Editor's Note: Shanna Katz's Front Range Femme column will be appearing weekly on the OFC Blog. Shanna will be blogging about kinky queer sexuality in all its aspects. Her posts will sometimes be explicit and may cover controversial material like BDSM, role-playing, sexual assault, and may include language which could be considered offensive. If you find this type of material offensive or inappropriate, please visit other pages on the blog or go back to our Home page. If you wish to proceed, continue reading Front Range Femme: What's in a name after the jump.

The Two Spirit Society of Denver welcomes two spirit people from around the world to Colorado as it plays host to the 2009 International Two Spirit Gathering from October 7-11 in Estes Park. This event is for Native community members, partners and families only, and will feature workshops, films, a talent show, talking circles, sweat lodges and other events. For more info or to register, click here.

The Kinsey Sicks Dragapella Beauty Shop Quartet is back in Denver for two nights only at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3, for two shows each night. At 7 pm, it's time to "Wake the F@#k Up America," with a parody of a network morning show where you become part of the show's audience. And at 9 pm, check out "GreatesTits and Other Bawdy Parts," the Denver debut of a brand-new parody. You can't get tickets for this show online and will sell out, so call the box office now at 303-293-0075.

The Game Show Network has announced the return of The Newlywed Game, hosted by Carnie Wilson. This season will feature appearances by a number of celebrity couples, including Star Trek favorite George Takei with his husband, Brad Altman – the first same-sex couple ever to appear on the show. How well do they know each other? Find out! Check out The Newlywed Game.

This weekend is officially the last of summer - although the weather will be more autumnal, with highs in the mid-70s for the duration of the weekend. Skies are expected to be clear, though, so it should be another beautiful weekend in Denver!

And what better way to spend the last weekend of summer than being Out and about in our gorgeous city!



Celebrate the end of the week tonight with current OFC cover Jen Korte & The Loss. Korte is hosting a CD Release party at The Walnut Room in Denver. Korte will be joined by Dan Craig and Achille Lauro for a fabulous night of music you CAN'T miss. Korte's new album is receiving RAVE reviews, and is seems certain that she's about to break into the mainstream in a big way. See her in her transplant home while you still can! Doors are at 7:30 pm, and the music starts at 8 pm. TIckets are $9 for the 21+ show.



On Saturday, celebrate tHERe bar & lounge's fourth anniversary with $4 you-call-its all day long! DJ Ray Ray will be spinning, and it will be a fabulous evening for all!

If you're up in Boulder this weekend, head to the b.side lounge on Saturday for Nectar, Boulder's biggest women's party. All lgbt allies are invited - cover is just $5 and drink specials abound all night.



On Sunday, come out and support OFC and the other teams at Colorado Kickin' for a Cause! It's too late to form a team, but it's never too late to come out and support the teams and a good cause! Proceeds benefit Howard Dental Center and Sense of Security. The tournament itself runs from 9:30 am - 6:30 pm at the City Park Softball Fields. Immediately after the tournament, head over to JR’s for the awards ceremony and after-party!

If you and your man are looking for a way to relax this Sunday, check out The Denver Element's Buddy Meditation from 6 - 7:30 pm. Dan over at Element has more details on the program on their blog.

And all weekend long, Colorado College in Colorado Springs is hosting the 10th Annual Pikes Peak Lavender Film Festival. This year, the festival features nine feature-length films, four documentaries and seven short films. For more information, check out page 30 of the current OFC issue, in print or online. For a complete listing of films, check out a href="http://www.pplff.org/" target="_new">PPLFF's Web site.

Have a fabulous weekend!

ORLANDO – Since the inception of Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom nearly 20 years ago, GLBTs around the world have created their own unique gatherings at theme parks around the world. In that spirit a similar GLBT gathering at a local theme park is currently being organized, though unlike the original, this Gay Day carries with it a political agenda.

Members of the gay and lesbian community and our supporters are encouraged to visit Orlando’s Holy Land Experience Theme Park on Tuesday, Oct. 6, during the park’s state-mandated free admission day. The gathering serves as the perfect kick-off to this year’s Pride week in Central Florida. Like the original Gay Day at Walt Disney World, this is a grass-roots effort to bring the gay community together and is not associated with any particular organization.

The Florida State Legislation passed a law in 2006 declaring Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Holy Land Experience Theme Park a religious organization, saving it about $300,000 in property taxes each year. This comes at a time when efforts to remove Florida’s discriminatory anti-gay adoption laws instead go unheard.

Mainstream religions have also been at the forefront of fighting marriage equality efforts. A multi-religious coalition supplied the backbone of the fundraising, organizing and voting support for overturning California’s Proposition 8. Mormon church members contributed an estimated 40 percent of the individual donations made to the Yes on 8’s $30 million-plus campaign. And the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, recently asked its parishes to take a special second collection to help pay for a campaign to use a statewide referendum to reverse a gay marriage law passed by the state Legislature.

Many in the GLBT community are faith-based. But few would agree that religious beliefs should be placed into the law, especially those that make prejudice and discrimination legal. What happened to the separation of Church and State?

