Fair Wisconsin Endorses Obama
Calls On Supporters To Get Involved In “LGBT Night Of Action” And Other Campaign Events
Madison - Fair Wisconsin has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States. In a September 29 email to members and allies, the statewide gay civil rights group also asked fairness advocates to get involved in the final five weeks of the campaign. The announcement was authored by Fair Wisconsin Executive Director Glenn Carlson.
  “Senator Obama is strongly committed to rights for LGBT Americans, recognizing that guaranteeing LGBT equality is a moral imperative,” the email noted. The announcement cited a recent interview in The Advocate in which Obama promised to “include gay constituencies as people that should be treated with full honor and respect as part of the American family”
  The email then cited Obama’s call for an end to federal discrimination by fully repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Also noted was Obama’s support a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The email also offered links to an open letter written by the Illinois Senator to the LGBT community and a document that contrasts Obama’s positions on LGBT issues with those of Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain.
  The Fair Wisconsin announcement pointed out that the 2004 election in Wisconsin saw John Kerry win the state by less than two votes per ward. Wisconsin appears to be closely fought in the 2008 race according to most political analysts.
  The email then offered opportunities for Fair Wisconsin supporters to get involved with the Obama campaign, including a statewide “LGBT Night of Action” to take our message of support for Barack directly to undecided voters” held October 6. Campaign offices in Eau Claire, La Crosse, Green Bay, Madison, and the Milwaukee Downer Ave. site hosted major canvass kickoffs, though all of the campaign’s 45 field offices around the state were involved in the canvass event.
  The Fair Wisconsin announcement continued by offering additional volunteer tasks needed by the campaign through Election Day, November 4. These included making phone calls, canvassing, and data entry, among other office tasks.  The email also noted the Obama campaign’s “Neighbor-to-Neighbor” project that allows volunteers to work from their homes making supportive calls.
  “Senator Obama has been clear: this election is not about him, it’s about you,” the email concluded.  “Your help will mean the difference between putting a friend of the LGBT community in the White House or not.”
  The Obama endorsement is the Wisconsin LGBT civil rights organization's first-ever formal nod in a federal level race.
Editor’s Note: See feature article on Fair Wisconsin’s getting out the gay vote elsewhere in this issue.
 
Milwaukee School Board OK's Domestic Partner Benefits
Benefits Extended To Non-Union Employees, Unions Still Need To Negotiate
Milwaukee - After deciding that it was not going to go out of business all together, the Milwaukee School Board took up the contentious and long-delayed matter of domestic partner benefits for non-unionized employees here September 25. The board voted 7-2 on a two-part resolution to offer benefits such as health insurance to domestic partners and put the board on record in favor of doing that for all employees.
  The proposal was backed by Center Advocates and other city LGBT organizations but opposed by some who considered themselves “conservative Christians.” About sixty people had testified at a public hearing on the proposal two days earlier. The MPS finance committee voted 3-2 to recommend the proposal to the entire board.
  One revision was added to the final proposal by board member Tim Petersons. Petersons wanted assurances that the final domestic partner benefits package would be “revenue neutral,” so there would be no additional cost to already financially-strapped MPS. The revenue-neutral stipulation likely will impact future negotiations for similar benefits by teachers’ and other employee unions with MPS contracts despite the resolution’s stated show of support.
  However, fellow board member Terry Falk noted that his research indicated that many large corporations had extended benefits to domestic partners as a way of attracting and retaining quality employees.  Falk said he believed that by offering domestic partner benefits, the change could actually save the district money by reducing employee turnover and thus lowering the cost for recruiting, hiring, and training new staff.
  “We are thrilled with this decision and commend Director (Jennifer) Morales for introducing the measure,” Center Advocates President Ray Vahey told Quest following passage of the resolution.  “We started our work on domestic partner benefits at Milwaukee Public Schools in early 2007 and are ecstatic that we are finally seeing the results of that work. Only smart, sustained organizing can overcome the steep barriers to equality in parts of our community.”
  Vahey added that Center Advocates remains committed to ensuring that the benefits plan is implemented quickly and fairly.
  Center Advocates held a town hall meeting on the issue for MPS employees in March 2007 which led to the appointment of a labor-management committee to study the benefits for teachers. MPS Director Jennifer Morales consulted with the local LGBT rights group in drafting and mobilizing support for her resolution to provide equal benefits to unrepresented employees. Center Advocates also worked to turn out supporters at the measure's initial hearing last November 2007. An estimated 100 pro-benefits supporters attended the meeting. The group also worked t  mobilize clergy, teachers, and fair-minded citizens to attend the September 23 hearing.
  "The enormous, outspoken support from these supporters of equality made this victory possible,” Vahey said.
  Center Advocates' work to win domestic partner benefits was underwritten by a grant from the Cream City Foundation.
   MPS joins other public employers in Wisconsin including La Crosse, Sun Prairie and Madison school districts in offering domestic partner benefits to their employees. The City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Area Technical College also offer domestic partner benefits for same-sex coupes.
Editor’s Note: See feature article on Center Advocates’ getting out the gay vote elsewhere in this issue.

