It’s Showtime! (almost!) Yes I have The Ho Must Go On at Hamburger Mary’s in Long Beach, Tossed Salad & Green Eggs & Drag at The San Clemente Inn in Adele’s & High Octane at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood but why not just ONE MORE!!!

Rick has arranged a lunch meeting with the manager of Hunter’s Palm Springs, and it looks like we are going to get a show date for the Official Alterna-Talent.com Palms Springs Launch Party, to introduce ourselves to the area and showcase some so-cal talent! We have the entertainment lined up as A-T members Lady Vajayjay and her gurls from “The Asiancy” have generously agreed to come and strut their hot stuff on stage. We are also lucky enough to get the sultry Holly Deville, also a member, from San Francisco to come and MC the show.
As it looks, the show is going to be somewhere between the 8th and the 16th of October. I just have to work out the details with Lady, Holly and the club manager. It’s going to be a great fun show as we finally get to introduce Alterna-Talent.com members and their talents to the local community here in the Coachella Valley. As soon as we get a date I will be sending out invites, so be on the lookout and
hope to see you there!! WooHoo!

This is Just The Beginning!

Right now Rick is only announcing this in “ The World According to Lady VaJayJay & Alterna-Talent”, because this is about you! But we have some secrets we have been holding out on you, lying in wait until we saw which way Alterna-Talent was going to go, and we are really loving our member list! This first show is going to be our foot in the door to begin taking it on the road. Our road show will be entitled, “Alterna-Talent.com Presents: Live, And On Stage!”, showcasing members of Alterna-Talent.com- whether dragsters, singers, dancers/models, musicians, etc. Of course we are starting out small in Southern California, but I have big dreams that I am going to make happen for all of our Alterna-Talent members that want to participate, nationwide; while traveling to cities across the US to showcase their talents in their own areas. If that doesn’t get attention to our members, I don’t know what will! So if you know of any talents, get ‘em in here and tell them we’re going places and we would love to drag them along!

For Rick you see, on a personal note and from his heart, he had huge plans when he did drag himself back in the 80’s- and at the risk of sounding like he’s tooting his own horn, he had a very imaginative talent. He had many ideas for doing shows that he wanted to perform himself that would not only take drag, but lgbt entertainment itself to the next level. He could (and still can) listen to a song and get an entire theme to go with it in his head, that could turn it into a mini production- He’s talking costumes and choreography, “I’m an entertainment drama queen,what can I say!. But I was cut short and held back by my own environment, time, situation and then my health. So I know what it’s like to have big dreams. I realize this may sound a bit exorbitant and exaggerated and I know I have said it before, but this is the real purpose of Alterna-Talent.com and the type of shows and showcasing your talent, as well as your own numbers, I hope to morph this entire thing into.

So with a last note on this, as a member, if you know of any venues where we can hold a show in your area in the future with some great talented friends, let us know and we’ll talk with you and get the ball rolling! I’m so excited, I could just spit!”

Story Credit – Lady VaJayJay & Rick from Alterna-Talent.com

This is Lady V’s interview with Vic Carmona about his experience regarding to DADT.

Lady V: Tell us your story.

Vic: Where do you want me to start?

Lady V: What made you tell?

Vic: Well to start off I lived in California City, CA in Kern County after graduating from Adult Education in Tehachapi, CA at a young age of 20 I knew I needed direction and the only way out of my little town was to join the armed forces or to commit suicide.

After taking the ASVAB exam and passing it, the second time around I decided to join the US Navy. I enlisted for 4 years. I went to boot camp in Great Lakes which everyone know in boot camp called it “ Great Mistakes” after graduating I was sent to 32^nd Street in San Diego, CA for Mess Specialist School & fire fighting school. Upon completion I chose to get as far away as possible from the United States and was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan on board the USS Hewitt DD966. The first 4 years in Japan was amazing I meet my very first boy friend who was an Aussie no less.

To move the story on at age 24 I decided to come out to my mother.

Lady V: Why did you come out so late?

Vic: I was not comfortable with who I was.

Lady V: How did you come out and what was the experience like coming out?

Vic: Well I came out when my mom called to talk to me when I was still stationed in Japan and at that time the Aussie was my “ friend”. I just hated when my mother called and my boyfriend would pretend that I was in the other bed room and he went to get me. I believe it was on a Sunday when my mother called me and I was in the kitchen and my Aussie handed the phone to me we talked for a little then I said, “ Mom.” I paused then I continued on toe say, “ I have something to tell you.” My Aussie looked at me and made a face as to say NO! He ran in the bath room and shut the door as if my mother was going to jump through the phone and kill the both of us. She didn’t. “ Mom, I’m gay and Aussie is my boyfriend.”

