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Pride Guide 2010 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

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communitygroups

Brynna Fish named to LGBT Jewish leadership panel

Cleveland-In 1983, as a founding member of Chevrei Tikva, Cleveland's LGBT Synagogue (now part of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple), Brynna Fish did not hesitate to add "out Jewish lesbian" as another feather in her community activist hat. Twenty-seven years later, being named one of 17 national Jewish LGBT leaders to the advisory board of an historic Jewish movement convening at the end of the month in California, is more than just another feather in Brynna Fish's hat.

"Being named to this board of national Jewish LGBT leaders is like getting an honorary doctoral degree," Fish said. "It both acknowledges my three decades of grassroots work and provides the license I need to grow this work deeper on the local, statewide and national level.".

Active in the Jewish Federation of Cleveland's LGBT task force, established in 2004, Fish learned about Keshet ("rainbow" in Hebrew), a Jewish LGBT organization in Boston, when they produced the documentary Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School. In 2008, Fish was instrumental in bringing both the movie and Keshet's executive director Idit Klein to Cleveland.

Impressed with Fish's strong Jewish background, Jewish lifestyle, and her LGBT community organizing skills and connec-

tions, Keshet invited Fish to participate in its first national Hineini Education Project Training Institute held in Atlanta, Georgia the spring of 2008. Fish was then hired to coordinate their second training, which was held here in Cleveland later that summer. In February 2009, Fish was invited to participate in Keshet's National Training Institute for Master Trainers. Fish is now certified by Keshet as a master trainer to lead programs for Jewish youth, educators, youth directors

Brynna Fish

and clergy addressing issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and allies inclusion using the Hineini Education Project materials.

Fish's work in the Jewish community on LGBT issues caught the attention of those working statewide on faith-based LGBT issues for Equality Ohio. She represented the Jewish faith at Equality Ohio's November 2008 "Ohio, Progress and Faith" luncheon in the Ohio State House. There she shared how her Jewish faith has provided her both a rich foundation of ethics to guide her life and activism, and has also betrayed her through discrimination. In the early 1980's she was relieved of her responsibilities as the Central Region United Synagogue Youth Director due to "budget reasons" just a few weeks after her supervisor asked her outright if she was a lesbian.

While Fish continues her involvement in Equality Ohio's faith-based initiatives, her true passion is working directly in local schools and synagogues. This past April, through her work with the Gay Straight Alliance at Hawken Upper School, Fish debuted her coming out journey to the entire student body through a multi-media presentation entitled "My Life in Queer PowerPoint."

Fish also presented two workshops at the National Conference of Jewish Secular Or-

ganizations held over Memorial Day weekend in Cleveland. A dozen adults from around the country attended Fish's "LGBTQQIA: What Does Judaism Have to Do with It?" The highlight of her participation in the conference was being invited by the kids to address their contingent. While no Cleveland teens participated in this event, the over 80 high school students attending "were transfixed," according to conference coordinator Hans Leander. During the 90minute session Fish taught the alphabet of gay identities and the differences between gender identity and sexual identity.

"These kids reminded me that there is a generation of youth who understand the inequality and discrimination that exists in our country and who will turn that understanding into votes that will help transform legislation so that we can all be free citizens."

The three-day conference, held at the Pacific School of Religion and organized by Jewish Mosaic, Keshet and Nehirim, will take place June 27-29, and will feature a June 28 reception and talk with Stuart Milk, the nephew of Harvey Milk.

For more information about the conference, go to www.jewishinclusion.com.

To have Brynna Fish present to your group, school or synagogue, call 216-407-5543 or email bfish6557@aol.com.

New team will prepare swimmers for the Gay Games

by Todd Urban

Cleveland-While it is fairly common knowledge that Cleveland and Akron have been awarded the 2014 Gay Games, it is unclear of all the repercussions that will result from the cities hosting such a huge sporting event. One early side effect is the creation of a swim team that will allow gay men and women to come together to prepare

for competitions in both swimming and triathlon, network with other athletes or simply control an expanding waistline.

Cleveland has numerous straight masters teams where many adults train, but the creation of a gay team will be a step toward preparing more swimmers for the annual SynergyFests to be held each August leading up to 2014 and the Gay Games themselves. SynergyFest 2011 will include swim-

ming, along with several other additional sports, to expand the highly successful event run this past April that offered tennis, volleyball, billiards and flag football.

Practices will be held on Tuesdays from 7 to 8 PM at the Cleveland State University Busbey Natatorium, 2451 Euclid Ave. between Euclid and Chester Aves. There will be a coach to run workouts for more experienced swimmers or to help newcomers with

stroke instruction. Individuals should be deep water safe because some practices will be run in the long course pool where half the pool is over six feet deep.

If you are interested you can join the team some Tuesday during the summer at CSU or contact Todd Urban at 216-226-5054 for more information.

Todd Urban is the organizer for Cleveland's gay swim team.

