BUN-BUN IN THE PRESS!

I perform in Miami a lot and was happy to be included with my sisters Electra, Elaine Lancaster and Tiffany Ariegus.

MIAMI HERALD: by Steve Rothaus

GAY PRIDE MONTH  

Drag queens to hold court Sunday at Stonewall 

Summer Pride in Wilton Manors

Not all gays and lesbians like drag, and some criticize it for perpetuating stereotypes. But Lady Bunny points out that drag queens were the ones who fought back during a June 28, 1969, police bar raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, launching the modern gay-rights movement.

“Don’t ever put down the drag queens who started the gay-rights movement, because those were the people who had the balls,” she says. “They may have been in pantyhose but they were there. It was not the people who had the ‘courage’ to put on a rainbow T-shirt once a year and go back to their office jobs the next day.”

As for those who complain about media images of drag queens at gay pride parades, she says: “Get a look together honey and maybe someone would take your picture, too.”

MORE:   MIAMIHERALD

ASLO, I WROTE AN ACOUNT OF MY 1ST EVERP PARTICIPATION IN THE LONG-RUNNING AIDS BENEFIT, BROADWAY BARES THIS PAST SUNDAY:

I tried to stay off my soapbox--but I couldn't! My account of being backstage at Broadway Bares is on Huffingtonpost.com, but it of course I had to contrast this event with NYC's often lame gay pride parade. Here's an excerpt:

"As a cast member, I received the same incredibly moving email that the whole cast got from Broadway Cares' executive director, Tom Viola. I'd love to reprint his letter in its entirety, but it basically reminded us that the reason for this light, sexy, and sparkling event is an ugly disease. We don't talk about AIDS anymore! It's too gloomy to fit in with our buff bodies and cocktail-oriented publications. We know how to prevent it, yet it keeps on spreading. So someone's not getting the message. Sadly, it's often our youth who didn't grow up seeing their friends waste away as my generation did, and who don't perceive AIDS as a death sentence because of new meds.

TOM VIOLA'S POTENT WORDS WERE EDITED FROM THE HUFFPO ARTICLE, BUT I'LL SHARE THEM HERE: READ AND LEARN!

“AIDS is no longer a death sentence or a scourge inflicted upon any one community or group of people. But, without doubt, it is still around. The virus, though controllable, is still passed from friend to friend, between loving partners as well as “hook-ups” you may never intend to see again. When it is, life as you know it irrevocably changes. Emotionally and physically. How you see yourself, how you perceive others see you and how they actually engage with you from the moment you learn of sero-conversion is a complicated equation. It is not worth 15 minutes of even the best sex you’ve ever had, let alone something you’ve forgotten about the next day.

Whether you know it or not, or believe it or not – look around rehearsal or the dressing room on Sunday. Someone right next to you or many across the room are living with HIV. Some quietly, perhaps well, others in deep denial or shame. But my point is the AIDS virus continues to be passed. And it doesn’t have to be.

Now mistakes are made. Accidents happen. Foolish decisions of one type or another occur when we’re high, drunk, feeling bad, feeling invincible, too young to think it can happen, too “old” to think it matters any more. There is no blame. And truly there should be no shame. We are all human and imperfect.

I have been HIV+ since 1993. Truly with all I had lived through in the 80’s, even in some fairly dark days, I should have known better, been smarter. But I am here to tell you now; being HIV+ does not diminish my life or define it today. It simply determines how in some circumstances I have to behave. If you share this experience, it can be the same for you.”

Tom and Broadway Bares, I applaud your courage to tell the truth no matter how tragic it is, and your passion to help correct the situation. He went on to share POZ's latest safe-sex guidelines and info about PEP, a new drug that can stop seroconversion if a slip-up happens during sex. Isn't that what gay pride is about: caring for our community? I see so much disdain for each other in the gay community based on who's a bottom, who's fat, who's femme, who's an old "troll," or whose HIV positive (wait, is this my Craig'slist personals ad?) that this caring vibe makes a super-refreshing change. I was so moved by Tom's words that I even cancelled the after-party I'd planned at my apartment, which I'd named Broadway Barebacks. Kidding!"

MORE:   HUFFPO

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/22/2862842_p2/drag-queens-to-hold-court-sunday.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/22/2862842_p2/drag-queens-to-hold-court-sunday.html#storylink=cpy