Lady V: What the hell did you mother say??? Tell me girl!

Vic: My mother said that as long as I love someone and as long someone loves me is all that matters and that she hopes that I am happy and that she loves me.

Lady V: Well that’s no fun. Where’s the drama in that. Mothers, you’ve got to love them.

Vic: I do very much so. She is my mother and my father since my father left me when I was 6 years old.

Lady V: So lets move on to the next phase of your life.

Vic: Well after completing my first enlistment I decided to stay in Japan with my Aussie and become and English teacher.

Lady V: So you have a degree?

Vic: Um, no not really.

Lady V: How the hell did you become an English teacher without a degree?

Vic: My Aussie made a fake degree for me then I made a copy of it and I had connections in the Navy and had it stamped as a copy of the original degree.

Lady V: Very cleaver. Just looking at you, I wouldn’t have though you were smart enough to do anything like that.

Vic: Thank you, I guess.

Lady V: So you taught English then where does the extra year come in.

Vic: Well after being out of the military, having my ups and downs of my first relationship (and not being faithful to my boyfriend) we ended the relationship and I moved back home to California City, CA. After only staying with my mother for a short time I decided to reenlist back into the Military for another 4 years.

Lady V: Finally it gets juicy!!

Vic: Once I enlisted I decided once again to go back to Yokosuka, Japan. By then I was in my second tour and my second war.

Lady V: Wait so you’re a Vet?

Vic: Yes, I was in Desert Storm and Desert Strike.

Lady: Did you get any booty in the Navy?

Vic: LOL well they managed to get my booty.

Lady V: Bottom!

Vic: As I was saying. During my second enlist I had been out to myself and I was confident about who I was and who I was about as a person and a human being.

Lady V: So where did it come to you telling someone that you were gay?

Vic: Well this one time as I walked past the chow line to go into the kitchen someone in the line yelled, “ Faggot!” I turned around and everyone was silent. I simply replied, “ Yeah and what are you gonna do about it?” I was a popular gay boy on that ship after that. Everyone wanted a piece of me.

Lady V: Ok honey get your head out of clouds.

Vic: Right, so during the second tour to the Gulf as they say “ What happens at sea stays at sea…..”  So I had my fun with two Sailors.

Lady V: What did you do with them?

Vic: That’s another story lets keep with how I got the boot.

Lady V: Fine, what got you to the point where you felt you needed to tell?

Vic: I felt out of place. I felt as if I was in the closet even though I was already out to everyone.

I decided that I needed to come out and well…I told my supervisor.  After reveling to my immediate supervisor I had to talk to the Executive Officer.  Then after telling him that I am gay, he requested that I write a letter to the Admiral of the base.  Whilst I was writing the letter to the Admiral I felt very empowered and knew what I was doing was something that needed to be done. After disclosing my not so secret, secret, “Admitting that I was GAY”,  I was transferred to a military jail for 30 days in Japan then from there I met others that also were being kicked out for the same reason.

After my 30 days I was transferred to 32^nd Street San Diego, CA for my final extraction from the military. As they went over my paper work I noticed that my evaluation was dropped from 3.8 to 1.8.  The administrative guy looked over my paper work and noticed that I’ve never gotten in trouble and I was always a 3.8- 3.6 sailor and 4.0 being the highest score you could get at the time. He increased my evaluation to 2.8 and I was able to keep my benefits.

The first thing that came to my head was “ FAMILY”! He was either taking care of me or he was just a good guy with a good heart.

Lady V: Well that was a pretty damn boring story. Um you got anything else to say?

Vic: Well now in my free time I have gotten heavily involved in activism for over a year now.

Lady V: How are you involved?

Vic: Well I am a Drag queen activist.

Lady V: Oh wow just like me!

Vic: Well actually Lady V, Vic is Lady VaJayJay you stupid bitch!  So I’m telling my story so you will all HELP  ME sM*A*S*H  DADT! We should have rights as the straight people do damn it! I’m a human being and I deserve that right and respect!

I’ve fought in two wars for your rights. What about mine?

