After spending the last 20 years or more volunteering and participating in GLBTQ events and organizations, I find myself wondering if events such as gay rodeos and gay pride will soon be extinct. Over the last 15 years, the GLBTQ community in the United States has experienced many milestone accomplishments resulting in liberation from oppression and new freedoms on many forefronts. 

As the Southern Nevada Association of PRIDE, Inc. (SNAPI) and the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) embark on a collaborative effort to bring tourists and residents a week-long extravaganza, I wonder what other creative ideas will help our events continue to be successful. 
As the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for IGRA, I am exposed to every facet of our organization. In a recent conference, I posed the question to our members about reinventing ourselves. IGRA's contestant base has always been all-inclusive, which is what differentiates us from traditional rodeo; however, our straight contestant base continues to grow and being gay really is not a focal point anymore. We are just one big family who likes to get together, have a great time, and raise money for the less fortunate. 

Over the years, the reason we were founded and the world has almost changed entirely. As an organization born in the heart of the AIDS crisis, our original mission was to raise monies for charities to help our ailing brothers and sisters from this often fatal epidemic. People rarely die from AIDS anymore and with the Affordable Care Act, almost everybody has access to healthcare. 

According to a posting on gaypatriot. net in 2005, "...as gay people becoming increasingly visible, it's beginning to seem that 'Pride' is passé. Pride now seems to be merely the name of the gay and lesbian street festival where people gather to have a good time one spring weekend." The world has evolved but many organizations have not evolved with it and are struggling to survive and or maintain their identities. As the GLBTQ community becomes more and more mainstream and with online technology making it easier to meet new people and socialize without ever leaving home, people do not have to go to gay establishments or events to find people like themselves. 

I never imagined going to any rodeo, let alone a gay one. Rodeo has since become my greatest passion and I would not trade my rodeo family for anything. If you have never been to a gay rodeo, your chance to see one of the best is less than six months away. 
SNAPI and IGRA have an exciting week planned and we hope to see all of you at the Las Vegas PRIDE Parade in Downtown Las Vegas, the PRIDE Festival at Sunset Park, and the World Gay Rodeo Finals® at South Point Hotel & Casino. The festival and rodeo will both be held on Saturday and Sunday so everybody will have an opportunity to see a little of everything. For more information, cowboy up and visit us online at www.igra-wgrf.com and www.lasvegaspride.org! 

This article was never made available to be considered for print in Gay Vegas Magazine. This article was sent by a third party after the magazine had already gone to print. LGBT non-profits that are interested in engaging the entire LGBT community should send equal information and resources to all of our local LGBT publications for the widest reach possible, to promote inclusiveness, create community and to avoid creating competitive differences between publications.

Human Rights Campaign — Las Vegas is excited to announce our 11th annual Gala, held for the first time at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Dinner Committee Co-Chairs Kelly Smith, Matthew Howard, and Wendell Blaylock invite you to celebrate with us on Saturday, May 14th. 
Central to this year's celebration is the City of Las Vegas achieving a perfect score of 100 in the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index (MEI) for the first time since the MEI's creation!

The MEI examines the laws, policies, and services of municipalities and rates them on the basis of their inclusivity of LGBTQ people who live and work there. 

As you've no doubt seen in the headlines recently, tremendous pushback is being experienced in states across our nation to recent gains we've made including last year's historical marriage victory. Never has it been more important to get out and vote to elect fair-minded officials. 
HRC's recent work has also focused on passage of the Equality Act. The Equality Act would provide consistent and explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people across key 
areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service. While our protections are strong in Nevada, in 31 other states an LGBTQ couple can be married at 10 am but then fired from their jobs at noon and evicted from their home at 2 pm simply because they posted their wedding photos on Facebook. 

