By Chris Brown
Photo Gallery- An Evening with Hurricane Summers
Photos by Terra Simms | Louisville Cardinal
Photo Gallery- Take Back the Night
Photos by Terra Simms | Louisville Cardinal
The University of Louisville’s annual Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Pride Week wrapped up – wrapped up in sequins, boas and ball gowns – Friday evening in the Red Barn.
“An Evening with Hurricane Summers and Friends” featured professional drag queens from local theaters for a showcase of song and dance to raise money for House of Ruth, a local HIV/AIDS education and prevention center.
Performances included “Lady Marmalade” by the cast of the Grotesque Burlesque Show and parodies of well-known children’s songs by Mistress of Mayhem Hurricane Summers, though not so childishly reworded. About 175 students, university staff and community members crowded into the Red Barn, cheering and waving dollar bills for the performers. “It was great,” said Amy Waltz, fourth-time drag show attendee and enthusiast.
“I’m here for Crystal [Decanteur],” Waltz said, referring to one of the performers from several of the show’s numbers.
As the evening drew on, fans were treated not just to lip-syncing and dance routines but also to the live singing of “Voice of Angels” Toni. She performed two numbers, including a rendition of “The Wind Beneath My Wings,” which prompted a standing ovation.
Near the end of the show, the crowd was treated to a different kind of number as Jeff Howard, president of LGBT group commonGround, and Michael Heil, the evening’s emcee and a commonGround member, announced the quantitative successes of Pride Week, which is largely organized and put on by the group.
“We raised over $800 for House of Ruth,” Heil told fans during a break in the show.
Howard said commonGround has raised more than $1,000 in the fall 2005 semester alone for community programs and organizations.
“House of Ruth is an organization that doesn’t have much funding, and their funding is constantly being cut,” Howard said. “They needed [the money] more than anybody.”
In addition to the evening’s success, Howard was also pleased with this year’s Pride Week. He said that commonGround gave away about 1,050 free “that’s so gay!” t-shirts on Monday in honor of “that’s so gay!” day, which also featured U of L Communications Professor Dr. Cate Fosl’s LGBT history lecture.
Tuesday’s “National Coming Out Day” featured “Coming Out: Two Sides of the Story,” a forum for stories of coming out of the closet, and stories from those affected by coming out.â?