Photo/Graphics by Sue Cassidy and Jewelry by Absolutely Fabulous

ABOUT LADY VAJAYJAY:

Currently you can see Lady VaJayJay at Hamburger Mary’s in Long Beach, Adele’s at The San Clemente Inn, Hamburger Mary’s in WEHO starting September, at many fundraising events through out Orange County and LA county and at OC Pride on August 14, 2010

So who is Lady Vajajay? First and foremost Lady Vajayjay is a Drag Queen Activist! Lady Vajayjay is a creation of Vic, who proudly served in the United State Navy with an Honorable Discharge (Don’t Ask now…but stay tuned for the full story!).  Created with the purpose of raising money for various charities and non profits around Southern California, Lady V has raised much needed funds for the Courage Campiagn, Orange County Equality Coalition, AIDS WALK, N.O.W. EQCA, Wells House Hospice, Shanti OC, ASF & ECCO just to name a few.  She’s even going to walk a 5k in heels in November to support AIDS WALK LA!

Lady Vajayjay is also a budding Actor who just  returned from Palm Springs where she played a twisted therapist in the hit play/musical spoof, “The Golden Gays”.    You can currently catch Lady Vajayjay along with Mozie PornWood, Sparkle Stone, Sah’shey Couture & Holly Day on Sunday’s at  Hamburger Mary’s in Long Beach in their must see show, ”Da Ho Goes On…”.

In typical Drag Queen fashion, she’s assembled quite the entourage to help out too so to help you get to know her team she submitted a their bios for you to read below.  If you’d like to meet the team in person, come out on Sunday, July 11th at 8pm to Hamburger Mary’s in Long Beach for the official launch of her column!  To follow Lady V on Facebook click here.

Mozie PornWood

One day behind the Pink Wonton Grill in Lady Vajayjay’s secret lab, vajayjay’s eyeshadow and retro porn collection fell into a vat of radioactive teriyaki..THUS Exploded out MOZIE PORNWOOD. She is new kid on the block but is ready for danger and a good time! After a couple of beatings with a wire hanger from her mother, she has emerged. At times she can be a flirt but with her sixties flair and Bee-hive hair she will make you stop and stare!

Dawn Logue – Creative VaJayJay

Dawn is a native Californian. She tried anything and everything under the sun. She taught Karate, went to become a bartender, and currently works at a brokerage firm. She is just all over the place. One day she met Lady Vajayjay who gave her some direction. Dont forget her favorite food is salt…so if you see Dawn. GIVE HER SOME WATER!

Vicki Leon
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (Chino) there was a lonely little Morrissey-obsessed girl named Vicki. She always knew she was different and rarely fit in, but she OWNED it! With her dramatic make-up, cherry colored hair and fake lashes, many thought Vickiwas a drag queen trapped in a straight girl’s body… and they were right!  One dark, rainy night she wandered into a dank little hamburger joint and there she witnessed a vision. Before her stood a creature with the biggest, bluest cotton candy-like hair, fierce dance moves and a dazzling smile. This creature was known as Lady VaJayJay. Equipped solely with her Flip camera, Vicki decided to capture this dragalicious vision of loveliness on video for the world (or at least viewers on YouTube) to see. Lady VaJayJay saw a sparkle in Vicki. She took the aspiring mortician under her kimono draped wing and gave her a loving, rent controlled home.

Proposition 8 has been introduced in all our households.  A proposition stating,” Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”  To the majority – meaning heterosexuals, this must have been a pretty easy vote.  Most don’t know anyone who is gay.  Yes, they may see a gay person on television or in the movies, but it’s not “real” until you actually know a person first hand.  So, because of this ignorance, I don’t blame them for the help they contributed by voting in favor of Prop. 8.  This is the reason why I’m so “out”.  I want people to KNOW me.  Know who I am, what I’m about, and what I stand for.

Many times people are prejudice because of what they were taught. Everyday – society breeds ignorance.  So, I feel it is up to us to ENLIGHTEN.  WE can make a difference, by spreading the knowledge of US.  This is why it’s so important to come out.  For so long, we have been told that the unknown is scary and the unknown MUST be bad.  Even if you are not gay, but have a gay sister or cousin – let it be known!  Because we do exist.  We are real.  We may be a minority, but we will not be ignored.  We will not let our rights, as HUMAN BEINGS, be snatched away because we love the gender of the same sex.  And the only way, the ONLY WAY to do this is by promoting self and community awareness.  Because we are not wrong.  We are not bad.  We ARE NOT,”..selfish, sexual, anti social & antifamily” any more than heterosexuals are.  This whole argument is just exhausting.  If they could only walk a mile in our shoes.. I pray for retribution.  I pray for justice and LOVE! And more so, I pray for acceptance.