World & National News:

Innovative LGBT History Website to Launch October 21
New York - OutHistory.org, the new website on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and, yes, heterosexual history, will make its official debut on Tuesday, October 21. 
  Historian Katz describes OutHistory.org as "a dynamic, developing website that makes the history of sexuality newly accessible to a diverse audience. It has the potential to reach a wide group who never before had access to reliable work on LGBTQ history." In its early stages the site will focus on the United States, but OutHistory is working to expand its geographic scope.
   Currently OutHistory features several historical "exhibits," among them a colorful collection of postcards from the early-twentieth century depicting "masculine women and feminine men." In the words of a popular song from the turn of the century these postcards ask: "which is the rooster which is the hen?" (Users can hear the song on the site.) The postcards were provided to OutHistory by an avid collector, Marshall Weeks, and the website expects other collectors of LGBT artifacts to contribute to future exhibits.
   OutHistory contains two types of articles. Entries by named authors are marked as "Protected" and may not be edited by the public. "Protected entries provide the credibility associated with the naming of a particular author,"  website coordinator Lauren Gutterman said.
  OutHistory also contains articles marked as "Open" to additions and edits by any logged-on users with data, documents, and citations. "These collaboratively created entries," says Katz, "are an innovative experiment in history by the community."
  In addition to the postcard exhibit, protected entries include Ron Schlittler’s original photographic exhibit: “Out and Elected in the USA:1974-2004,” several blogs on history by Joan Nestle, cofounder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and C. Todd White’s exhibit on some of the first homosexual rights organizations in the US.
   Several protected exhibits were jointly created by professors and their students. "Queer Youth: On Campus, in the Media, 1947-2007," was written by students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford colleges, under the guidance of Professor of History Sharon Ullman.
  “OutHistory is an ideal forum for teachers to get students involved with and excited about history,"  Gutterman said. Anthropologist Esther Newton also worked with her students at the University of Michigan to produce an exhibit on "Lesbians in the Twentieth Century."
 A fascinating group of documents on transgender American history are republished from Jonathan Ned Katz's out-of-print books Gay American History and Gay/Lesbian Almanac. "OutHistory hopes to republish lots of authors' out-of-print but still valuable historical works," Gutterman added. Documents from Martin Duberman's out of print About Time: Exploring the Gay Past, will also be added to the site.
  OutHistory  is collaborating with ChicagoGayHistory.org, a website founded by Windy City Times editor Tracy Baim. Both sites are presenting original essays on Chicago LGBT history by Professor John D'Emilio. "We are also discussing a partnership between OutHistory and The National Archive of Lesbian and Gay History, founded by Richard Wandel," Lauren Gutterman noted. "And we've met with the Coordinator of LGBT Collections at The New York Public Library to discuss future collaborations."
  OutHistory is produced by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS), a research institute at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The creation of the site was funded by the Arcus Foundation under a two-year grant that ends December 31, 2008. CLAGS is seeking funds to continue the site. “To fund the site in 2009 we’re turning to individuals with a special interest in LGBT history and the ability to foster its development,” Katz said.
  "In an election year and in the midst of an economic meltdown," Katz explained, foundations tell us they are focused on human and civil rights issues, not history. But knowing the history of present struggles makes today's activists more effective." OutHistory is, in fact, seeking funding for several illustrated "Histories of the Present," on the movement for LGBT marriage and domestic partner rights, on AIDS activism, on the law reform movement, and on the issue of homosexuals in the U.S. military. "Publicizing the history of LGBT activism is a form of activism," Katz stressed, "so keeping OutHistory alive and kicking is important."

State News:

Feature Story:

Getting Out The Gay Vote:
Quest Talks To Fair Wisconsin & Center Advocates About Critical Fall State Races
Madison, Milwaukee - With just four and a half weeks before the November 4 elections, it seems about the only thing to expect is the unexpected? At the beginning of 2008, conventional wisdom suggested Americans might have a “subway series” vote for the White House between New Yorkers Hilary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giulliani. But as the hard freezes of October are changing the color of the land, so too has the political landscape metamorphized into a suddenly less-than-close race between Barack Obama and John McCain, tossed with a tall order of bank failures, mortgage meltdowns, sinking stock markets, government bailouts all topped with a touch of Alaskan moose meat.
  Gay marriage bans, once a sure generator of so-called “values voters,” are not the sure winners they once were. Defeat may be in the offing in California, with close calls in Florida and Arizona - which already has defeated the measure once.
  In Wisconsin a group of “fake Democrats,” fronted by ousted one-term Republican State Senator Tom Reynolds,  were on the September Primary ballot. Each “clean Sweep” challenger touted incumbents’ votes against bills that led to the 2006 anti-gay constitutional Marriage Amendment referendum as reasons to against them. all lost with the help of the forces for gay equality.
  Despite the media attention on national races, there is also a game-changing force sweeping through Wisconsin’s state battle for control of the Wisconsin Assembly that many gay people may not be aware of. Quest news editor Mike Fitzpatrick took the time recently to speak with the heads of Wisconsin’s two gay civil rights groups - the statewide-focused Fair Wisconsin and the recently independent Milwaukee-based Center Advocates.  First up, Fair’s Glenn Carlson.