Our honorees this year are two outstanding local leaders. Betsy Fretwell, Las Vegas City Manager, will receive the HRC Leadership Award, and John Nelson, Senior Vice President, AEG, will receive the HRC Equality Award. Both recipients are incredibly deserving of their award. 
HRC looks forward to celebrating both our community's as well as our country's many equality achievements, as we look ahead to ensuring we are prepared and ready for our next challenges. 
To become a sponsor, purchase a program book ad, buy a table, or donate an item to the auction, please email Gala@HRCLV.org. Individual tickets are available at hrc.org/lasvegasdinner. 

This article was never made available to be considered for print in Gay Vegas Magazine. This article was sent by a third party after the magazine had already gone to print. LGBT non-profits that are interested in engaging the entire LGBT community should send equal information and resources to all of our local LGBT publications for the widest reach possible, to promote inclusiveness, create community and to avoid creating competitive differences between publications.

You better believe Jane Lynch can sing, and even if you don’t, “I think by the time you buy the ticket and come to the show, you hope I can sing! You’ve got your fingers crossed!” the Glee alum says of her touring act See Jane Sing, cracking her signature booming laugh.

Lynch is best known as iconic cheer coach Sue Sylvester, who tormented McKinley High for six seasons of Fox’s musical-dramedy behemoth Glee, which brimmed with all sorts of songs – just not many sung by Lynch herself. There was, of course, the playful homage to Madonna, when Lynch donned black lace for a frame-by-frame remake of the Queen’s video “Vogue.” But on Glee, the 55-year-old Emmy winner was better known for her tyrannical outbursts and hair taunts (poor Mr. Schuester) than she was for breaking into song. 

Now, Lynch is making up for lost time as she headlines See Jane Sing, the entertainer’s touring cabaret that merges comedy with music and also features Kate Flannery of The Office and Tim Davis, the music director of Glee. After resolving a shoddy phone connection (“Where are you? Iraq covering the war?”), Lynch spoke at length about how her cabaret is not a “live sex show” like Liza’s, the one man she’d go straight for (and the one woman she’d stay gay for), and what’s so funny about three white people performing Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” 

Do you read reviews?
Ummm, good question! I have for this show, yes. The reason being is because I’m confident (laughs). I don’t think anybody could say anything about it, me or anybody in it that would actually stick. I don’t think they could say anything bad because I’m very confident in it; it’s such a blast that it stands alone as an experience for me without having anybody telling me it’s good or bad. 

The reason I ask is because I read a New York Times review from 2014. 
It was awesome, wasn’t it? 

It was! They noted the show’s “sexual subtext.” I haven’t seen the show yet, but I’m curious about this “sexual subtext.” 
Yeah, I am too! I’m curious about it too! (Laughs) I think what they might have been talking about is: Cheyenne Jackson, a wonderfully talented man who also happens to be gay, did “Something Stupid” that night with me. It was a special thing and he came up and we sang the song “Something Stupid,” and he talked about this weird kind of sexual tension between the two of us, because I think he’s so attractive and so handsome and I get very confused about my sexuality when I’m in the presence of Cheyenne Jackson. 

When I’m watching Cheyenne Jackson I know that I am 100 percent homosexual, no question about it. 
Isn’t that wonderful? I feel that way about Susan Sarandon, though she probably wouldn’t, you know, receive my affection… well, she’d receive it, but she might not return it. 

What was your introduction to cabaret?
Well, let’s see, I’ve been in theater for a long time. I go see people perform, whether it’s at a hole in the wall or it’s a chick with a guitar. I usually don’t like big rock concerts – I don’t seek those out – so the combination of doing a comedy show with music has always been something I loved. I used to do sketch comedy a lot before I started doing television and film, and we always found a way to put a song in there. I did a “one person” show and I put the quotes there because there were three other people in there; it was all my material, but I had other people in it and we had six or seven songs in it and I love that. I don’t play a character so much, but Kate is my inappropriate drunken sidekick and we have a particular thing that I think is very entertaining and a lot of fun. She’s the glue of the evening for me and I’m so lucky to have her. 

