Comedian Dana Goldberg

Comedian Dana Goldberg is set to headline at Seattle Women’s Pride this June. Goldberg is a highly acclaimed comedian, who has shared the a stage with President Barack Obama, Portia DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, Jane Lynch, Kathy Griffin and many more. She has also been named one of CURVE Magazine’s top five funniest lesbian comedians in America. In addition to being incredibly funny, Goldberg also gives back to the community- frequently performing at fundraisers for HIV/AIDS and LGBT awareness.

Goldberg is a natural fit to headline at Seattle Women’s Pride. “Dana is a hoot! We absolutely love her, and she is a good friend,” said Seattle Women’s Pride founder and producer Sarah Toce. “We’re so glad she accepted our offer to come out and play this Pride.”

We sat down with Goldberg to discuss her upcoming performance at Seattle Women’s Pride, what to do when you run into an ex at Pride and her best Pride memory.

How do comedians celebrate pride?

Well, I can’t speak for all of us, but I day drink and make poor life choices.  Kidding…sorta. Usually we’re on stage entertaining the masses with a lot of drunk screaming sunburned proud gays in the audience. I actually really enjoy going to the parades and having an adult beverage or two with some friends. I don’t work a lot of the pride festivals so I’m excited to headline Seattle Women’s Pride this year.

How did you get involved with Seattle Women’s Pride?

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to build a relationship with Sarah Toce, the creator and producer of the event. I’ve been performing once a year in Seattle at Theater Off Jackson to an awesome sold out crowd, so I’m excited to bring my long show to the pride stage for the ladies. It’s going to be a fantastic weekend.

If you’re at Seattle Women’s Pride and you see your ex-girlfriend. What should you do?

Assuming you aren’t actually there with her? You know we’re all friends six months later. If it was a good break up, say hi, visit, you might even make out after a couple of dances and some vodka. If it was a bad breakup, just turn around and walk the other direction. No one needs that kinda drama at pride. Be smart ladies *cue shooting star* The more you know.

What advice would you give to people looking to hook up at Pride?

Make sure the girl is single! Other than that, just be careful of still photography. That shit will end up on Facebook before the night is over.

Tell me your favorite Pride memory.

I had the pleasure of marching in San Francisco’s Pride parade a couple of years ago and there was a sweet male couple in front of me holding hands with a sign that read “47 years together…and finally legally married.” It really puts things into perspective what the LGBT community has accomplished over the years, and now Pride is more of a reason to celebrate those accomplishments…while day drinking! Unfortunately, that couple is never the one who is featured on the front page of the newspaper the next day. It’s always someone in ass chaps with no pants wearing a rainbow boa in 6 inch heels and I’m like, “Is that my English professor?!”

Want to see Dana perform at Seattle Women’s Pride? Tickets are available via Stranger Tickets at $30 General Admission and $45 VIP. The VIP Experience gets guests closer to the action with Priority Entrance, a Meet-and-Greet with Dana after the show, Swag Bags, and more. Visit seattlewomenspride or strangertickets.com/events/31940901/comedian-dana-goldberg-at-seattle-womens-pride for more information.

The post Seattle Pride headliner Dana Goldberg on how to survive pride in the social media age and more first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Seattle Women’s Pride is back for a third gay-tastic year. Mark your calendar for Saturday, June 18, 2016. Taking place at the Q nightclub, queer ladies and bois can expect to dance, laugh and celebrate pride with members of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and comedian Dana Goldberg. Eastside Women’s Health, which is dedicated to providing all women with a safe space to receive quality healthcare, is co-presenting the event this year. NYC’s GO Magazine will also head west to celebrate.

Sarah Toce- you might know her from the popular online newspaper, The Seattle Lesbian– is the founder and producer of Seattle Women’s Pride.

Seattle Women’s Pride Founder, Sarah Toce (Photo: Steph Brusig)

How did Seattle Women’s Pride start?

It occurred to me that there were quite a few parties for men during the Seattle Pride season, but not really anything geared specifically toward women – other than dance parties. What about the rest of us? Being the founder/publisher of The Seattle Lesbian, Seattle’s only lesbian news source, I knew I had to step up to the plate.