Quest: Why is the election in Wisconsin important for gay people this Fall?

Carlson: It’s important both on the national level and the state and local levels for pretty much the same reasons: how much is our government going to be discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people - and how much equality can we expect to get in the future?
  I think its pretty clear at the national level that if McCain and Sarah Palin get elected we will see - in fact she said that she supports, for example, a Constitutional amendment banning essentially gay marriage and civil unions. On our personal identity issues I think there is a reason why people should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Of course gay people are people too, So for all the reasons people are supporting the Democratic ticket - working families, health care, the war, the economy - all those issues so important to the general population are also important to the gay community. Layered on top of that, all of those particularly interested in equality for our community, we will make no more progress under the McCain-Palin administration then we made under a Bush-Cheney administration.

Quest:  In the last eight years - if you look at where we were when Clinton left office - how many marriage amendments were in place at the end of that administration? How many marriage amendments are now in place in states around the country, including Wisconsin? Almost 40?

Carlson: I don’t know the exact number now and I don’t remember how many there were in 2000. But almost all of them were after Lawrence Vs. Texas (the Supreme Court decision that struck down sodomy laws, essentially making homosexuality “legal.”) when Scalia wrong “the next thing they’re gonna want is marriage.” This was the clarion call for the right-wing to start battling preemptively the idea of gay marriage.

Quest:  Of course other factors spurred these bans as well. The Massachusetts court ruling, Vermont civil unions were in place earlier as well. But why is it important for the Wisconsin gay community and its allies to get out and vote this Fall?

Carlson: One because of the national issues, but secondly we have the State Assembly up for reelection. It’s rather unusual - we don’t have any statewide offices on the ballot in November in Wisconsin. It goes from the Presidential election down to Congressional elections. We don’t have any statewide candidates. Even with the Congressional elections, the only one that anyone feels is a contest is the Kagen-Gard race up in the Green Bay area. In the State Assembly however, we are only three seats away from a pro-fairness majority. By that I mean a chamber that will be led by progressive Democrats who want us to have equal rights. Three seats is all it will take. Now a lot of us already live in areas with pro-fairness legislators. What we should do is try to support legislative candidates who running in other areas of the state. Because it is those areas where the difference is going to be made as to whether or not we have a pro-fairness majority.

Quest: What is Fair Wisconsin doing to get people aware of all of that?

Carlson: Well, we are educating people on the importance of the state legislature. Remember it was the state legislature that put the marriage amendment on the ballot. It was a Republican Assembly and a Republican Senate that passed those bills. It didn’t matter that there was a Democratic governor. He had no veto power over that.
  First its important to explain to people the importance of the legislature. They’re going to be the ones that would a any kind of nondiscrimination as far as domestic partner benefits. They would put into the state budget, for example, giving state employees domestic partner coverage. They would be putting into law a state domestic partner registry. They’re the ones who would add transgender to our 25 year old state ENDA. They the ones who are going to be making decisions that affect gays and lesbians as gays and lesbians in the state. It’s really not a federal issue. Marriage and al of those rights are states rights.

Quest: So how are you making people aware of all of that?

Carlson: Well first is our website: www.fairwisconsin.com. We are talking about the “Fairness Gap”: protections that the state of Wisconsin offers straight couples that we don’t get. We’re also got a mailing list and email list of approximately 30,000 names. We are also working in conjunction with a lot of coalition partners that we developed during the 2006 (Marriage Amendment) referendum campaign - from organized labor to the faith communities to the business communities - to help them understand why this is an important issue for us to help spread the word to their communities. We have only a limited soapbox ourselves, but by bringing in other coalition partners - and we are now in coalition with significant progressive payers like never have been before.

Quest:  So what are you doing? Mailers, fliers, get out the vote projects?