In order to keep its tax-exempt status – after a court challenge by the Orange County Property Appraiser – Holy Land must offer a non-restrictive free admission day once a year. Previous years’ free days have taken place in November and February; this year’s free day on Tuesday, Oct. 6 during Pride week should be seen as an open invitation to the GLBT community.
Imagine the sense of unity that could be felt should gays and lesbians descend on the park en masse as a kickoff to pride week. The park’s holy day of obligation could be a perfect opportunity to make it a day of tolerance as well. There are few gay events where members of the religious right aren’t somewhere to be found, disrupting those celebrations with signs and shouts of hatred. Perhaps our pleas for equality could be better heard on “their” territory. Holy Land’s mission statement, in part, says the park is designed “to educate believers and present the gospel of Jesus Christ.” What better place could there be for those who are most often against us to see our – and Jesus’ – pleas for tolerance?

The park hasn’t actively advertised the free day because park officials have said they don’t want to create an uncontrollable situation with wider advertising. By no means should we seek to disrupt the park’s daily activities; instead we should hope that our message of equality will be accepted in a place where tolerance and acceptance of all is said to be preached.

Like the original theme park Gay Day GLBT guests are encouraged to wear red; also like the original gay Day, this park is also expected to quickly fill to capacity. Holy Land advertises its opening time as 10 a.m.; however, participants are advised to arrive as early as possible in order to best assure admittance to the park.

Questions and comments should be directed to Kirk Hartlage, at DJCapnKirk@aol.com.

Back in May, a same-sex pair of dancers auditioned on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance, and judges chastised the men as potentially "alienating our audience" since "both [could be in] the female role." Joe.My.God. has video and transcripts from that episode, which caused some major backlash from the community.

But the judges were much kinder and more considerate with the next same-sex couple who auditioned, in an episode which aired last night. (Admittedly, this couple were also much better dancers than the first). One judge was actually moved to tears. Check out the video below and judge for yourself.



GLAAD released a statement this morning commending the show's new-found respect for same-sex dancing pairs. From that statement:

"“Joining concerned citizens across America, GLAAD spoke out critically against the hurtful and stereotyping remarks on “So You Think You Can Dance,” and are delighted to see that these education and advocacy efforts resonated with the show’s producers and judges,” said Jarrett Barrios, GLAAD President. “The treatment of Jacob and Willem this evening, along with the addition of Adam Shankman, gives America a bold example of how to treat gay people with the same respect and fairness as anyone else. That’s what America’s all about.""

I agree with GLAAD in commending the show for learning from its past mistakes. But it seems like the judges' remarks had little to do with the pair's actual dancing. (Which was, in my opinion, quite excellent.) While I'm not in favor of the judges' stereotypical and insulting remarks on the earlier episode, I think it's possible to honestly critique someone's performance, even if they ARE a ground-breaking team. It seems like the judges were afraid to say anything critical, lest it be considered offensive and they suffer another media firestorm.

What are your thoughts? Were the judges' reactions appropriate? Were they honest?

The lovely ladies over at Feministing have posted a new documentary from Denver group Luz Reproductive Justice Think Tank. From Luz's site:
"The Luz Reproductive Justice Think Tank is a coalition of young women and transgender people of color and their allies from a variety of social justice movements who work to incorporate reproductive justice into their activism. Working across intersecting issues, the Luz Think Tank focuses on information sharing and skills building. In its structure and approach, the Luz Think Tank strives to model equality, inclusion, and social change."

Check out Luz's vision for reproductive justice in their documentary. Part 1 is below, part 2 is here.

Man, it's been a rough year for awesome famous people. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ted Kennedy, and now Patrick Swayze .

Patrick Swayze died yesterday, at the age of 57. He had been battling pancreatic cancer since 2008.


Swayze will most likely be remembered for his star-making roles in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, but the San Francisco Chronicle has a fuller list of Swayze's memorable appearances.

As Joyce Gemperlein at Obit-Mag.com points out, Swayze was perhaps many of ours first celebrity crush... or at least our first serious hollywood lust. Maybe it was the iconic, seminal '80s-ness of Dirty Dancing or the less-than-subtle pottery euphemism in Ghost, but Patrick Swayze in so many films just defined sexy. The piercing eyes, the ripped abs (!), the diamond-in-the-rough, boy-next-door face... It was all irresistable.

And to top it all off, he always seemed a genuinely decent person. In discussing Swayze with her 14-year-old daughter, Gemperlein writes:
"I told her I found it easy to confuse [Swayze] with the character of [Dirty Dancing character] Castle because both seemed to be tender, talented and on the same wavelength as women...

At his death at age [57], Swayze had worked steadily as an actor all of his adult life, but his three dozen movies weren’t among the greatest. He was nominated for, but never won, a major award.

No matter, I told her, he worked hard at what he loved.

The final scene of Dirty Dancing was filmed when Swayze was in great pain (from rehearsing and performing), but he carried on because, as he said in an interview for the 20th anniversary of the movie, he believed that his work was a privilege and a duty.

And then, even as he was undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments, Swayze filmed two seasons of the rough-and-tumble television drama, The Beast. The FBI agent he plays is angry, as was Swayze after his January 2008 diagnosis with pancreatic cancer."

Swayze always struck me as tough but compassionate, hard-working but fun-loving as well. He will be missed, certainly.

What about you? What are your favorite Swayze memories? Let us know in the comments.

Eye candy photo from Blogue.us.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT rights organization, has released its Corporate Equality Index. The CEI analyzes large US employers based on their policies regarding LGBT employees.


This year, the number of businesses receiving a 100% rating rose by more than 20% over last year. Of the 590 companies reviewed, 305 received a rating of 100%. So, what does it take to get a perfect score? Check out the rating criteria below the jump to find out.