The 24th Annual Boston Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival, May 7-18, 2008

For the seventeenth consecutive year, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston presents a dynamic, international roster of films exploring gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience and culture. This year’s festival comprises 24 programs.

Visit the website for more information

Youth commission to honor Boston Pride, PFLAG leaders

by Laura Kiritsy
Editor-in-chief
Bay Windows

The Friends of LGBT youth will honor Boston Pride Committee President Linda DeMarco and Greater Boston PFLAG Executive Director Pam Garramone at this year’s Sunset Soiree at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge on May 8.

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Guerrilla Queer Bar; gays inundate str8 bar

By MELISSA JELTSEN



The Bell in Hand Tavern near Faneuil Hall advertises itself as the oldest tavern in America. But for five hours last Friday night, it was also the gayest. Gemma Firmo arrived early to hand out Che Guevara-style Cher pins as a crowd—enticed by an email from Boston's Guerrilla Queer Bar—flooded in. "Everything was fine, and then boom: The storm arrived," Firmo said. "Between glitter and feather boas, chains and buzz cuts, the straight people didn't know what hit them."

The concept of Guerrilla Queer Bar is akin to that of flash mobs; the first Friday of every month, members receive an email designating a bar to ambush that night. It began in San Francisco in 2000 and has been spreading to other cities ever since.

Daniel Heller and Josh Gerber founded the Boston chapter in September. "It's a really rare experience where gay and straight can get together and meet new people to date," Heller told the Dig.

At the Bell in Hand, the ratio of straight to gay rapidly inverted (the Boston GQB Facebook group has 785 members). Though some straight people left, many stuck around. One intoxicated man yelled, "It's a crazy crowd—they're gay!" Another man, who called himself "a 100 percent heterosexual motherfucker," danced upstairs next to a group of swaying lesbians.

Laura Vivenzio, of Somerville, was psyched to be at Bell in Hand, a place she said gay people usually avoid. "We feel we're more a part of the city now," she said. "Usually, we are kind of isolated."

The DJ caught on around midnight and spun "Like a Prayer." Downstairs, the live cover band plowed through "Sweet Home Alabama" to an appreciative crowd, proving bad taste transcends boundaries of gender and sexual orientation.

Boston vigil in memory of Lawrence King

LGBT youth and allies will gather at the Community Church of Boston March 12 to mourn the death of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old gay middle-school student from Oxnard, California, who was gunned down in his classroom last month. Police believe the murder was an anti-gay hate crime.

The two organizations planning the vigil, the Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth (BAGLY) and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of Boston, are encouraging youth to attend and to use the event to talk about their reactions to the murder."

We’re hoping to invite young folks to speak about their own experiences, particularly the members of BAGLY and Boston GLASS and Boston Youth Organizing Project," said Jessica Flaherty, BAGLY’s program director. Boston GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services) is a community center for LGBT youth, and the Boston Youth Organizing Project is a youth-led organization committed to creating positive social change in the city.

The vigil for Lawrence King will be held March 12 from 7-8 p.m. at the Community Church of

Boston, 565 Boylston Street. For more information contact BAGLY at 617.227.4313.

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