This year’s OutFest, Philly Pride Presents’ annual Coming Out Day celebration, takes over the Gayborhood Oct. 10 on 12th and 13th streets and Locust and Spruce.
Attractions and performances this year include Brittany Lynn’s Drag Mafia, Cher impersonator Steve Andrade, Miss Philly Gay Pride 2010 Alexis Cartier, Chad D, Juan Lord, Skyanna Blue, Finesse Ross, Mrs. Pinklewinkle, The Anti-Grag, Ariel Aparico and Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars. The event also features perennial favorites like the high-heel race, a mechanical bull and the penis-shaped bagel-eating contest. New this year will be an outdoor women’s party in front of Sisters on Chancellor Street.
Youth at the event will be invited on stage at 4 p.m. Sunday as the crowd pays tribute by applauding — a unique response to the recent LGBT youth suicides. “There have been and are going to be a lot of vigils and memorials, but OutFest is a celebration, and it’s important that the youth know that we support them,” said Philly Pride Presents executive director Franny Price.
OutProud Awards
But beyond the celebrations, fanfare and entertainment, some OutFest attendees plan to use the occasion to raise awareness on the issue of antigay bullying in the wake of the recent teen suicides it has spurred.
One of the recipients of OutFest’s OutProud awards will be Joey Kemmerling, who will receive the Gilbert Baker National OutProud Award. The 16-year-old Philadelphia-area high-school student launched the Equality Project, a Facebook group advocating education to counter antigay bullying after he endured taunts and threats from his classmates at Council Rock High School South when he came out. The group also advocates for equality in schools for all people.
“He started this blog about being bullied in school and he had hundreds of hits his first week,” said Price. “We were overwhelmed reading some of the blogs from kids all over the country.”
Kemmerling said he is honored to receive the award.
“I feel so strongly about the work I’ve been dong in the LGBT community and, for me, just to be a part of OutFest at all is extremely humbling,” he said. “I’ve gone there in the past just observing and it’s just great for me to be receiving an award.”
Kemmerling’s struggles with bullying and his work with the Equality Project has put him in the national spotlight, including a recent interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN.com. He said the increased exposure has had advantages and drawbacks.
“It has [made things better] in the idea that I don’t feel so alone, but in the idea of my actual school district, nothing has changed,” he said. “In fact, I had to transfer schools this year. I was unable to resolve much with my school.”
Kemmerling added that transferring to a new school hasn’t done away with the discrimination.
“I actually just had to come out all over again,” he said. “I’m still in the same school district, so the idea of actual change hasn’t really occurred that much because I’m working with the same superintendent and the same higher-up administration. But I’ve only been there for three or four weeks. I’ve come out, but kids haven’t had the chance to bully me. But I’ve seen it. Like today, I was sitting at lunch and 10 kids all got up and left and I sat at lunch alone. But it’s nothing extremely severe compared to what I was expecting. It’s not as bad as my old school was.”
“It Gets Better”
The issue of antigay bullying inspired Brian Wiginton, a writer and marketing director for Philebrity.com, to coordinate the filming of a submission to Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” Project, a YouTube outreach campaign for LGBT youth who may be the victims of bullying.
Wiginton will host a video shoot from noon-3 p.m. at 12th and Walnut streets, where individuals can share their stories and support.
Wiginton, now 35, said he can relate to the need for such a project.
“I’ve lived in Philly for 11 years but I grew up in a small town in the South and went to a really small school,” he said. “That’s what really touched me about this. I’ve never been a super-activist before but that’s sort of why it hit home for me. I absolutely could have been one of those kids, save for a couple of random circumstances. I certainly didn’t have any gay role models as a kid and, like a lot of these kids, I didn’t know it was even possible to be a well-adjusted, successful and happy adult leading a normal life as a grown gay man.”
Other OutProud awards recipients this year include Steve McCann, founder of Philly Gay Calendar, and Kristen Thomas, who is receiving the OutStanding Youth Award.
Price said that OutFest tries to keep the award recipients relevant to the community.
“We go out into the community to search for leaders who have been out and proud beyond their jobs; people who have been used to being out and proud to help make our community visible,” she said.
OutFest starts at noon and ends at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Gayborhood. For more information, visit www.phillypride.org. For more information on the Equality Project, visit www.theequalityproject.net. For more information on the “It Gets Better” Project, visit www.philebrity.com/2010/10/01/you-gotta-give-em-hope.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].