Carlson: It actually has started way earlier than that. It started with the selection of candidates. This year, as part of the coalition of progressive groups that we belong to, in their endorsement process, asked questions on specific questions like domestic partner benefits that are important to our community. For the first time, if candidates answered negatively on the issues that were important to our community they did not get endorsements from this broad coalition. This was a significant difference this time. Instead of having a choice between bad and worse, now we’re able to give people a choice between the good candidate - someone who’s really going to be pro-fairness - and the incumbent or the opposition candidate.
  Also, what we’ve found is a lot of voters - particularly in a presidential year - don’t vote down ballot. The vote just for President. Or maybe just President and Governor or U. S. Senator. But this year we don’t have a Governor’s race, we don’t have a Senate race. People will got to voting booth and see Presidential and then see names they don’t recognize. A typical response is to skip those races. We’re trying to encourage people to vote all the way (down the ballot).
  We (also) think there is going to be a significant turnout particularly among the youth this Fall. Our job is to convince them of the importance of voting down ballot and of the difference between the candidates down ballot. We’re doing this in a number of different ways. We’re doing this through technology, text messaging, emails, direct mail, phone calls, door-to-door throughout the state.

Quest:   The has been a year of a very protracted Presidential primary race and now a ceaseless presidential campaign, a lot of people have been turned off - they’ve avoided keeping up. How do we get people to pay attention again during the last 5-6 weeks?

Carlson: That is the $64,000 challenge. What we’re going to do is through our networks, through our communities, we’re going to tell people about the differences in the candidates on the state legislative level - simply, who are our friends and who are not. We’re going to be name names, we’re going to talk specifics ad we’re going to target people who voted to put the amendment on the ballot back in 2006. We going to try to help those who fought the amendment. We’re going to let people know who those individuals are.

Quest: That takes money, doesn’t it?

Carlson: Oh absolutely! (laughs) As I said, its the $64,000 challenge - except its a lot more than $64,000 because our opponents are going to be spending millions! This is a critical election for our opponents as much as it is for us. If we don’t think that’s the case, we’re going to lose.

Quest: Is there out-of-state money coming in from the Religious Right?

Carlson: Omigosh - do you think that could happen? (laughs) Seriously I would say millions will be coming in from out of state. The Walton family - the Wal-Mart folks - are well known for providing a great deal of funding. We already know that the Coalition For America’s Families has already purchased hundreds of thousands of TV advertising in markets like Wausau, Green Bay and Eau Claire to influence the election the way  that we want it to go. And we’re not talking about the presidential election here. There are state legislative races that they are going to be targeting. We’re talking about four hundred thousand, five hundred thousand dollars in small media markets like Wausau and Green Bay where $400,000 buys a lot of commercials.
  We will be trying as best we can to fight fire with fire but we don’t have those kinds of resources. We’re going to have to be smarter. The TV that they’re doing is very broad-based. We’re going to have use our smarts and our database. We learned an awful lot from the 2006 campaign. We identified over 300,000 pro-fairness voters around the state by virtue of phone calls and door-to-door work that we did.
  In addition, we’ve taken a page out of Karl Rove’s handbook ad done micro-targeting. We have assigned a score, a ranking to every single voter in the state of Wisconsin on the voting rolls as far as their likelihood of voting for equality or voting for pro-fairness candidates. That information was not based on where they live or their age, but based on all the consumer data that’s publicly available that the Republicans have been using for years. Things like what kind of cars people drive - information available from the DOT; what kinds of magazines do they subscribe to - information that’s publicly available.
  So if somebody lives in the country, drives a Volkswagen and reads the New York Times there’s maybe a pretty good chance that they’re going to be with us. We have scored everybody in the state on that basis. We have those names, we have those scores and we’re going to go to those people who might be allies and talking to them about the issues and about the candidates. And email does not cost as much as TV.

Quest: So where do people send their money?

Carlson: Fair Wisconsin is a nonpartisan group. We would love to be able to support Republicans, and Democrats and independents. But the fact of the matter is that the Republican Party has been very effective at marginalizing and getting rid of any moderate Republican that supports our positions. Unfortunately, this time around there aren’t any good Republicans to support. You’d be safe to put your money on any Democratic legislative candidate in the state. It’s a pretty good bet that they’re going to be with us.

Quest: Does Fair Wisconsin need money?

Carlson: Absolutely! We have a website and we have three different vehicles where people can contribute. The Fair Wisconsin Education Fund, where we are educating people about the importance of the legislature. We have Fair Wisconsin, Inc., which is where we are educating people about the differences of the candidates. Then we have the Fair Wisconsin Political Action Committee, which is where we will be telling people who we think they should  be voting for.
  Because of the impact of the Religious Right on these elections,  we’re not necessarily going to be broadcasting these names much in advance of the election because right away there will be direct mail pieces saying in essence “these are friends of gay people - you shouldn’t vote for them because -you know - next thing dogs will be marrying cats.” We will be strategic and tactical in the way we approach this.

Quest: What kind of “game changing” behavior does the LGBT community need to do to make the big “game change” a reality in November?

