@RyanNewYork
He sits on the Broad of Directors of The Ali Forney Center, where he is the founding producer of their annual Broadway Beauty Pageant fundraiser. He's also on the Board of Directors of The Deconstructive Theatre Project and the Board of Advisers of the startup TV Dinner.
He's also a director/producer, who lives in Brooklyn, NY and created the musical White Noise. Ryan writes about politics for The Huffington Post & The Hill. He has been a guest editor for Queerty and is the host of the podcast Gay History: Uncut.
Here Ryan blogs about politics, film, TV, history, religion, science, books, theater, digital media, LGBT issues, Bushwick & Williamsburg, New York City, and anything else he's interested in at the moment. Oh, and he'll probably talk a lot about himself.
This is a personal blog. Any opinions expressed here and on my Twitter represent my own and not those of my employer or clients.
Some great new pictures of the contestants in this year’s Broadway Beauty Pageant. It’s on MONDAY in New York City - tickets available here.
Hey! Come out and meet Cory Booker at his NYC LGBT fundraiser on Tuesday, May 21st. Tickets here.
Contestants are out for this year’s The Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant!
Get your tickets at: http://bit.ly/BBP2013Tixs
It’s a fantastic group. “This year’s competitors will include Callan Bergmann (Silence! The Musical), Julius C. Carter (Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark), Yurel Echezarreta (Matilda), Matthew Goodrich (The Nance), Orion Griffiths (Pippin) and Paul HeeSang Miller (Mamma Mia!).”
(Photo from previous pageant)
As you may know, I’ve been producing The Broadway Beauty Pageant for seven years! Our 2013 competition is coming up on Monday, May 20th and we’ve just announced a trio of fantastic judges; Billy Porter, Andrea Martin and Michael Urie. The always fabulous Tovah Feldshuh is returning to host for a 6th time.
If you’ve never been before, this video is a great introduction to the fun.
Hope you can come out and support The Ali Forney Center, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive organization addressing the very-real issue of homeless LGBT Youth.
Tickets for The Broadway Beauty Pageant are available at www.nyuskirball.org/calendar/broadwaybeautypageant, and range in price from $25 –$150. All VIP tickets include a pre and post-show VIP cocktail reception, gift bag, and premier seating.
I’ll see you there!
The Four 2012 won! We took home a 2013 Silver Pollie Award for Best Use of Social Media.
Congrats to our amazing team: Brian Ellner, Richard Socarides, Andre Banks, Jeremy Heimans, Jett House, Hayley Comet, Evan Moody, Hannah Volfson, Judah Ferst, & more!
The Ali Forney Center is the largest nationwide organization dedicated to LGBTQ homeless youth.
There are currently 39 items on their Amazon wish list, most being undergarments like tank tops, plain tees, undies and chest binders for the youth they shelter. A majority of the items are less than $20 and the most expensive item is only $35.
Let’s try to help them by Tumblr bombing the shit out the Ali Forney Center with direct donations and purchasing everything on their wish list!
40% of homeless youth in America are LGBTQ, so if you support the queer struggle, reblog this, purchase something from their wish list and get involved!
Thanks for your support Tumblr!
Support The Ali Forney Center!
From Ali Forney Center’s Carl Siciliano: ” As millions celebrate Easter, I need to ask my fellow Christians to wake up to the terrible fact that far too many LGBT youth are being abused and rejected in Christian homes.
Many conservative Christians are increasingly preoccupied with fighting against the equal treatment of LGBT people in our society. And no one suffers more harm from this fight and the intolerant climate it creates than the LGBT children of too many of these Christians. As the director of the Ali Forney Center, the nation’s largest organization providing housing and support to homeless LGBT youths, I see the reality of this harm in the faces of the thousands of desperate and frightened teens who turn to us for help after being driven from their homes and reduced to homelessness.
The stories these youth tell us about the religion-based abuse they endure from their parents are heartbreaking and deeply disturbing.”
http://www.aliforneycenter.org/stopreligiousrejection
Always appreciate Ngoc’s thoughts.
ryanjdavis replied to your post: on today’s marriage equality and how there are…
How can a white gay man, who supports marriage equality, support qtpoc too?good question!
a few key things and maybe i’ll write about it more later, this marriage equality thing today is draining…
- get your education on! do some reading on what has been the historical needs of qtpoc and then compare those readings to what is still needed today (and recognize that they still remain much the same)
- examine what marriage as an institution has historically looked like. marriage isn’t even good for most white folks if they don’t fit into a heteronormative, able-bodied supremacist, upper-ruling-class, nuclear family frame
- own that marriage equality isn’t the the magic tool bringing queerphobia and transphobia to the end all
- push your white gay men peers to think about what it means for them to be white gay men and what exactly y’all’s demand for ‘equality’ is
- listen and show up when you’re asked to
- and always ask yourself what you are missing as a white gay man, what you aren’t experiencing or recognizing and what that means your capacity is to contribute
- when sharing space focused on ‘lgbt activism’ ask yourself what the representation is looking like and is there enough effort (meaning intentional, authentic, and genuine engagement/outreach not for the sake of tokenization) to ensure that it isn’t a white gay man space. ask yourself who is calling the shots? who’s framing the message? who is defining the movement?
- offer compassion to yourself and to others in the learning process, be real about what you know and what you don’t, and be accountable for when you fuck up
we are in this together for as long as we are able to knowing that there are ideological differences in our communities when it comes to marriage equality.
Equality.
Will Portman seems like a great guy, but there are many kids across the globe who come out under far harsher scenarios with higher stakes.
Many aren’t nearly as lucky as Will. In America, 40% of homeless youth are LGBT - largely because of parental rejection.
Just some perspective here.
Moderating a great panel at GMHC in New York City on April 2nd on social media and HIV prevention. It’s free. RSVP.
I was asked to record a short address on digital and marriage equality in Italy for The Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti Conference in Naples in April.
Excited that Italian activist are embracing marriage equality as a goal and expect to see big things in the next few years.