So your introduction to cabaret was not Liza’s Cabaret? 
Oh, that – well, that’s a whole different thing. That was almost like a live sex show in Nazi Germany! It’s funny, I think we call (this show) a cabaret and it’s kind of stuck with the show because we did it at 54 Below (in New York). It’s where one person stands there with their band and people come to eat and listen, so when I say cabaret, it’s a live performance comedy concert. (Laughs)

Were you a funny kid? 
Yeah, I was a funny kid and that was one thing I always knew I had. You know how you’re insecure as a kid? I was like, “Well, I know I’m funny.” 

So you used that to your advantage?
Yeah, I guess so. You know, sometimes I felt like I was just trying to survive, as I think a lot of kids feel, having the big gay secret and all that stuff. I feel like when you’re a kid – for a lot of kids anyway – it’s about trying to survive and stay under the radar of humiliation so people don’t sniff you out.

Did humor help you survive, then, as a kid?
Oh yeah, absolutely. 

How did you know you were funny and when did you realize you could make a living being funny?I never set out to do that. I love mining things for the comedy and, of course, that attracts people who love doing that as well. I had this one hilarious friend in high school, Christopher, who’s still a friend, and we did nothing but laugh together. The silliness of the social hierarchies – we would watch those and we laughed about those. We laughed about everything; nothing was too sacred. And we were Catholic kids too! We laughed about the priests and the congregation. So, if you’re allowing your passion to lead you, you end up making money at it, which is a great thing! (Laughs) But I didn’t set out to do it. I really just set out to laugh. 

For a while there, you were performing in church basements.
Yeah – a lot of them! The churches would rent out their basement just to make some money and they didn’t care what kind of show you were doing. They didn’t show up; you just paid the 50 bucks and you set up the lights and that’s what ya did. 

Is it true that, when you ended up at Second City, you were one of only two women picked to join the troupe?
Well, that wasn’t unique. There were only two women in every company. Now, it’s three. So it wasn’t a unique thing. Every company had two women and four guys and now it’s three and three. It wasn’t like I was only one of two women in the entire history of Second City. I know in some press release it says that, or something online says “she was chosen,” but no, it’s not a big deal. All the girls were one of two women. Now they’re one of three women. 

Did it feel unfair to you that the men and women weren’t equal in number?
Nah, I didn’t have eyes for that stuff. I really didn’t. I didn’t see that stuff. I wasn’t available to feeling less than in that way. It just didn’t happen for me. 

Assuming you’re taking a bus on tour, what kind of music do you listen to on the road? 
Oh no, we’re not on a bus, man. Dude, we are flying. We do this first class – that’s why I’m not making any money on this tour! We fly. I said, “I’m not gonna do it if I have to sit in a bus,” so we fly and we all fly together, although Kate and I do fly first class and I make a joke about it in the show – another reason why I’m not making any money on this tour. But we all fly together and we hang out. We all eat together, laugh together, so I’m not listening to music or anything. I’m not a listener to music – I don’t listen to it very much. But Kate does, and Kate and I have very much the same taste. So, when we’re getting ready – we have a dressing room together – she plays Burt Bacharach songs. She has a terrific library of Burt Bacharach songs, not just by Burt Bacharach, but by all sorts of groups like The Carpenters and we sing at the top of our lungs and that’s our little pre-show warmup.

How did Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” end up on the setlist?
I had a burst of inspiration! I thought, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we did this?” First of all, I think it’s one of the most amazing, hilarious and artful videos I have ever seen. It is so funny. She is sooo self-deprecating, and she’s so kind of pinned this character – this rich girl who’s from the hood who has no class who all of a sudden is hanging out with drug dealers and having access to Balmain and nice clothes and a nice car. She just nails it. So, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fucking hilarious if me, Kate and Tim” – I mean we look like the Heritage Singers out there! We’re so white, so immaculately white, and all three of us cannot dance at all but have all the confidence in the world in our moves.

Looking back on Glee: The show changed a lot of queer kids’ lives, and if I had been younger, it really would’ve influenced me in a major way.  
Right; me too! 

