Gayborhood: Bearlesque Performance Group Promotes Body Positivity
Bearlesque is a body-positive, gender-inclusive burlesque performance group featuring people of all sexualities. The organization was created in 2014 by Josh Schonewolf and Connor Michalchuk as a one-off show for ‘bears,’ a slang term in the LGBTQ community for larger, hairier, more masculine gay men. The more Michalchuk and Schonewolf discussed their ideas, the more […]
LGBTQ: Toasted Walnut Brings the ‘L’ Back to LGBTQ
When Sisters Nightclub closed in 2013 after serving the lesbian community for 17 years, Philadelphia lacked a gathering space catered to LGBT women. However, with the opening of Toasted Walnut Bar & Kitchen, that need has been filled. Denise Cohen, who was a general manager at Sisters for its entire run, opened Toasted Walnut right before […]
LGBTQ: Drew By Day, Drag By Night
When the sun goes down, the transformation of Drew Gaver begins. “I started drag, in earnest, about three years ago,” said Gaver, who performs as BEV. “I dabbled around with just kind of goofing off with friends for about a year or two before that, but in terms of actually performing and being here in […]
Newbold: The Dolphin Tavern Spurs Change on South Broad Street
Pictured above: A female go-go dancer atop a dance-floor platform at The Dolphin Tavern. One afternoon more than a decade ago, Melissa Blimline (as she was then known) wandered to The Dolphin Tavern for a beer while waiting for her bus home to arrive. When she approached the door, however, she found it locked — […]
Newbold: Five Gay Men Keeping Residence in the Neighborhood
Philadelphia at large is hardly a closeted town. Rainbows mark the city’s Gayborhood street signs as symbols for LGBT-friendly businesses, and it has earned an overall progressive reputation on the national level. Last fall, it nabbed a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2013 Municipal Equality Index Scorecard and just last month, Comcast received […]