2020 has been a roller coaster of a year and this past few weeks have been a dozen loop-de-loops in a row as we head into its final, holiday stretch.
Parliament House, the oldest and longest running LGBTQ club in Central Florida, succumbed to the pandemic. While rumors of shutting down seemed to circle the iconic resort a couple of times every year, they always seemed to come out on top and I think we all thought it would be the same this go around. My mom told me of stories back in the ’80s when my gay uncle would take her dancing at the world-famous Parliament House and how free and loving everyone was there.
Rumors that the Parliament House will re-open somewhere else in Orlando are flying around, and while it won’t be the same, I’m happy the hear that the name may still carry on and that the LGBTQ community will still have a safe space to go.
We also recently lost the legendary Alex Trebek, who hosted “Jeopardy!” for almost as long as the Parliament House welcomed LGBTQ people to the safety of its dance floor. For 36 years, he was the smartest man on TV and watching him pronounce every word on that Jeopardy board — especially the words in Latin with 47 letters — with sheer perfection was quite a sight to see.
I loved kicking back and watching “Jeopardy!” after a long day at work and will miss how proud of myself I would get whenever I got the question right.
We lost Alex Trebek this year — just as we lost Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actor Chadwick Boseman, the iconic Miss Sammy and my own dad — to cancer. The only thing I have left to add to that is Fuck Cancer!
Now on to some good news, a rarity in the hellish year, the U.S. has elected a new president and vice president. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will begin to lead this nation starting Jan. 20, 2021.
The announcement came Saturday morning, four long days after election day where I and most of the country marathon-watched cable news with its electoral college counts, magic boards of blue and red states, projections, analysis and endless what-if scenarios. Did you know that Biden had many paths to victory but Trump basically had one? John King knew.
They told us leading up to Nov. 3 that we weren’t going to know who the winner was until days later but still we glued ourselves to the TV while sharing memes and TikToks on social media to get through it.
While we now must endure two and a half months of Trump temper tantrums, false allegations of rigid elections and more than I care to see television rants from grownup “Bat Boy” Rudy Giuliani, at least there is an end in sight.
Since being denied a second term, Trump has bombarded Twitter with tweet after tweet — posted in between rounds of golf I’m sure — whining about how unfair this all is to him and, at presstime, refuses to concede the election. He tweets his trash to his 88.9 million Twitter followers. While I don’t doubt that many of his followers are supporters of his, I’m willing to bet that a large portion of them are journalists, politicians and American patriots who follow just to keep up on his late-night “policy” rants and to troll him every time he writes something unverified and non-factual.
I hope that after this lame duck is escorted from The White House, and if Twitter doesn’t take it upon itself to delete his profile, everyone simply unfollows him. I’m pretty certain that the only thing that would infuriate Trump more than losing is becoming irrelevant.
And on to news that is relevant and very good news for the local community. In this issue, we look at how Metro Inclusive Health’s renovation of the German-American Club in Tampa is coming along and what expanded LGBTQ-inclusive services they will be bringing to the new Metro center.
In Central Florida news, we say goodbye to the Parliament House resort as news breaks that the LGBTQ landmark will be torn down. We also check in with The Center Orlando which will now be the managing service center for those impacted by Pulse tragedy.
In Tampa Bay news, former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg held a rally ahead of Biden’s historic win and we preview events coming to the bay area for the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
In other news, we highlight key wins and losses this election year for the LGBTQ community across Florida and the rest of the United States.
In Arts & Entertainment, we talk with “Crazy Rich Asians” star Henry Golding about playing gay in his new film, “Monsoon.” We also highlight films playing as a part of the inaugural Tampa Bay Transgender Film Fest.