Please follow @NCLRights on twitter for play by play on the propH8 trial in court right now.

As a full-time student at Cal State Long Beach, I just paid $2,185 to enroll for my final semester as a senior, up over $300 from last semester. Although I’m paying more money, I’m attending less school, as professors have been required to cut back on their teaching days without pay.

This UC and CSU budget deficit has been all over the news. Protests have been taking place at campuses throughout California and many have been speaking out about the negative implications that all of this entails.   In addition to increased tuition, admissions have been cut, school fees have been increased, available classes have been reduced and faculty have been let go without the funding to keep them employed.

CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed announced in November that these budget cuts will produce a 40,000 reduction in student enrollment over the next three years.   “The state needs our graduates to enter the workforce and help the state’s economy recover,” said Reed. “But, when your budget is cut so drastically, we are left with little choice but to restrict our enrollment.”

Limiting admission of students willing and eager to earn a degree is an unfortunate event. Increasing the tuition of those already admitted, in some cases forcing them to leave school as a result of a lack of funding to pay for it, is unfortunate as well.   What’s most unfortunate, however, is that, according to Save The CSU, an organization developed to educate the public on California’s education budget deficit, between 2005 and 2025, “approximately 3 million college graduates will leave the work force.”

With the current budget crisis having such a negative effect on higher education enrollment, once all those employment opportunities begin to open up, what will happen when we find ourselves with not enough college graduates to fill them?  I understand that California’s budget crisis leaves this state in a bad situation. And I understand that reductions must be made as necessary to help California get back on its feet. What I don’t understand is why California’s future, those working to earn an education and make a difference in the world, are the ones forced to pay the price so drastically.

     About an hour into it, I started to get annoyed. Not by the movie, although I was disappointed to see so many attractive women in the same movie Not kissing each other, but by the twenty minutes of noise outside our apartment. Living in a metropolitan area, you get used to noise. But this was an unusual amount of car doors slamming and yapping and kids screaming. I couldn’t stand it.

     Our front door opened to a family using our driveway as a rest stop and sitting on our porch. The doors to their big, white SUV were open and they were just chillin and smokin and talking really loudly. Their kids were running around the truck screaming. It was like that movie trick when  you open a door to another world where all this stuff is going on and you just watch, wide eyed in amazement. 

     Our neighborhood is. . . ok. We’ve had some illegal activity around. We pay more attention these days and we definitely don’t want a bunch of strangers hangin on our doorstep. I mean, I would never in a million years even think to do that. Go to a park or a business. McDonalds has a big funhouse to play in, go there! It was an intrusion. 

     “Oh hi, sorry”, they said when they heard the door. And they continued to sit. “Uh, We’re trying to watch a movie. Go somewhere else.”, said my girlfriend, Morgan. One girl in the truck had a brain and said, “Mom, let’s go.”, while two other girls went into a giggle fit. Morgan was shocked and stood there staring at them until they packed up and left five minutes later. 

Seriously, c’mon.

Note From the Editor:  Occasionally we receive emails from our readers and the general public which pose questions.   Rather than address each of these questions individually or speak on behalf of the community, we feel the questions are better posed to our readers.  We encourage our readers to comment and use our tools as a forum for discussion.  

This is not a unique thought because we’ve overheard it discussed in too many coffee shops but I’d like your input.

We are hearing from religious groups all over the country that we can’t allow marriage between same sex partners because it is against God’s law, church’s doctrines, and other religious reasons. That marriage should only be between a man and a woman and (not always said) that marriage is primarily for procreation. Certainly for the last 20 centuries that has been the case – - – since most religions wanted to have enough soldiers to protect their interests against the soldiers of the other guy’s religion procreation was obviously pretty important. 

Not only Christians are against same sex marriages but so are Muslims and to a lesser extent Jews.

How do we amicably solve this problem?

One would like to point out that the First Amendment of our constitution gave us those rights. That the amendment says any American can believe in any religion  they choose to believe in. Not stated, but what we assume, is that any American can also believe or not to believe….and that would be a religion.

What shouldn’t be forgotten by either side here is that our Constitution was also an outstanding example of compromise. The founding fathers worked on the document for a long time before they all agreed.  So it would behoove the gay community and the  “straight” community to look for compromise.

So here’s a thought. 

