Florida Agenda

BY ROBERT ELIAS DEATON

Photo Right: A busy and pleasant night at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace

There was a time when Boston was one of the friendliest gay towns in America. Politicians mixed with school teachers, librarians and flight attendants—each in his uniform of choice and each socializing and melding. If not exactly uninhibited—for Boston has always had its form of quiet reserve—at the very least, it was happy.

Now that the major citywide construction project known as the Big Dig has been completed, and traffic and noise is under control, Boston has taken on a new, quiet conceit which is refined, proper and sophisticated. While this may work in a fine restaurant, hotel or art museum, it’s not exactly what the hot vacationing gay guy wants to discover while looking for a weekend of fun.

Of course, Boston is an architectural treat, reeking in history and tradition, with an incredibly efficient underground transit system that makes traveling between neighborhoods incredibly simple and an economic joy. Must sees: Faneuil Hall Marketplace (incorporating Quincy Market) is a combo eatery, tourist trap, and historic landmark, located at 1 U.S. 1; the Museum of Fine Arts (465 Huntington Ave.) has major collections of French impressionists and post-impressionists, including Gauguin, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, and Cézanne; the State House (206 Washington St.), built in 1713, is the old surviving public building in Boston (Paul Revere’s house is the oldest standing building, constructed in 1680); and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (220 Morrissey Blvd.), designed by architect I. M. Pei, and the official repository of the Kennedy papers as well as unpublished manuscripts by Ernest Hemingway.

Boston is a network of neighborhoods that line the Charles River and Dorchester Bay. Each section has its own unique charm with great Italian restaurants in the North end, Fenway Park in Kenmore Square (Go Red Sox!), and Irish Pubs to the South. Like London, Boston is a fusion of old traditions and new arrivals that make it the cultural hub it is today.

When staying in Boston, your hotel options are nearly limitless. The time-honored choice is the Taj Boston (15 Arlington St.), which was originally built as the first U.S. branch of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain in 1927. Although it’s luxury at its finest, it is not nearly as much fun as staying at the Chandler Inn Hotel (26 Chandler St. at Berkeley St.) which is connected to the Fritz, South Boston’s gay sports bar. Expect to see lots of suits, ties and Ralph Lauren shirts in this crowd.

For the stand-and-pose junkies, try the nearby Club Café (209 Columbus Ave. at Clarendon St.). Go to the Club and get three bars in one— the Main Bar and Lounge out front, the Back Room, which is where the regulars congregate to dance, and the Napoleon Room Piano Bar— which is exactly what you’d expect but less. The Club has been around for 27 years, and while it may not be Cheers, it does have its loyal clientele.

The Eagle (520 Tremont St. at Dwight St.) is a one-room monument to its former self. No longer the denizen of leather and whips, this version of the Eagle chain is attempting to reinvent itself as something that’s not quite crystalized into earthenware. The bears in Boston hit the North End at The Alley (14 Pi Alley at Court Sq.). Here again, it’s a one-room windowless collection of smells and stains the less you know about the better.

In Boston, you’re safer sticking to cultural events, and saving playtime for a visit to Provincetown, Cape Cod’s gift to equality.

Robert Elias Deaton is a world-traveling epicure who enjoys the finer things in life.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) became the first sitting congressman to enter into a same-sex marriage, when he married his partner, James Ready, in a ceremony officiated by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

Courtesy: CNN - Barney Frank Wedding

Patrick joked that Frank and Ready vowed to love each other through both Democratic and Republican administrations, and even through appearances on Fox News Channel.

Frank, 72, was elected to the House in 1980, and was formerly chairman of the powerful Financial Services Committee. He came out in 1987, the first Member of Congress to voluntarily do so. He met Ready, 42, during a political fundraiser in the latter’s home state of Maine. The wedding took place on Saturday evening at the Boston Marriott Newton, in suburban Boston, and was attended by political heavyweights, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California).

Frank announced last year that he will retire at the end of his current term, in January 2013.

BOSTON, MA – Last week, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) told CNN’s Piers Morgan that the gay marriage debate has been “settled” in Massachusetts, and said that opponents of marriage equality should “move on” and focus on economic matters.

“It’s settled law in Massachusetts. Quite frankly, everybody’s moved on,” said Brown on the March 19 broadcast of “Piers Morgan Tonight.”

In the past, Brown has said that he opposes marriage equality, but he has never made it a campaign theme. The Republican split with his party in supporting President Obama’s repeal of the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy.

“We’ve moved on. I encourage everyone else to move on,” Brown told the CNN host. “It should be decided state by state basis. I’m focusing on those other things.”

Democrats say that Brown’s record on LGBT rights leaves much to be desired. They point to his opposition of non-discrimination legislation for LGBT persons, and his refusal to take part in an anti-bullying video.

“If Scott Brown thinks marriage equality is settled law in Massachusetts, he should talk to the thousands of gay couples whose marriages aren’t recognized by the federal government,” said Kevin Franck, spokesman for the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

Brown is in a re-election race for his U.S. Senate seat, the one formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy.

His presumed Democratic opponent, Harvard law professor and former U.S. Treasury Department official Elizabeth Warren, has been endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign.

BOSTON, MA – Three members of the Iowa Supreme Court who voted to legalize marriage equality have been selected to receive the 2012 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Former Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and former justices David Baker and Michael Streit joined a unanimous 2009 decision that struck down the Hawkeye State’s ban on gay marriage.

The ruling caused outrage among the state’s political and religious conservatives, and a campaign, supported by future Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, was initiated and succeeded in voting the judges out of office the following year.

Caroline Kennedy, the only surviving child of America’s 35th President and the CEO of the foundation named in his honor, applauded the fortitude and determination of the jurists.

“When Justices Baker, Streit, and Ternus joined a unanimous decision to overturn a law denying same-sex couples the privileges of marriage, they sacrificed their own futures on the court to honor Iowa’s Constitution and the rights of its citizens,” Kennedy said in a statement.

A committee consisting of 13 national, political, and community leaders selects the recipients of the annual awards, which are named for the late president’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage.” The awards will be presented on May 7 by Caroline Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

BOSTON, MA – According to GLAAD, a new study by Children’s Hospital Boston looks at the incidence of homelessness among high school youth in Massachusetts and finds a distinct disparity among youth who are homeless. The study, which finds that roughly 1 in 4 lesbian and gay teens and 15 percent of bisexual teens are homeless, compared to 3% of exclusively heterosexual teens, is the first of its kind to look at population based data.

Children’s Hospital Boston quotes Heather Corliss, the study’s author saying, “Prior studies in homeless street youth have found that sexual minorities occur in much higher numbers than we’d expect based on their numbers in the community in general. This study looked at the magnitude of the difference for the first time.”

Other research shows that higher rates of homelessness among LGBT youth can be attributed to family conflict over their sexual orientation, emotional and physical abuse, and higher rates of substance abuse. While we have known for a while that gay and lesbian youth make up a disproportionally high number of homeless youth, now we have data to show that gay and bisexual youth are much more likely than their straight peers to experience homelessness.

BOSTON, MA: Massachusetts State Senator Richard Tisei, the running mate for that state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Ch arlie B

aker, could become the first openly gay lieutenant governor. Charlie Baker is a fiscal conservative who supports marriage equality, and State Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei, an openly gay candidate for lieutenant governor make the GOP ticket in Massachusetts the most LGBT-friendly the Republican Party has ever fielded.