Justine Mara Andersen to come out at her new show

by Jacob Nash

Akron-TransOhio, along with Equality Ohio, the Cleveland LGBT Center and the Inferno nightclub have come together to sponsor an exciting event on July 16 at the University of Akron.

Artist Dennis Crabapple McClain, born in Akron as Dennis Cramer, has come out as transgender and will be coming out to the art community at this event as Justine Mara Andersen.

The exciting thing about this show is it features internationally published work from such clients as DC Comics, Image Comics, Wizard of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons (including some Dragonlance as well as some Sword of Shannara illustrations), Lucasfilm, Mara comics, and much more.

Justine, as Dennis, had a long and distinguished career in science fiction, fantasy, and comics. And now Justine is finally showing as

part of the transgender community and coming fully out in this public event.

Justine Mara Andersen studied under the tutelage of such comic book greats as P. Craig Russell and Val Mayerik. At the University of Akron, she honed her artistic focus and introduced digital elements into her work. She exceeded her own expectations to eventually draw for LucasFilm Publications, giving life to such Star Wars characters as the Max Rebo Band and creatures from Jabba the Hutt's palace.

Throughout these commercial endeavors, Andersen remained true to her artistic focus. She explains that she "look[s] for the four aspects of our humanity... in some sort of balance. Does the work show a balance of heart, soul, physicality and emotion?"

Andersen's artistic creation Mara, a longterm labor of love, embodies this balance and will be prominently displayed at the Emily Davis Gallery, 150 East Exchange Street in Akron.

"Something I've always loved and respected

about art is that it's really another mode of expression and communication," says Shane Morgan, founder and chair of TransOhio. “It's a different form of connecting with people. I think that when it comes to expressing one's gender identity, sometimes words aren't enough. The visual evokes the senses differently, a story or experience, or color as emotion. Justine's work does just that and I think that stepping out and showing her work publicly will provide an opportunity for people to learn about what makes her tick, her experiences in life, love and in pursuit of finding out who she is."

Justine Mara Andersen--the Barefoot Girl-will be holding a special opening and lecture for the LGBT community as part of her show "Ink and Ambition," a twenty-year retrospective of her work at the University of Akron's Folk Hall in the Emily Davis Gallery on July 16 from 6 to 8:30 pm. A lecture on erotic art and transgender issues will be given at 7 pm, the focus being on her work and her creation, Mara, a highly unusual and personal erotic comic.

The event will be fully catered, full of hundreds of published illustrations, and treated as any major university opening. As part of the show Justine will be showing art and illustration from many of her influences, including original art from The Simpsons, Bambi, Berni Wrightson, the trail-blazing trans artist Jeffrey Jones, and many other famous and influential fantasy and comic book artists.

This show is not only of interest to members of the LGBT community, but also to anyone who has any interest in comics, fantasy, gaming, and illustration.

Join TransOhio, Equality Ohio, the Cleveland LGBT Center and the Inferno nightclub for a wonderful night of art and expression. An after party will be held at the Inferno nightclub, 1348 South Arlington Road.

Due to the adult nature of the art, no one under the age of 18 will be allowed entrance to the

event.

Jacob Nash is a board member of TransOhio.

Colors takes an aggressive approach to racial unity

by Sonja Leftwich

Cleveland-In April 2009, Colors of Cleveland Pride was formed, taking an aggressive approach to the concerns of racial unity in all communities of color. The organization felt the need for a response to the various sects within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and heterosexual communities required special attention and intervention.

Since the early 1990s, Cleveland's LGBT and allied communities have become more and more divided, causing a great deal of challenges, such as the lack of racial and cultural dialogue and interaction, role models for youth, socio-economic education, and the list goes on. These problem and many more have had an ongoing negative

impact on our communities at large.

Colors' mission is to bring awareness, education, and knowledge of the plights of these communities of color, regardless of sexual orientation, to the forefront, in an effort to provide dialogue, intervention, and resolution, in addition to developing and nurturing relationships with other community organizations to support the needs of these communities of color. This mission will be accomplished through alliances, educational, literary, social and charitable programming.

Collectively we have over ten years of experience providing community service and are committed to the goal of community unity. We are actively seeking qualified board members and volunteers of various

ethnicities and believe that we cannot support the communities without having members of the community assist us in development and implementation of programming. There is a real need to have a finger on the pulse of the community, which means the community's participation is needed at all levels.

Colors began its community service in April 2009 and continues supporting all members of these communities regardless of sexual orientation. We received many individual and corporate sponsors throughout 2009 to support our outreach goals such as Beverage Distributors, Progressive, State Farm Insurance, Stan Miller and Associates, Dave's Supermarkets, and Jon Brittain's

Food Pantry at the AIDS Taskforce to name a few.

Currently, the organization's temporary website is available while a permanent website is being developed to include information about the organization, employment resources and much more. Colors of Cleveland Pride looks forward to serving the communities at large and are open to assisting any organization that is supporting these communities in a positive capacity. The hope is to educate, motivate and unite our communities to create more progressive and positive community interactions.

Sonja Leftwich is the president of Colors of Cleveland Pride.