Carlson: Most of our community is concentrated in population centers. Most of those population centers tend to have pretty good members on our issues in the State Assembly and the State Senate. I would encourage people to look at those races outside of Madison and Milwaukee and get involved somehow in those races - whether it’s contacting friends who live in those districts, whether it’s sending money to the candidates who are running in those districts. It’s not going to help us much if all the people in Milwaukee and Madison do is vote for Democrats. We need to spread out and have people in those areas working to elect fair-minded state legislators across the state.

The biggest gay community in the Badger State has several hot races of its own. Center Advocates President Ray Vahey shared his group’s efforts to ensure pro-fairness victories after the recent sudden separation from the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.

Quest: Why is this an important election?

Vahey: This is our opportunity to flip the Assembly to a progressive membership that will be mindful of LGBT equality. We also have the opportunity to strengthen our (pro-equality) position in the Senate.  We have a fine candidate running here: Sheldon Wasserman versus Alberta Darling - who is anything but a darling - at least to us. I believe he has a very good chance. By the way, (Wasserman) had the largest fund raiser in his experience as a politician that was given by the Center Advocates PAC. They collected $20,000 in a single event.
  We have some very exciting things going on with Center Advocates. We brought on two field directors - Kurt Dyer and Antoine Jones. They’re highly experienced political organizers. They will be leading the phone, mail and canvass operations targeted at assembly and Senate districts.
  Also, Andy Heidke has come on - a very experienced professional - and will be in charge of fund raising. We have developed an intensive outreach plan and will be focusing on bringing Sheldon Wasserman into the Senate.
  We also had recently participated in the primaries, particularly with the so-called “Clean Sweep” candidates that were put against individuals who had voted in our favor against the amendment (banning legal recognition of unmarried couples and gay civil unions).
  One of them was Christine Sinicki, We did a very large mailer and door knocking that we shared with Planned Parenthood. We reached 500 supporters to urge them to get out and vote. The candidate who opposed her wanted to get across was that a woman should have her husband’s permission before she could get a divorce. That was kinda Stone Age stuff.
  All of the “Clean Sweep” candidates, I’d like to mention, were taken to the cleaners!

Quest: How have you financed all of this work?

Vahey: Our fund raising has been terrific. We (Center Advocates’ c4 arm) are fully funded for the Wasserman election. That will be an extensive intervention on our part. (Electing) Wasserman is our key focus.

Quest: People who donate to Center Advocates will help fund the groups “get out the vote” campaign, an educational campaign - you mentioned mailers and phone banking. How can people help?

Vahey: They can go to: www.centeradvocates.org and they’ll be glad they did. The can donate via credit card or by PayPal. People can also be in touch with us at 414-208-4994. We’d love to talk with them and take their donation.

Quest: And if people don’t have a lot of money?

Vahey: They can give their time. We have a large group of volunteers but we can always use more to enable us to have a stronger presence out in the district.

Quest:: Center Advocates has now been a separate entity for about a month and a half.

Vahey: Actually since mid-July.

Quest: Did the separation vote by the LGBT Center Board come as a surprise?

Vahey: Yes, it did. There previously had been a decision to have a hiring freeze. That also came as a complete surprise. They decided to focus on their core responsibilities and service to the community. That was their decision, though we paid for the services we received. I feel now, because we can have a focus in our own brand that we will be the stronger for it.

Quest: Is there a though of possibly renaming the organization to reflect the more political aspect of its mission?

Vahey: Yes. It certainly will be renamed. But there are now also 501(c)3 capabilities. So it could be part educational foundation, part (c)4 and of course the PAC.

Quest: Is this primarily Milwaukee, southeastern Wisconsin focused at this point?

Vahey: Well, we do have a statewide mission. We have had a lobbyist in Madison and plan to in the future when the legislature comes back into session. One of the accomplishments was to bring home the funding for both Milwaukee and Madison. We tried for one other city but only the two were funded. It is a nice, two-year grant.

Quest: That health care funding was for?

Vahey: It was for LGBT needs. I’m sorry but it was not on my watch when that money was brought in.

Quest: As you’re probably aware, Fair Wisconsin is also doing several projects this Fall. Are you doing anything in cooperation with them?

Vahey: We have been speaking with them and I hope we will be able to do something on a collaborative basis. I believe it would be good both for the community and for both organizations.

Quest: But the focus for the Fall is primarily for the Wasserman campaign?

Vahey: That is fully-funded. But our program for fundraising is now getting into it’s broad based stages, so I can’t predict yet how many other races we will become involved with.

Quest: Anything else you’d like to add?

Vahey: We’ve got to take steps post-election to revamp the By-Laws for the organization, choose a name, prepare ourselves for an Annual meeting and for important things that are going to be happening early next year. We have a Chief Justice position that is going to be coming up. There are other points of advocacy as well.  Ultimately, it’s a question of equality. There I rely on Coretta Scott King who said “gay rights are civil rights.”