If a show like Glee had been on when you were a young gay person, how might your life have been different? 
Ahh, it would’ve showed me that I wasn’t alone, and oh, just to know that you’re not alone. I really thought I had a mental disease that I was never gonna be able to get over, that I was cursed with it, that it was my fault.

Catholic guilt? 
Yes, yeah! And I don’t know where I got this, because my parents weren’t Catholic in that way. We went to church but they weren’t like, “This is bad; this is good.” They just weren’t that way. They were very relaxed, not very good Catholics except that they went to church every Sunday. In saying that they weren’t very good Catholics – they were really good people! (Laughs) 

I get it. They weren’t devout. 
Exactly. So, I don’t know where I got that it was so horrible, maybe just by the fact that it was whispered about, if it was spoken about at all. And I didn’t see one person in my trajectory of life that had it! (Laughs) I was completely alone in it, so for me to have a Glee, and I’m sure I speak perhaps for you and a lot of other gay people growing up in the ’70s and the ’80s, a Glee would’ve been so wonderful – oh, how great that would’ve been.

Did you feel that, when Glee ended in 2015, it was time?
Yeah, sure. Absolutely. You know, these things can’t go on forever. We have this thing in American television that you have to be on for 10 years or something, and I think the British have it right. The British do 13 episodes and then take a holiday. 

Does the cast keep in touch? Are you and Matthew Morrison still close? 
I do talk to Matthew, yeah. And my niece was assistant to one of our executive producers and she’s friends with all those folks, so I see them and they come over to my house and we make dinner and sit out on the porch.  

I was gonna say, “What’s a post-Glee party at Jane’s house like?” 
(Laughs) Well, they don’t talk about Glee, that’s for sure! They’ve all kind of moved on, but they’re very good friends. It was a bonding experience for them – for all of them.

You have Mascots coming up for Netflix, and it’s directed by Christopher Guest, who also did Best in Show with you. What was it like teaming with Jennifer Coolidge again after playing her butch lesbian personal dog handler in Best in Show? 
Well, I didn’t work with her; I haven’t even seen her. I worked with Ed Begley Jr., Mike Hitchcock and Parker Posey, so I didn’t even get to see her. I can’t wait to see her at the premiere. 

What do you remember from working with Jennifer on Best in Show? 
It was a first-time experience for both of us, and we were both very nervous. We were shooting it in Vancouver and we got very close. The days we weren’t working we would take walks through Stanley Park, and she is one of those people who can make me laugh so hard that I can’t catch my breath. She renders my mind inert. I can’t do anything but hold whatever spot I’m at and just double over and try to catch my breath. 

Has there ever been a role you regretted not taking? 
I can’t even think of one. I’m so in the moment, man. I don’t think about that stuff. I can’t even remember turning something down and I can’t even remember – I don’t remember most things. (Laughs)
 

The Internet loves a good penis pun. 

One of 2015’s biggest breakout stars, Tituss Burgess, discovered this fact last year, when the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt actor’s already-escalating showbiz profile reached new heights thanks to a song he sang called “Peeno Noir: An Ode to Black Penis.” 

So Burgess can retire now, right?

“Oh no, I’m just getting started,” says Burgess, who originated “Sebastian the Crab” in the musical version of The Little Mermaid. “There are so many races to love on!”

Not to mention, there’s also the second – and hopefully third, fourth and eighth – season of Netflix’s Unbreakable. The 37-year-old plays Titus (a variation on his real name, with just one “s”), an aspiring and very gay Broadway performer who lives with an unworldly doomsday-cult survivor named Kimmy (Ellie Kemper). 

But back to that penis song… 

What was it like seeing “Peeno Noir” take off the way it did? I don’t know that I gave it as much thought or attention as attention was paid to it, and that’d be the honest truth. I mean, obviously I paid attention because I launched my own line of Pinot Noir (called “Pinot by Tituss”), but it was lovely to know that people thought it was funny and had taken ownership of it, but it’s become something other than what it initially was. People recite those words and tell me that their office breaks out into it just as release – no one’s thinking about what it actually meant – so it’s taken on a life of its own separate from the show. But it’s awesome and I love it, and I hope they find something as equally exciting and satisfying about this season as they did last season. 

