Take Part in One Colorado's Call Night for Equality

Join One Colorado to call supporters of LGBTQ equality on Tuesday, Aug. 14 from 5:30-8:30pm.

They'll have snacks and drinks for you. If you have a have a laptop and/or phone, feel free to bring it along with you -- otherwise they will have some available!

Do You Want To Reach Denver's Gay Community? Advertise With Denver's Best Gay Blog!

Do you want to advertise to Denver’s gay community? Of course you do, it’s the 7th largest in the United States! And the best way to reach them is with MileHighGayGuy – Colorado’s Best Gay Blog.
 
Just click the Advertising page or email sales@milehighgayguy.com to get started today.

BIRD – Comfort Food with a Creative Twist

Farm to plate from local suppliers and using the freshest possible ingredients, BIRD is refined American comfort food with a creative, upscale twist.

Denver Museums and Cultural Centers Participate in $1 Admission Program for People on SNAP

For just one dollar per person, families receiving food assistance can now enjoy the sights and sounds of Denver Botanic Gardens and Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms in addition to four other cultural facilities participating in the Denver Human Services (DHS) One Dollar Museum and Cultural Center Admission Program. The program lets families who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) support show their EBT card at the ticket window to receive one-dollar admission at participating sites for themselves and up to nine additional people*.

“All children should have the opportunity to access Denver’s museums and cultural facilities, and this program puts that access within reach for parents who would otherwise find it difficult to afford,” Mayor Michael B. Hancock said. “By providing all children, and their parents, the opportunity to explore, learn and grow together, we are promoting equity for our residents and communities and ensuring Denver is a great place to have and raise a family.”
Museums and Cultural Centers participating in the program include:

• Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus
• Denver Museum of Nature & Science
• History Colorado Center
• Denver Zoo
• Denver Botanic Gardens and Chatfield Farms

“Our intention is to ensure that this is a garden for all people,” said Denver Botanic Gardens CEO Brian Vogt. “We are eager to welcome new visitors to our institution and do everything we can to create a lasting bond of inspiration and delight.”

DHS initiated the one-dollar admission program in 2015 with the Children’s Museum. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science joined the program in May of 2017, followed by History Colorado Center, the Denver Zoo, and Denver Botanic Gardens in 2018. To date, more than 100,000 people have benefited from the program, many of them visiting the museums and cultural centers for the first time.

“This program allows parents to spend affordable quality time with their children,” said DHS Executive Director Don Mares. “A single parent recently told us the program allowed her to give her son a birthday party at one of the institutions that she would never have been able to afford otherwise. This program ensures parents can feed their family and also feed their children’s minds, future and cultural understanding. Impacting families across generations by creating a healthy, connected community is exactly what we’re about.”

In Denver, 36 percent of the people eligible to receive SNAP fail to apply, which means families do not get the help they are entitled to receive and instead are forced to decide between purchasing food or paying for basic family needs. The One Dollar Museum and Cultural Center Admission Program is one way Denver is encouraging families to participate in the SNAP program with a goal of achieving a healthier, more connected community where all families have the support and opportunity they need to grow and thrive.

In Denver, over 41,000 households receive financial support purchasing food through SNAP.

• ~40% or 15,698 are households with children
• ~20% or 10,446 are households with seniors (aged 60 or over)
• ~23% or 9,287 are households with one or more working adults

In addition to access to food and cultural centers, families in the program can get healthy cooking tips and discounts at farmer’s markets through Livewell Colorado’s Double Up Food Bucks program, including the Denver Botanic Gardens farm stands at DHS.
DHS initiated the program which now serves SNAP EBT cardholders from all 64 Colorado counties. To learn more about the program visit denvergov.org/humanservices.

*The cost of admission at the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms is $1 per car. All other institutions listed, including the Denver Botanic Gardens York Street Gardens, charge $1 per person for up to 10 people total.  Valid for general admission and may not be redeemed for special events, classes and other programs.

Coloradans Top the Nation in Taking Vacation

 

Colorado leads the country in using earned vacation days, according to new research from Project: Time Off, an initiative created by the U.S. Travel Association to promote the wellness and work benefits of taking time away from the workplace.