AIDS Walk Champs:
Club 1226 Owners Christopher Nikolai & Allan VanderVelden
Milwaukee - Clear sunny skies and bracing Fall temperatures greeted over 2,500 walkers at the 19th Annual AIDS Walk Wisconsin here October 4. In addition to American Idol star Kimberly Locke, kick-off  emcee TV anchor Tonya Wood and a host of local politicians, the third annual Raising the Bar competition  saw last year’s second place winners Club 1226 take home this year’s trophy with a stunning total of $16,475 raised during the competition with the addition of the $2,500 incentive prize offered to the top two teams by Joseph Pabst. Second place winners were Team Pump who raised over $14,000.
  “And that amount didn’t count the money we all turned in today as well,” Club 126 co-owner Christopher Nikolai told Quest after the win.
  This year’s Raising The Bar competition total represented nearly one-sixth of the $305,747 raised for the 2008 event, as unofficially reported following this year’s Walk. Nikolai and co-owner Allan VanderVelden estimate that of the slightly over $100,000 cumulatively raised since Raising The Bar’s inception, the Oshkosh club has counted for about 3 of every ten dollars raised by the contest.
  The success in Milwaukee follows a tough year and a half for the club owners. Battling the city of Oshkosh, coping with the June flooding that hit Wisconsin, one pesky neighbor who discovered the bar was gay after a TV story pale in comparison to the gay rumor mill that seems to have been unrelenting in its offering up stories of  gloom and doom for the future of the business.
  Quest news editor Mike Fitzpatrick had spoken with Nikolai and VanderVelden just three days earlier about the challenges they’ve face over the last 18 months.

Quest: It's been a year and a half from Hell for you guys, hasn’t it? Do you want to talk about what has gone down?

VanderVelden: What happened was we got issued a code violation. We went and we applied a repair permit. They said "we don't issue repair permits." Then I asked for a building permit and they asked: "for what?" I told them I wanted to start fixing some of these violations that you guys say we need to repair. I had an estimate of about $3500 to repair windows. The city's comment was that it would cost us $38,000 to replace all those windows. I replied that I didn't want to replace the windows, just to repair them. From that point on, Christopher tried to get a building permit. He was denied. We left it sit. Seven months later they actually had the Oshkosh Police Department hand deliver an eviction  notice saying that we had thirty days to take our stuff and leave the building.
  We contacted an attorney (James Long of Appleton) who did a follow-up with the city. It got to the point were the city was either going to condemn the building or we had to condemn it. Yet they didn't condemn it. Instead they said we had many code violations and we had only so much time to correct it.
  Now its October 1 and we're still battling. We've hired an engineer to do blue printing on the building. He has been going up to city hall (working out the) different issues on the blue prints. It seems that every time the city says "(then) this needs to be done (as well). We need to correct this. We need to correct that." And we still haven't gotten a building permit.

Quest: You still haven' gotten a building permit in a year and a half later?

Nikolai & VanderVelden: (in unison)  Correct!
 
Quest: But you've made some repairs, correct?

Nikolai: I've attempted to make some repairs on the property but I was told by the engineer and the contractor to halt due the ongoing battle with the city because I could stir up a lot more trouble. So I have stopped and not repaired  anything any longer. I did try to clean up the inside of the building however.

Quest: How much money have you sunk into the repairs that you have done already?

Nikolai: I have no idea,  from day one or from when the fight with the city began?

Quest: From when you got the first notices about the code violations?

Nikolai: I cannot remember how much. We stuck a lot of money in it but I can't remember exactly off the top of my head.

Quest: Are we talking the thousand or the tens of thousands?

Nikolai: I would say the tens of thousands.

Quest: Then you had to deal with the flood this past June, right?

Nikolai: Yes, there was flooding in the crawl space under the building. It did not enter the tavern part itself. Larry (an employee) and I  pumped out the water with two big pumps. We were able to pump it out and dry it out quickly.

Quest: You had somewhat of a victory with the city this Spring, right?

Nikolai: Well they can't condemn the property. That was part of the victory. It's just cosmetic issues with the exterior. The part of the building that they thought was structural was actually our siding. It's sagging. That's the part of the property they have problems with.

VanderVelden: Though hiring an engineer Christopher and I were able to find out what the problem really was. The building is like 125 years old. It's always had a flat roof. Throughout the years there was water run-off without proper drainage. It ran down the side of the building and made the siding sag. It made it look like the building was going to collapse. The building inspector was supposed to come back in but failed to do so, With engineer we found out there's nothing really wrong with the structure. He commented that because of these nine-inch beams and rafters they used many years ago there's no way that it's going to collapse. We remain open. The health department, the fire department - everybody passes (inspection) on us.
  To us, they are small, minor issues - a space where a bird could fly in. - little minor things. With the proper building permit we could correct these. But we want to go above and beyond. We want to put on a new siding, a new pitched roof and new windows. But without a building permit we cannot do this. In the future - hopefully soon - we'll have it all fixed plus the "above and beyond" stuff done as well.