Let’s have the governments, municipal and state and federal…get out  of the “marriage business” and give it back to the church.  The governments would require that any two people who choose to live together and procreate or not enter into a union, or partnership specifically spells out the benefits and responsibilities of such a partnership.  They pay the license fee and sign the documents and they are now legal partners.

THEN….and only then……  they can go to the church of their choice and see if that church is willing to provide a marriage ceremony?  I know that some churches will not join people with views that oppose their religion’s views. Enough said..that’s their right.  Some religions require conversions to their church’s views. That’s OK.

The partnership would be the “legal” binding that decides parental rights,  partner obligations, lay out monetary divisions in case the “partnership” is dissolved.

The “marriage” would be the “love” binding that, after all, should be the stronger of the two bonds.  Everyone would have a legal partnership and those that couldn’t have their marriage in their first church of choice would find another church.

What am I missing?

Signed,

Thinking In Long Beach

So we are all on a new journey together towards marriage equality.  The issue is going back to the ballot in 2010 and will be voted on by the public.  Our community wants to win marriage equality in 2010 so that we do not have to go back to the ballot box again in 2012, 2014, or 2016.  Last time we lost but by only a slight margin.  We lost in christian communities regardless of race.

Before November, the fighting was fierce.  Names were called, aggresive tactics were taken, and blame was assigned.  I didn’t disagree at all with the way our community handled ourselves.  In fact, I revelled in it.  I was very happy to see the glbt community bully back.  I for one had been tired by the way many of our people in the community had backed down in the past in the face of inequality and was angry, very angry.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled to keep the 18,000 marriages in place but to ban gay marriage until voter approved, I find myself feeling a sense of calm.  The anger is gone and replaced with love.  A strong love towards our heterosexual counterparts.  Only we can show them the way to to equality.  Sure heterosexuals could be our voice and many of them are, but love has to come from within our community to theirs.  We must rise above and win the challenge. 

Melissa Etheridge had wrote about this very same subject in her article “The Choice is Ours Now” during the time Rick Warren was going to be giving his Inaugauration speech for Obama.  She talks about building the bridges of unity and “stretching out our hands.  Maybe instead of marching on his church,”she says, “we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world. ”

She says “Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.” 

I agree with this notion and say, let’s extend our own arms and win them over with love.

Several things lead us to our sign slogans. My fiance struggles with recovery from addictions and a troubled childhood every day and I, like many, have lost my job. Unemployment is very slow to come for me and last week we were robbed. Add that to the economic downturn and the fact that our love is not recognized or approved of by many, and you’ve got one hell of an angry lesbian couple.  But, we didn’t want to let our anger at the world affect our message or others. Let’s take the high road. And, besides, all the complaints wouldn’t fit on our cardboard.  

Since we didn’t know what the court would decide on Prop 8 and we wanted to get a head start on our signs, we focused on the simple and true either way. A positive message that would keep our heads in the game.

My fiance, Morgan, the artist that she is, went all out. A sturdy used cardboard posted on a piece of sustainably managed, tree-farmed select pine was a great base for her pencil outlined acrylic medium. She bought some bright polyester and plastic flowers from the Fabric Barn and used wire to attach them to the edges. Beautifully, it framed her slogan of “Peace Love and Equality”. A positive message that will endure the test of time as there will likely be more protests in the future. A very pretty sign with an even prettier woman holding it.

I was having a bit more trouble coming up with something without knowing the court decision. I had an idea but wanted to wait. I have a hard time with many fill-in-the-blank situations. A comedian at heart, I always yearn to fill in something random or silly. Other ideas included: “Your mom is married”, “Seperate and lift” and “I like walking”. After a funny hour of brainstorming, I couldn’t get over myself enough to think of something seriously useful and positive. So, when the decision ended up being to uphold Prop 8, I went with my gut, “Seriously, c’mon”.

When we got to the protest route, I found that my gut was thinking what a lot of others were thinking too. Sure, I got a few glares, but mostly, people laughed. We commiserated over the same emotion and were brought together in these times when we all feel a little beaten down. 

The combination of our two signs made for a great reaction. It seemed to evoke the “Can’t we all just get along” in all of us. It also reminded me that my girl and I are made for each other and we’ll be loving and supporting each other and our community for as long as we both shall live whether California approves or not.”

Note from Editor: This piece was written by Joanna Stanford, one of our new writers. We loved her title (and her sign at the prop 8 rally) so much we decided to make it the title of an ongoing column. A place where Joanna, Shout writers and others can voice their experiences, frustrations and stories that, well, make us think “Seriously C’mon”.