On average, Coloradans took 20.3 days off in 2017, well above the national average of 17.2 days. And they spent 11.7 of those days traveling, compared with the national average of 8.

“Our own research shows that Coloradans take 2.4 vacations a year on average, with 1.3 of those overnight experiences taking place right here in Colorado,” said Cathy Ritter, director of the Colorado Tourism Office.

“For us, that statistic makes perfect sense,” she said. “As Coloradans, we are fortunate to have world-class travel experiences in every corner of our state, and the opportunities to explore are endless. We’re glad to know our residents are enjoying their hard-earned vacation days.”

Coloradans’ enjoyment of their own state is well documented in research commissioned by the CTO. Longwoods International Inc. identified the top source of vacationers in Colorado last year as Coloradans, who accounted for 33 percent of all overnight leisure trips. Arrivalist found that only Texas or Florida residents were more likely to take a four-day overnight trip in Colorado than Coloradans.

"Coloradans have a beautiful state to explore right out their back door," said Project: Time Off Vice President Katie Denis. "But they are doing more than just taking the most vacation days. They are also traveling with a majority of those days, which can boost their health and wellness and create stronger bonds with their family and friends."

Even with their higher-than-average use of vacation, 68 percent of Coloradans are still leaving vacation days on the table—higher than the national average of 52 percent. Had Americans used the 705 million vacation days they wasted last year, Colorado’s economy would have benefitted from nearly $3.5 billion in additional direct spending in the state, according to Project: Time Off.

Residents looking for ways to use those extra PTO days are encouraged to explore the CTO’s Colorado Field Guide, an online collection of more than 80 multi-day travel itineraries, offering places to stay, eat and have fun in every corner of the state. Travelers can search for trips by region, city, trip length, activity or season to find the perfect getaway in their own back yard.

DNC: LGBTQ Candidates Make History in Democratic Primaries Across U.S.

This week, Democrats in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington voted in primaries, giving LGBTQ people another opportunity to expand our representation in Congress, statewide offices, and state legislatures across the country.

Here’s a snapshot via the DNC of some of the new LGBTQ candidate successes so far this primary season:

LAST NIGHT

KANSAS

Sharice Davids (KS-03): If elected, Davids will become Kansas’ first openly LGBTQ congresswoman in history. She could also make history as one of the first two  Native American women to be seated in Congress.

MICHIGAN

Dana Nessel (MI Attorney General): If elected, Nessel will become Michigan’s first openly LGBTQ statewide elected official and the country’s second LGBTQ Attorney General. Nessel joins Michigan’s first entirely female statewide candidate slate led by gubernatorial nominee Gretchen Whitmer.

Jeremy Moss (SD-11): If elected, Moss will become Michigan’s only openly gay state Senator. He was previously the second openly gay member of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Garnet Lewis (SD-26): If elected, Lewis will become Michigan’s only openly LGBTQ female State Senator.

MISSOURI

Kathy Ellis (MO-08): If elected, Ellis will become Missouri’s first openly LGBTQ Congresswoman in history.

Ryan Dillon (SD-16): If elected, Dillon will become Missouri’s only openly LGBTQ State Senator.

Ian Mackey (HD-87): If elected, Mackey would become the third openly LGBTQ elected official in the Missouri House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON

Claire Wilson (SD-30): If elected, Wilson will become the third  member of the Washington State Senate’s LGBTQ Caucus.

Kathy Gillespie (HD-18 [2]): If elected, Kathy will become the fifth member of the Washington House of Representatives’ LGBTQ Caucus.

OTHER NEW ADDITIONS

ALABAMA (Primary runoff - July 17)

Neil Rafferty (HD-54): If elected, Rafferty will become the only openly gay legislator in Alabama’s House of Representatives and the state’s first openly LGBTQ veteran legislator.

