Issue 6 September 11, 2009

Gain one, lose one

Kurt and Antonio win primaries

but Santiago is defeated

by Eric Resnick

Akron-The Rubber City will most likely gain its first openly lesbian official with Sandra Kurt easily defeating four other Democrats in the Ward 8 primary.

Meanwhile, Cleveland will lose its first gay official with Joe Santiago finishing third of seven in his reconfigured ward.

In Lakewood, out lesbian incumbent Nickie Antonio topped the list of nine council at-large candidates in the primary election on September 8.

Kurt, an industrial engineer with

Nickie J. Antonio Goodyear, garnered just under 50 percent of the total vote, 1,122 votes, in the five-way race. She will face Republican Elizabeth Berry Smith, who got 355 votes running unopposed, in the November election.

Kurt watched the results surrounded by members of the Summit County Stonewall Democrats, the organization she founded. She had their endorsement, plus ones from the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats and the Lesbian and Gay Victory Fund, a Washington, D.C. group that backs lesbian and gay candidates.

While the ward is generally Democratic, it is the only ward in Akron where a Republican could win, so Kurt's campaign continues through November 3.

Cummins and Nagin in Ward 14

The embattled Santiago got 265 votes in the race to represent

Cleveland's Ward 14.

The top vote-getter, Brian Cummins, got 539 and the runner up, Rick Nagin, got 393. The two will square off in November.

Cummins currently represents Ward 15 which was eliminated, with part of it added to the new Ward 14. Nagin was an aide to former councilor Nelson Cintron, whom Santiago defeated in 2005. Cintron also ran this time, finishing fourth.

During his tenure, Santiago fought off a recall attempt led by the bitter Cintron, and dealt with unfounded Plain Dealer reports that he was the target of an FBI investigation.

Santiago is the sponsor of Cleveland's ordinance adding gender identity and expression to the list of categories protected from discrimination. The measure is expected to come to the city council floor after the November election. Santiago will remain in his seat until the end of the year. Cummins is a co-sponsor of the

Sandra Kurt

ordinance and was endorsed by the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats. He is not gay.

Antonio is the top vote-getter

Antonio, also endorsed by the Victory Fund and the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats, got 2,400 votes running at-large. In November, the top six vote-getters in the primary will vie for three seats, making it likely that Antonio will be re-elected.

Inside This Issue

Feeling good

BRIAN DEWITT

The women of Club Ambiance make their entrance at the September 5 dance honoring the first anniversary of Feelgoode.com, a website serving as an information clearinghouse for Cleveland's African American LGBT community.

With crowd estimates at 175-200 people, the party was a major hit, with DJ Dr. Philgood spinning music and representatives from Ambiance, Eightball, Steppin' Out Social Club, Get On Your Feet Productions and other organizations in Cleveland's black gay community making the scene at the event, which was put on by Blowing Up Nasty Productions.

The party reflected both the name of the website, as well as its purpose.

"Feelgoode.com is about empowering, educating and then entertaining our community to get them to stand up to do something that will enrich our lives," said founder Sherry Bowman, also one of the organizers of the Ae In Our Hands Coalition, along with Leslye Huff and Kevin Calhoun.

"It's about feeling good about who we are and doing something about it," she continued, still speaking about the website. "We're not huge protesters, we're not the vehicle of change that some organizations are."

"We give people the information and let them decide what to do with it. We need to feel good about who we are, we need to move forward and take a huge step, but we need to feel good about," she noted. "Part of the African American LGBT community, we haven't felt good about ourselves, and then we stay in these self-imposed closets when we don't have to."

Other community organizations have made good use of the online presence afforded them by Feelgoode.com, and Bowman hopes that continues.

"Anybody that's doing anything positive in my community, I have time, space and an ear for them," she said.

In other Cleveland races, Mayor Frank Jackson easily defeated four opponents, including former councilor Bill Patmon, the runner up. The two will square off in November.

Continued on page 11

Maine and Washington antigay issues head to the ballot

Page 2

Community Groups

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Charlie's Calendar

Resource Directory

Cazwell's latest puts a fun danceable beat on homohop Page 6

Classifieds

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-Anthony Glassman

Medina GSA founder seeks city council seat

by Eric Resnick

Medina-The co-founder of the Medina County Gay Straight Alliance is running to become the city's first openly gay official.

Jay Smith, 23, says the GSA was founded in 2008 with the help of his partner Dan Coleman, formerly an organizer for Equality Ohio, because Medina had nothing for advocacy or support of LGBT people. He also had plans for the organization to begin laying the groundwork for LGBT affirming human rights legislation in the small city, which he will champion when he gets to council.

But before then, the 20-year resident says the city needs to find ways to repair infrastructure, in-

cluding aging water lines, without raising taxes.

Medina is often viewed as a distant suburb of both Akron and Cleveland, about 20 miles to the east and north.

The city's public square, a quaint green space with a gazebo. is bordered by three state highways and U.S. 42. Smith says this brings excessive truck traffic and makes the square unfriendly to pedestrians.

He wants to allocate money to do a traffic study, then act on it to solve the problem.

The other issue on Smith's mind is making Medina more green by modernizing building codes and using community development Continued on page 11