Quest: On top of all of this you've had to deal with the gay rumor mill.

VanderVelden: What happened was Channel 26 in Green Bay did a story on our bar: "You Ask, We Investigate." They aired a story that suggested that the city wanted to shut us down because we were a gay bar. We never heard from Channel 26 after that story. The newspaper in Oshkosh did a front page story with a big picture of the bar. The effect of all that free publicity was the rumor mill claimed that the city is shutting us down. Well, we're not shutting down and we don't plan on shutting down. We're in business and here to support the gay community.

Quest: What are you doing to entice folks back into the building?

VanderVelden: Well doing this Quest story will help turn the rumors around. Hopefully people will come back and support the gay community in Oshkosh and the surrounding area.

Nikolai: Also when Channel 26 ran that broadcast, (one of) our neighbors found out that it was a gay bar. He then started complaining about noise - this is after our being here for three years. We went to court. I got the ticket under my name. I went to court, fought it and won. It was dismissed without prejudice. The judge told the district attorney that he didn't want to see it in his court ever again. But we have toned down our music and the volume during our shows - and some people don't think its loud enough. 
  We had a friend of the bar go around and ask all the neighbors for their feedback. The only response we got back was: "can you start the music a little earlier so we can fall asleep to it?" It turns out it was only one neighbor. The bar's been there for 125 years. He's lived across the street since 1973. We've been there for three and a half years. One TV story and all of a sudden the music is an issue.

Quest: And you're in the running to take the AIDS Walk "Raise the Bar" competition again this year?

Nikolai: I don't know the exact totals but we tried our best!

Quest: Anything else coming up for people to mark their calendars about?

VanderVelden: We have our Miss 1226 pageant on October 11. And then we're running weekly and weekend specials. Because of the economy and the high fuel prices, Christopher and I decided to knock 50 cents off most of our drink prices. We're doing all this so we can to make people aware we have a lively bar.  We also are planning to put a float in the Oshkosh Christmas Parade. We almost did it last year, but didn't have the request in on time. This year we know what to do. We also do a drag show the last weekend of every month and we do an amateur night the second Friday of every month - you can get up tell jokes, sing, dance or do whatever you want to do. And we're always open to suggestions.

Quest: Can you give some example about how you’ve given back to the community?

VanderVelden: We've also gotten involved in the greater community at large. We're active members of Rainbow Over Wisconsin and had a booth at Pride Alive. We also had a float in this year's Milwaukee Pride Parade and took second place. Our aim next year is to take first place.

Quest: These day the bar business is tough going for a lot of owners, gay or straight.

VanderVelden: People don’t know what all we do to keep the bar open as a place for the gay community. Christopher has taken a full-time job at Ripon College. I have also taken a full time job to pay not just to pay our own living expenses, but to make up for when the bar doesn't make enough money to cover the overhead. So many people think "you own a bar, you must be rich!"  If people actually could see the size of the light bill or the heating bill, they might understand better. It's the overhead that kills small businesses. Without the support of the gay community, its tough - really tough.

Quest: You’ve been in the bar business for a lot longer than he Club 1226 years, correct?

Nikolai: We started in business back in 1999 with a bar and restaurant in the town of Dale ( 12 miles west of Appleton). After five and a half years there, we decided to move to Oshkosh to open a gay bar because we thought it was something the community really needed. It's paid off in a lot of ways - if not always financially. We've met a lot of wonderful people. But we still hear after all these years, "we never knew you were here!" And of course, more recently "you're till here? The city didn't tear you down?"

Hopefully being on the cover of a magazine and the recognition from winning a statewide competition to help people living with HIV/AIDS will put the rumor mill to rest!