OHIO (Primary - May 8)

Ohio Democrats also nominated 7 additional LGBTQ candidates for the state House of Representatives and state Senate, including:

• Melinda Miller (SD-31)
• Zach Dickerson  (HD-42)
• Rebecca Howard (HD-53)
• Jeremy Blake (HD-71)
• Garrett Baldwin (HD-85)
• Taylor Sappington (HD-94)
• John McManus (HD-41)

TEXAS (Primary - March 6)

Steven Kirkland (Texas Supreme Court): If elected, Kirkland will become the first openly LGBTQ member of the Texas Supreme Court and first openly LGBTQ statewide official in Texas.

Julie Johnson (HD-115): If elected, Johnson will become the 3rd openly LGBTQ member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Mark Phariss (SD-08): If elected, Pharris will become the first openly LGBTQ state Senator in Texas.

PREVIOUS PRIMARIES

ALABAMA

Felicia Stewart (HD-46): If elected, Stewart will become Alabama’s second openly lesbian legislator.

ARKANSAS

Tippi McCullough (HD-33): Facing no Republican opposition in November, McCullough will become the only openly LGBTQ person in the Arkansas state legislature. McCullough’s win comes 5 years after she was forced to resign her teaching job because she was LGBTQ.

CALIFORNIA

Ricardo Lara (CA Insurance Commissioner): If elected, Lara will become California’s first LGBTQ statewide elected official, and the only LGBTQ person of color elected to statewide office in the nation.

Katie Hill (CA-25): If Hill prevails over Republican Steve Knight, she will become California’s first openly LGBTQ congresswoman.

Numerous LGBTQ candidates are poised to make the California state legislature even more diverse including:

• Joy Silver (SD-28)
• Sonia Aery (AD-3)
• Jackie Smith (AD-06)
• Sunday Gover (AD-77)

COLORADO

Jared Polis (Governor): If elected, Polis will become the first openly gay governor elected in the nation.

Brianna Titone (HD-27): If elected, Titone will become the first openly transgender state legislator in Colorado.

Alex Valdez (HD- 05): If elected, Valdez will expand the already diverse LGBTQ caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives, adding an important LGBTQ Latinx voice to the table.

GEORGIA

Matthew Wilson (HD-58): If elected, Wilson will join numerous openly LGBTQ officials pushing back on Georgia Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ legislative agenda. Georgia’s LGBTQ caucus is among the most diverse LGBTQ caucuses in the nation, including:

• Park Cannon (HD-58):  first openly queer woman of color elected in Georgia
• Sam Park (HD-101): first openly gay Asian American elected in Georgia and first openly gay man elected to the state legislature
• Renitta Shannon (HD-84): first openly bisexual woman of color to serve in Georgia.
• Karla Drennan (HD-85): first openly lesbian member of the Georgia House of Representatives

INDIANA

J.D. Ford (SD-29):  If elected, Ford will become the first out member of the Indiana state Senate.

Indiana Democrats have also nominated 3 candidates for the Indiana state House, who would all make history together as the first openly LGBTQ members of the body:

• Thomasina Marsili (HD-46)
• Joe Lannan (HD-63)
• Sarah Stivers (HD-70)

ILLINOIS

Lamont Robinson (HD-05): If elected, Robinson will become the first openly gay African-American state legislator in Illinois history.

Maggie Trevor (HD-54): If elected, Trevor will become the 2nd openly LGBTQ woman in the Illinois General Assembly, joining Kelly Cassidy.

MARYLAND

Gabriel Acevero (HD-39): If elected, Acevero will become the first openly gay Afro-Latino elected to the Maryland General Assembly.

Mary Washington (SD-43): If elected, Washington will become the first LGBTQ person of color in the Maryland State Senate.

MONTANA

Amelia Marquez (HD-52): If elected in November, Amelia will not only flip another legislative from red-to-blue, but also become Montana’s first openly transgender legislator, and dependant on other elections, the nation’s second openly transgender state legislator.

NEVADA

Nelson Araujo (Secretary of State): If elected, Araujo will not only flip the Secretary of State’s office from red to blue but also become the state’s first openly LGBTQ statewide official and one of the first LGBTQ people of color elected to statewide office in the nation.

NORTH DAKOTA

Joshua Boschee (Secretary of State): If elected, Boschee will become one of the youngest statewide officials in North Dakota and the state’s first openly LGBTQ statewide official.

