Same-sex marriage could increase Minnesota’s annual economy by $38 M

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Since same-sex marriage became legal in Minnesota, Heidi Garrido has shot for more than a dozen same-sex weddings. The St. Paul photographer said she’s already seen a major increase in her profits since the state legalized same-sex marriage last summer.And Garrido isn’t the only one that thinks the wedding industry is going to see a major uptick from the ruling. According to a study released by Nerd Wallet earlier this month, Minnesota could stand to gain $38 million dollars annually in the wedding industry from same-sex marriages. The study estimates around 1,300 same-sex marriages in the state per year, and bases its predictions off of the 2.9 percent of Minnesota’s population who identify as LGBTQ and the state’s average wedding cost of $28,265.“This is not only a short-term development,” said the author of the study Sreekar Jasthi. Continue Reading

Performance artist Peterson Toscano on LGBTQ and climate justice intersectionality October 29th

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While at the People’s Climate March in New York City on September 21st I had the pleasure of personally meeting performance artist Peterson Toscano, and hearing about his “The Queer Response to Climate Change” creation. He will be using storytelling, humor and skilled facilitation to perform “Climate Change: What’s faith got to do with it?” October 29th at 7 PM at All God’s Children MC Church 3100 Park Ave S as well as “Transfigurations–Transgressing Gender in the Bible” 30 October 2014 7:00 pm at Richfield United Methodist Church This is a Community Voices submission and is moderated but not edited. The opinions expressed by Community Voices contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the TC Daily Planet.As someone who has done spoken word comedy performances about global warming myself, I can attest that it is exciting and uplifting to bring together the diverse interests of faith community building, LGBTQ liberation and climate justice. Peterson recently wrote that he addressed these three important issues “always with the goal to hold out hope and to encourage us to dream and scheme about how we can envision and achieve a future world that is more just, clean, and stable for all.“ Peterson’s optimistic vision can only be held up by taking robust, coordinated action to address the climate crisis which I “voted” for by putting my body in the street for the People’s Climate March. While each climate march up to this point has been sponsored by a much small handful of organizations, this climate march was unprecedented as a diversity of over a hundred groups and organizations took part. A whole new meaning opened up for me when I saw a website about one of the groups in the march called “Queers for the Climate”. Continue Reading

Minnesota Archdiocese wanted to label marriage equality-supporting priest ‘disabled’

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The investigation of alleged cover-ups of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has brought a flurry of court documents which reveal some details of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s war on gay marriage. In one case, the Archdiocese allegedly considered having a priest labelled disabled to silence his support of marriage equality.Father Michael Tegeder of St. Francis Cabrini and Gichitwaa Kateri has been an outspoken critic of Nienstedt’s assault on LGBT rights. He was sharply critical of the anti-gay marriage amendment that was on the ballot in 2012.He was so outspoken, Nienstedt threatened to remove him from ministry.“If you choose not to offer your resignation, but continue to act openly or speak publicly about your opposition to Church teaching, I will suspend your faculties to exercise ministry and remove you from your ministerial assignments,” Nienstedt wrote to Tegeder in a letter in November 2011.But behind the scenes, Nienstedt was considering other measures to silence Tegeder. Continue Reading

THEATER REVIEW | Gadfly Theatre Productions’ Final Frontier Festival explores LGBT topics through sci-fi lens

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Gadfly Theatre Productions is a local theater company whose mission is to “build a playground for the obscure, the oppressed and  unapologetically original.” Since 2010, they have been producing plays from a queer/feminist perspective in order to fulfill this goal. They’ve staged classic plays, original work, and from June 13rd to June 21st, they are staging their first themed festival, Final Frontier Festival, which presents six one-act plays across two evenings at Nimbus Theatre in Minneapolis. The tone and topics of the plays are quite varied and diverse. Who Killed Captian Kirk? by Paco Madden concerns the events at Star Trek convention that precedes and follows the murder of a well-known celebrity. The Wolves Above by Alyssa Zaczek offers a post-apocalyptic scenario between a fembot named Venus and her creators. Love Bot by Matthew A. Everett is somewhat similar; in this show one gay and one lesbian astronaut are faced with the uncomfortable task of becoming a second Adam and Eve. Continue Reading

20 years later, bisexuals still feel left out

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Co-founder Victor Raymond remembers that they almost canceled the first BECAUSE conference when they realized the night before that only 12 people had signed up. They decided to follow through, and the next day over 120 participants showed up to register.That was back in 1992. Now the BECAUSE conference, which stands for Bisexual Empowerment Conference, A Uniting Supportive Experience, draws more than 200 participants from all over the United States every year. The conference, sponsored by local nonprofit Bisexual Organizing Project, aims to bring higher visibility to the sexual orientation, which advocates claim is mostly ignored in mainstream society. The event also provides a forum for support and activism for the bisexual movement. Continue Reading