Catch the Philly Express to Fire Island Black Out!FIBO and ADODI-Philadelphia have teamed up to charter a motor coach
from Philadelphia to Fire Island Black Out on Saturday, August 9, 2008.  Seats are just $69 per person.  Seats are limited.  Reserve your seat now by mailing your payment to
FIBO.  No payments will be accepted after Friday, July 18, 2008. Checks
should be made payable to Fire Island Black Out, LLC and mailed to:Fire Island Black Out, LLC
475 Washington Ave. Ste. 1E
Brooklyn, NY 11238-2345Your canceled check will serve as your receipt. For $69, you get:
(1)        Roundtrip transport on an air-conditioned, fully equipped
           motor coach
(2)        Continental breakfast
(3)        One roundtrip ferry ticket.  The schedule is as follows:Saturday, August 9, 20087:45 a.m.        Motor coach pickup at 30th Street Amtrak Station.  
                      (Motor coach will be parked on 29th Street Side of Station)
8:00 a.m.        Motor coach departs 30th Street
11:30 a.m.      Arrive at Sayville Ferry docks
12:25 p.m.      Ferry departs to Cherry Grove
12:45 p.m.      Ferry arrives at Cherry Grove1:05 p.m. – 8:40 p.m.
On your own for FIBO Day at the Beach Activities8:50 p.m.         Ferry departs Cherry Grove for Sayville Ferry dock.
You MUST be on the 8:50 p.m. Ferry (or an earlier ferry) to get back
to motor coach on-time.  If you miss the 8:50 p.m. ferry, you will have
to make alternative arrangements to get home.9:10 p.m.        Ferry arrives Sayville Ferry dock
9:30 p.m.        Motor coach departs Sayville Ferry dock
12:30 a.m.      Motor coach arrives at 30th Street Amtrak Station

For housing information, click here

On Monday April 28, 2008, Honorable Mayor Nutter held a press conference to announce the person he has appointed to be the new Liaison to LGBT communities: Gloria Casarez. Gloria is only the 2nd LGBT Liaison in a Philadelphia Mayoral administration; she is the first Latina to hold this position; and she is the first liaison to work directly inside the Mayor’s Office. For the past 10 1/2 years, Gloria has served as the Executive Director for the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI). She has also served on various boards such as Bread & Roses Community Fund and participated in many grass roots community organizing initiatives over the 13 years she has been out as Lesbian. While she will be doing some work in the Nutter administration immediately, she will not start full time as the liaison until July 1, 2008.

Here is the speech Gloria gave during the press conference on Monday:

This is a meaningful moment. For me personally, and for Philadelphia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.

In this building.

In this city.

At this time.

It is a meaningful moment.

I was hoping we’d pack the room, and we have! I wanted the Mayor to see everyone he knows, and everyone he doesn’t know yet today. Thank you for coming over to City Hall, today.

I’m warmed to see so many of my friends and colleagues in HIV and AIDS and in LGBT health, and to have family members here, close friends, as well as my partner Tricia Dressel. And, to see people who provide leadership across other areas of our community, who will take on the role as my new colleagues and friends from this point forward.

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Laughin’, Lovin’, and Livin’ in 2008: A conversation with Chris Alston

Interview By: MooDylan

INTRODUCTION

When you think of movers and shakers at the cross-section of communities that include gay men, women and Black folks in Philadelphia, probably few organizations better typify that complicated soup of racial and sexual realities than Philadelphia Black Gay Pride. And the mover/shaker behind that organization, fittingly, hails from West Oak Lane - one of the City’s solidly black, solidly middle class enclaves. With such an obvious historical investment, Chris Alston stands confidently at the helm of a large and growing organization. Not only doing good in the hood, PBGP broadens its influence through “promot[ing] and advocat[ing] for the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual health and well being of all related communities” This interviewer had a chance to play twenty questions with our hometown hero and the answers he gave about his childhood, milestones along the way, his professional life, and even a peek at his personal life will surprise, in some cases shock, and overall inspire you.

CHILDHOOD

Nurtured by both his parents, Chris describes his childhood in one word as “Great! . . . Both of them were a very intricate part of my life and for that, I am grateful.” Indeed the very structured upbringing he had may have contributed to his childhood dream of becoming an accountant. That, along with his attraction to numbers, explains why he now manages over 30 planning committee members…the largest yet! In addition to such invested parents, Alston also credits as early influences his “biggest cheerleader . . . my sister . . . and my pastor [who] taught me about the love of God.”

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