“Drag It To The Dump” Rises On Halloween
Milwaukee - Crazy world. Tough times. When the going gets tough what could be better than a tongue-in-cheek, satirical revue by non-professional drag queens saying “fuck you” to those who have gotten the world into the mess it it is? Better yet, why not hold it on the gayest holiday of the year?
  That’s the premise of “Drag It To The Dump” an hour-or-so long drag show set to rise with the rest of the guys and ghouls this Halloween - Friday, October 31. The show will begin “officially at 8 PM but realistically around 8:30 or so once it gets real dark,” according to show promoter Joel Beck AKA drag diva Eda Cockwell. The show will be held at Mill Valley Recycling, 1006 South Barclay, between Mineral and Washington, just a stone’s throw from Club 200 East, where the show’s after party will be held. “It’s all happening in the shadow of the clock tower,” Beck said.  “I think everyone knows where that is!”
  According to Beck, alter-ego Eda is a “German drag queen from Austria who’s been very close to the Von Trapp boys.” Beck claims Ms. Cockwell allegedly asked Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett to perform this benefit show - with the net proceeds going to ARCW - at the Marcus Amphitheater. “All he could come up with is the dock across from a junkyard, so we’re making the best of it,” Beck told Quest.
  Performing at “Drag It To The Dump” will be Eda plus showgirls Dawn Davenport, Connie Chung, Ezie Collete and Bunny Hop. But where there are queens, there have to be kings, so several performers from the Milltown Kings will be “doing their thing” as well.
  Beck is currently forming Drag It Out Productions, which hopefully will conjure up future gigs. “We hope to put on this sort of off-the-wall kind of show twice a year, just for kicks,” he said. “Hey, we’re in a depression! A man in a dress? What’s crazy about that anymore? So if this show doesn’t make you feel better by laughing out loud I don’t know what will.”

We’re Going On A Hay Ride
Milwaukee - For the first time ever, SAGE is going on a hay ride Sunday, October 12 at 3 PM at the Apple Holler ranch near Racine.  The ride will feature tractor-drawn, high-sided hay wagons that can be easy accessed with stairs. The ride will end at a campfire that offers an opportunity to roast weenies and marshmallows. SAGE will provide the latter.
  The Apple Holler ranch also offers a “country cookin’” restaurant and an array of gift shops. A car caravan will leave the SAGE offices at 2 PM for the hay ride, although participants who wish to enjoy the restaurant’s Sunday breakfast buffet may wish to to leave earlier as the meal ends at Noon.
  Paid reservations will be required for the event, with a cost of $6.50 per person. Reservations maybe made at  the SAGE office, 1845 N Farwell Ave # 220. Credit cards are accepted. For more information about the event, directions to Apple Holler and reservations, call SAGE at: 414-224-0517 or visit the website at: www.sagemilwaukee.org.

Holiday Invitational Tournament Returns In November
Milwaukee - Milwaukee has the proud distinction of being host city for the grand daddy of all LGBT bowling tournaments, Holiday Invitational Tournament (HIT), held annually over Thanksgiving weekend. HIT is a handicapped-bowling tournament, sanctioned by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC), that consists of singles, doubles and team events. Recently added are optional Scratch Masters and Seniors divisions. Full details about the 2008 tournament will be nnounced shortly.
  Since its inception in 1978 HIT has had the opportunity to welcome to Milwaukee over ten thousand guests from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for a fun-filled weekend of bowling and camaraderie. HIT has given away over $500,000 in cash and prizes. 
  HIT is also proud to be a charter member of the International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO). The IGBO was conceived in September 1980 with six cities/organizations meeting in Los Angeles.  In 1983, the IGBO initially chose Milwaukee as the permanent site of the organization’s annual mid-year meeting to be during the Thanksgiving tournament weekend, thought that decision changed as more cities joined the association. However, Milwaukee has hosted more IGBO mid-year meetings than any other city. The organization also chose Milwaukee to host IGBO's 25th anniversary tournament held in May 2005.
  HIT is a not for profit organization. All monies raised by HIT through fundraising efforts are used to offset tournament expenses, allowing HIT to maintain a reasonable entry fee and provide a prize fund that will entice bowlers to come to the Milwaukee community.
  HIT has made more than $35,000 in donations to numerous organizations around the state. Beneficiaries have included AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (and its predecessor, the Milwaukee AIDS Project), the Brady East STD Clinic, Rodney Scheel House, American Cancer Society, Task Force for Battered Women, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Make-A-Wish Foundation, AIDS Walk Wisconsin, St. Camillus, Camp Heartland, Child Abuse Prevention Fund and PrideFest.  These donations were only possible because of the generous support of HIT by friends, families and community.
 Host bowling sites have included Landmark Lanes, Red Carpet Airport, Red Carpet South Park, Red Carpet Regency, Red Carpet Celebrity and AMF Bowlero. During the tournament various social events are also held, including bus trips, shows,  receptions, meals and hospitality suites.  Highlighting the weekend  is the Awards Banquet which has been held at various locations.
  The annually elected, 20 to 26 member HIT board is made up of volunteers who donate over 5,000 hours annually to produce one of the most successful events of its kind. Hundreds of additional volunteers have also assisted with  fund-raising and tournament events and have donated many hours of service during the tournament itself.  Businesses also donate products and services to insure a successful tournament.
  HIT meetings are held the first Thursday of every month. HIT always welcomes new volunteers to help with the tournament and serve on the board. For more information, visit the HIT website at: www.hitmilwaukee.org