OHIO

Rick Neal (OH-15): If elected, Neal will beocme the first openly LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Ohio. Neal will be challenging NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers.

Nickie Antonio (SD-23): Antonio became the first openly LGBTQ candidate elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 2010. If elected, she will also become the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Ohio state Senate.

PENNSYLVANIA

Malcolm Kenyatta (HD-181): Kenyatta overcame an overtly bigoted smear campaign and if elected, will become the Pennsylvania House’s first openly LGBTQ person of color. Kenyatta also served a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention hosted by the DNC.

Kristen Seale (HD-168): Seale is the first openly queer Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania. If elected, she will be the first openly LGBTQ woman in the Pennsylvania state House.

Daniel Smith Jr. (HD-12): Smith is challenging Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, one of the most anti-LGBTQ state legislators in Pennsylvania, who sued to prevent a gay couple from marrying, introduced legislation banning same-sex marriage and said openly gay Rep. Brian Sims was a “lying homosexual” and “in open rebellion against God’s law.”

OREGON

Jamie McLeod-Skinner (OR-02):  McLeod-Skinner was the first out lesbian elected to the Santa Clara City Council and will be taking on Congressman Greg Walden, former chair of the NRCC. If elected, McLeod Skinner would become the first openly LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Oregon.

NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina Democrats have nominated a candidate in every single legislative district this year, including more LGBTQ people than ever, including:

• Brandon Anderson (SD-45)
• Allison Dahle (HD-11)
• Marcia Morgan (HD-19)
• Dan Whitten (HD-15)
• Deb Butler (HD-18)
• Linda Bennett (HD-26)
• Cecil Brockman (HD-60)

TEXAS

Lupe Valdez: Lupe Valdez became the first openly lesbian gubernatorial nominee of any major party. If elected, she would also be the first openly LGBTQ person of color to serve as governor and the first Latinx to serve as governor of Texas.

Gina Ortiz Jones (TX-23): If elected, Ortiz Jones would be Congress’ first openly LGBTQ woman of color and first openly LGBTQ Asian American woman.

Eric Holguin (TX-27):  If elected, Holguin would become Congress’ first openly LGBTQ Latinx congressman and the first openly gay Latinx man in Congress.

Lorie Burch (TX-03): If elected, Burch would be among the first LGBTQ congresswomen from Texas.

UTAH

Derek Kitchen (SD-02): If elected in November, Kitchen will be the only openly LGBTQ member of the Utah state legislature.

Phantastic Ferniture - Dark Corner Dance Floor

Phantastic Ferniture – the euphoric garage-pop project of Julia Jacklin, Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan K Brennan – released their self-titled debut album last month, and today they share the video for “Dark Corner Dance Floor."

Discussing the meaning behind the song, the band says, "When you're a kid from out of the city you think Darling Harbour is the essence of Sydney. The aquarium, the Ferris wheel, the IMAX theatre. You imagine when you finally make it to the big smoke you'll spend your weekends falling in love under the lights of the high rises. Turns out if you move to Sydney you'll probably never go there. We wanted to capture that feeling we had when we were two starry eyed teens imagining a fake city life."

Lambda Literary Announces Winners of the Jeanne Córdova, Justin Chin, and Lile Elbe Scholarships

Lambda Literary, the global leader advancing LGBTQ literature, is pleased to announce full scholarships for three students attending the organization's prestigious summer residency, which is currently being held from August 5-12 at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California.

The Jeanne Córdova Words Scholarship

The Jeanne Córdova Words Scholarship, in memory of the beloved activist and author who passed away in January 2016, is given annually in conjunction with Lambda's Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. The scholarship is awarded to a lesbian of color or lesbian-identified queer or trans woman of color, working on text with lesbian content in any of the workshop categories excluding poetry.

The 2018 winner of The Jeanne Córdova Words Scholarship is New York-based writer Mariam Bazeed, who will join the nonfiction workshop led by Benoit Denizet-Lewis. The judges chose to award Mariam Bazeed the 2018 Cordova scholarship for her unique voice.

