Philly Gay Calendar is one of my prime sources for ideas for this column. Mr. PGC himself, Steve McCann, has been featured here and over the years has been kind enough to respond to my call for contact names and numbers at all hours. So, ’natch, when it comes time for their annual event and fundraiser, The Boys of Summer, I called on Steve for a recommendation. B.o.S helps raise money for Philly Gay Calendar and allows them to be a go-to source, along with PGN of course, for information about what’s happening in our community free of charge. We spoke to one of the event organizers, the fabulous Matthew Rowe.
PGN: I understand you’re one of 15 kids. How did that happen?
MR: A lot of blending. My mother and father had me and my older biological brother before they split up. My father remarried and had two kids from that marriage. He’s now on his third marriage, and I love this stepmom. She had four kids from her previous marriage, and she’s absolutely amazing. My mother married a widower with seven kids. Birthdays and holidays entail a lot of traveling.
PGN: What’s the most difficult part of being in a large family?
MR: [Laughing] Trying to get a family picture. Especially when you start adding all the nieces and nephews, I think there are about 19 of them.
PGN: How old were you when the family started turning into The Brady Bunch?
MR: My parents split when I was 6, and my sister was born in ’97. Technically, she’s a half-sister, but we’re incredibly close and similar. I think she’s secretly a 31-year-old gay man at heart or maybe I’m a 21-year-old girl.
PGN: What were you like as a kid?
MR: The first few years of my life, I thought my name was “No Matt.” I used to get in trouble a lot. I was just a curious kid, the type to make the kitchen drawers into steps. Yes, that was me.
PGN: What was the worst trouble you got into?
MR: Probably something with school. I was diagnosed with ADHD and put on medication, but when I got to college, I took myself off it. I wasn’t myself on the drugs — quite frankly, it turned me into an asshole. I was focused and driven, very “don’t bother me.” I wasn’t happy on it. So I stopped taking it and forced myself to focus.
PGN: What extracurricular things were you involved with?
MR: Typical gay stuff! I was very involved in theater all the way from middle school through college. I was actually the founding president of the Alpha Psi Omega National Theatre Honor Society chapter at Cabrini University. In college, I also got introduced to chorus and music and got hooked. I joined the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus two years ago and I love it.
PGN: And what do you do now?
MR: I work as an administrative assistant for a medical-publishing company. I love it — my boss is a brilliant guy. He’s the senior VP of technology and a great person. Before that, I was a tier-three customer-service rep. I was the guy you got when someone screamed they wanted to talk to the CEO of the company — the last resort to try to calm them down. After four years of getting yelled at for a living, I was burned out.
PGN: What is your affiliation with Boys of Summer?
MR: Three years ago, Steve McCann asked me to participate as a lifeguard. I wasn’t satisfied to just run around in a Speedo and drink all weekend, so I said, “Only if I can help plan the event.” The next year, I took on a little more and Steve let me start making some new changes.
PGN: Such as?
MR: Trying to be more inclusive. Instead of the same body types for all the lifeguards, we are trying to be more body-positive and diverse this year. So people will see a bigger variety of body shapes and colors in 2018. I want everybody to be comfortable and feel represented. And one of the things I’m really proud of is that instead of solely being a fundraiser to help Philly Gay Calendar run for the year, now a portion of the proceeds will go towards an LGBT nonprofit. And though I love the big orgs like Mazzoni and DVLF, we’re focusing on donating to some of the smaller groups that don’t always get the bucks — organizations where $1,000 can make a big difference. This year we’re donating to Morris Home, which is a trans recovery center in West Philly. My favorite part is making that phone call saying, “We appreciate what you’re doing and here’s some money towards it.”
PGN: Tell me a fun moment with your siblings.
MR: My older brother’s 30th birthday. We went over to our dad and stepmom’s house and we just had dinner and cake, but it was the first time I ever really drank with my dad. He’s a retired police officer, and we haven’t always had the easiest time, but my current stepmom has done a lot to loosen him up and I was starting to see the fun side of my dad versus the very strict parental unit. My brother and father got drunk, and my dad was trying to give my brother a sobriety test, but he was so drunk I had to hold him up and we were all laughing. It was a fun moment.
PGN: Sounds like it.
MR: Yeah, we didn’t communicate for a while.
PGN: Was being gay a part of it?
MR: I was outed. My first boyfriend screamed it at my mother, a woman who is a very hardcore Republican Catholic conservative. Basically, I embody everything she is against. She told my stepdad and it quickly spread through the family to my dad, who sat me down, and in a moment that he would now not be proud of — he’s so far from it now — he told me, “Go ahead and be gay, just don’t be a faggot.” Flash-forward, and here I am at Pride this past June in 6-inch heels with a glitter beard and a fan. I’m pretty sure that’s what he was talking about not doing back then. But he’s come leaps and bounds since then — he’s come to as many of the PGMC concerts as he’s been able to and if he can’t make it, he and my stepmom watch it live online! They’re so supportive.
PGN: Which is funny because you do a lot of the concerts with a drag persona.
MR: Yes, we do a drag revue. A handful of us dress for it. There are about 120 in the choir, and they put out a call for folks to do drag at a show. I sent in a question about it, and got a confirmation back that I was in. It was a moment of, Oh God, oh God, now what do I do? Next thing you know, Ginny Tonic was born. She’s been fun. She was a 1920s flapper but she drank too much. Cirrhosis of the liver killed her off. I’m a little on the political side, so this year Stormy Manhole was born, complete with a Cheetos orange dress and Cheetos clutch. I did a song called “Touch Me.” It was so much fun. I love the organization; they do so much for the community. And for my dad to cheer us on is great.
PGN: How about your mom? Has she come around?
MR: [Long pause and sigh] That relationship struggles. After college, I moved to Rhode Island for work, and then suddenly got laid off and moved back home. I was there for 16 months and it was agonizing. After I moved out, we didn’t talk for about eight months — at all. But I ended up going to Royersford for work one day close to the holidays. There was an accident on 422 tying up traffic, so I pulled off to do some shopping and ran into my mother. We started talking and rebuilding the relationship and things were going OK until 2015, when Donald Trump decided to run for president. The part that kills me. They’re Republican, I get it, they hated Hillary, and they were all going to vote for him, but what I find hard to forgive is that she worked on his campaign. It killed me the night I had to drop her off at Trump headquarters to work her shift. Fast-forward to all that has happened since, and with each disaster, I’m like, “So how do we feel about this latest insanity? Oh, we’re still supporting him? OK, then, let me know when he’s done something so outrageous you can’t support him anymore.” I thought kids in cages would do it, but apparently not. It’s been hard. Before marriage equality, she looked me in the eye and said that if gay marriage were ever put on the ballot, she’d vote no.
PGN: If someone’s never been to Boys of Summer, give me the elevator pitch.
MR: We’re trying to bring back the circuit parties in a good way. Lots of music and dancing, lots of guys in Speedos and swim trunks, and lots of fun!
PGN: Are we going to see you in a Speedo?
MR: Well, I’ve done it the past two years so there’s a good chance it’ll happen again this year. With 6-inch heels.
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