We get to learn more about Titus’s “straight life” this season. Who were you during your straight life? Gay! (Laughs) Honestly, I had a formal conversation with my mom when I was 19, but I don’t know that I was ever in the closet, if I’m being perfectly honest. I never had the “I have to tell the world” mindset. 

How much of the character is you? I’m gonna be honest with you: very little. We share a similar wicked sense of humor and we both, of course, love musical theater and Diana Ross, but my energy lives a lot lower to the ground than his does and I don’t yearn for the spotlight the way he does. The fact is, I really, really enjoy my alone time, so I don’t crave that the way my character does. In fact, by the time we’re done filming the season, I’m quite exhausted. He requires such a high level of vibration, and so by the time it’s done, I’m happy to hang him up for a few months.

Titus’s breakthrough moment this season involves him in geisha garb. I’m just waiting to hear what the critics have to say about that. Oooh lord. When I read that script I thought, “Jesus. Last year it was the wolf (Jacqueline, who is “American Indian,” unleashed a primal howl during the finale); this year it’s gonna be the geisha.” 

How prepared are you for any backlash? Oh, I’m prepared. I’ve had six months to prep for the harsh criticism. The thing about (creators) Tina (Fey) and Robert (Carlock) is, they don’t shy away from the current climate of the country, and while on a surface level it might seem like they’re giving these silly stereotypes a platform, I think it’s just sort of exacerbating what we have become so sensitive to. But if it’s a headline, my friend, it is fair game. 

Tina and Robert are two of the most informed people I’ve ever met, and sometimes we get scripts and I think, “Surely this has not happened somewhere,” or, “Surely this is something that they’ve made up.” So I’ll get on the Internet and there it is. The transracial storyline – people feeling as though as they remember past lives – when I read these headlines, it’s funny because it’s so unbelievable. So yeah, it’s a fine line, but they treat it with great sensitivity and great class – and it is, after all, a comedy. 

Are there ever times where you’re like, “Tina, no, no – too far.” Yeah – the geisha episode! I didn’t wanna do it. 

What were you hesitant about? I’m in white face, man! I didn’t want anyone to think I was disrespecting a culture. But what we did was make certain that, while it’s funny, he’s extremely sincere about what has happened to him. He’s for real, and as long as he’s for real in his interpretation and his acknowledgement of his past lives then it’s not offensive. There’s something oddly touching about the end of that episode, and I think it also serves a greater storyline, which is, Titus has finally taken the initiative to take control of his career. No one else is giving him a job, so he wrote one for himself, so that is what’s smart about it.

What do you think when people call Titus a stereotype? I think they didn’t see the same show that I filmed. Titus is more everyman than Jacqueline, Kimmy or Lillian. He’s broke, he can’t afford to pay his rent, he’s chasing this career that has not materialized, he has trouble in relationships, at least last season, and he is not a size 32 in the waist. He gets rejected when he attempts to do something good with his life, even if it’s one of his bizarre “this is gonna make me famous” excursions. Most Americans are living lives unfulfilled. Most Americans don’t have the money that Jacqueline has. Most Americans, especially black people, don’t get away with committing murder like Lillian did. So they’re not paying attention, that’s what I think. 

Your performance of Diana Ross’s “Believe in Yourself” while accepting the Human Rights Campaign’s Visibility Award late last year was so moving. Why is being out and visible important to you? Honey, how much time do you have? (Laughs) I know what dark places feel like and I know what the absence of love and community feels like, and if I had a me when I was growing up to see, I would have perhaps been familiar to you guys a lot sooner than two years ago. For that reason, I don’t want any young person or any old person to not acknowledge who they came into the world being through all of their past lives. This current one that you’re experiencing is one that should be fully realized – otherwise, you are the walking dead and what is the point?

The second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was released April 15th on Netflix).