Lynn Ballen, Jeanne Córdova's spouse, noted that "Jeanne's own experience as a participant at the first Lambda Emerging Writers Retreat in 2007 helped her to complete a Lammy-award winning memoir, When We Were Outlaws, and inspired her to create this scholarship to support future community storytellers."

The scholarship includes the Retreat tuition, room and board fees plus transportation costs, up to a total of $2,500. Each year's Scholarship awardee are selected by the Córdova Words Scholarship Committee, from a list of writers accepted to the Retreat who meet the scholarship criteria.

The Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship

Sponsored by Alexander Chee and Christine Lee, The Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship is offered in memory of the late author Justin Chin, and supports a queer, Asian American Pacific Islander writer, writing queer content in any of the genres offered at the Lambda Literary Retreat for LGBTQ Voices.

The 2018 winner of the Justin Chin Memorial Scholarship writer Ricco 

Villanueva Siasoco, who will join the fiction workshop led by Chinelo Okparanta.

On Siasoco's work, Alexander Chee and Christine Lee said,

There are [writings] you come across that you immediately want to publish, or that you wish you'd written, or that make you wish for more writing from the author--- to see if they have a book, or the entire arsenal of their literary canon. Ricco Siasoco's Dandy is that--- and from his transformation of the theme of Dante's Inferno and the implications of punishment, to the flawed first person narrator and protagonist, Siasoco shows a command of craft and emotional depth in Dandy's writing, creating a risk-taking piece that will stay with you a long time, if not forever. This made him our clear choice for the first Justin Chin fellowship, and we cannot wait to see what he'll do next.

The scholarship covers the Retreat tuition fees.

Lili Elbe Scholarship

Honoring the life and legacy of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, the Lili Elbe Scholarship recognizes a trans Lambda Literary Fellow in any genre whose work shows considerable talent and promise. A Danish trans woman, Lili Elbe was one of the earliest recipients of gender confirmation surgery.

The 2018 winner of the Lili Elbe scholarship is Wryly McCutchen, a poetry fellow working with faculty member Ryka Aoki.

The scholarship is sponsored by David Ebershoff, whose first novel about Elbe, The Danish Girl, won the Lambda Literary Award for transgender fiction and was recently adapted into an Oscar-winning film.

"Wryly McCuthen's unique voice, their courage, and their resilient spirit make them a wonderful recipient of the first Lili Elbe scholarship," said sponsoring author David Ebershoff.

The scholarship covers the Retreat tuition, room and board fees plus transportation costs, up to a total of $2000.

Scholarship Winner Biographies 

 

Mariam Bazeed is a non-binary Egyptian immigrant living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn. She has an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College. In addition to being a writer of prose, poetry, plays, and personal essays, Mariam is a singer and performance artist. She is a current fellow at the Center for Fiction and has received fellowships from the Asian American Writers Workshop, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at NYU, and Lambda Literary. She has been awarded residencies at the Marble House Project, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Hedgebrook. Mariam runs a monthly world-music salon in Brooklyn, and is a slow student of Arabic music.

Ricco Villanueva Siasoco has published in AGNI, Joyland, Post Road, The North American Review, and numerous anthologies. In 2013, he was selected asa NYC Emerging Writer Fellow from The Center for Fiction. Ricco received his MFA from Bennington College and has taught at Columbia University, Boston College, and the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. He works at the Chadwick School in Los Angeles and serves as a board member for Kundiman, a literary nonprofit dedicated to writers and readers of Asian American literature. Ricco's short story collection, The Foley Artist, is forthcoming from Gaudy Boy in 2019.

 

Wryly T. McCutchen is a poet, hybrid writer, and community educator teaching, writing, and surviving in the Pacific Northwest. Their poetry and nonfiction has appeared in Foglifter, Lady/Liberty/Lit, Tiferet Journal, Wilde Magazine, Alive With Vigor, and Raven Chronicles. They were awarded an MFA in creative writing with dual concentration in creative nonfiction and poetry from Antioch University. Their first poetry manuscript, My Ugly and Other Love Snarls, is available from University of Hell Press. Their first memoir is in progress.