I called on some friends – The Voice‘s Vicci Martinez, Washington State Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, transgender activist Marsha Botzer, Seattle singer/songwriter Jack Mozie, and others – and the inaugural Seattle Women’s Pride sold out in less than a month from planning to execution. That’s when we knew there was a real thirst for this type of women’s Pride event in Seattle.

This will be The Seattle Lesbian’s third year producing Seattle Women’s Pride and it’s only getting better with each passing year. We’ve sold out each time and we have every reason to believe we’ll do it again this year.

How has the event evolved over the last few years? 

We completely outgrew our initial location and, in the second year, chose to relocate to a 12,000 sq. ft. venue in order to accommodate all of our guests. Our talented lineup keeps expanding – Vicci Martinez, Julie Goldman and now, this year, Dana Goldberg – have all headlined our event. We’ve increased staff size and are working with Eastside Women’s Health Center this year to secure sponsorship opportunities with likeminded brands and companies. Seattle Women’s Pride is quickly becoming a staple in Seattle’s Pride Month tapestry.

What surprises do you have up your sleeve to make 2016 the best pride so far? 

If I told you, they wouldn’t be surprises!

We have some wonderful sponsors this year whose aim is to make Seattle Women’s Pride 2016 the most memorable yet, so stay tuned!

The landscape of the queer community is constantly evolving. Generation Z is more likely to label as queer than any other generation, at the same time, lesbian bars and queer spaces have been closing. What role do you think Pride will play in queer people’s lives as queer becomes more mainstream? 

Pride is a celebration of who we are as a people, as a community – but also serves as a moment to stop and reflect at how far we’ve come – and how far we have yet to go. Regardless of how we identify ourselves individually, Pride is about celebrating how much we have achieved – together.

Seattle Women’s Pride takes it a step further. We’re not only celebrating our LGBTQ+ community, we’re also celebrating who we are as women in that community. This is a great moment to point out that everyone is welcome to attend Seattle Women’s Pride (as long as you’re over 21).

What is your favorite Pride memory? 

I had just come out and was living in New York City when then-Sen. Hillary Clinton was walking near Christopher Street – right in the middle of the New York City Pride Parade. I literally came out of Duane Reade and bumped into her Secret Service detail – and they allowed me to take a picture. Imagine that – completely by accident. Not sure what can top that one!

Tickets are available via Stranger Tickets at $30 General Admission and $45 VIP. The VIP Experience gets guests closer to the action with Priority Entrance, a Meet-and-Greet with Dana after the show, Swag Bags, and more. Visit seattlewomenspride or strangertickets.com/events/31940901/comedian-dana-goldberg-at-seattle-womens-pride for more information.

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Four lucky couples have the chance to tie the knot this fall in Seattle with the “Marry Me in Seattle” campaign.

The campaign is to celebrate the passage of Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage in Washington in December 2012, and the support for marriage equality in Washington that followed.

There are still a few days for four lucky couples to be randomly selected for an all expense paid four-day trip to Seattle and wedding on the first Wednesday of the month between September and December this year.

The campaign kicked off July 1 and ends July 31. More >

The post Say ‘I do’ in Seattle first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Alki Beach is where sun-seekers flock to enjoy a summer day at the beach and take advantage of breath taking panoramic views of the Seattle city scape and the Olympic Mountains. It’s also a vibrant neighborhood with some foodie gems and rich with history and a beach culture all its own.
Food tasting tours are a great way to get to know a neighborhood as they are a true sensory and culinary experience.

Sampling great cuisine is a given, but you also see amazing sights, hear about interesting historical facts & learn the “back-story” of how local businesses came to be.

Taste Seattle Food Tours is pleased to be launching a unique biking foodie tour along Alki Beach beginning on July 18. The tour is a really fun activity for both visitors and locals alike and provides that ocean salt-water smell that leaves no doubt you are beachside. Cruising along the Alki bike trail affords amazing views of Puget Sound, Elliot Bay, the Olympic Mountains, Bainbridge Island and the city of Seattle.

One of the bonuses of this food and biking tour is eating all those delicious bites is guilt-free because you are riding approximately 3 miles each way, working off the calories as you go.

One of the best ways to experience the highlights of the Alki Beach neighborhood is to spend an afternoon with Taste Seattle Food Tours.

Taste Seattle Food Tours is owned by two lesbian women, Felicia Watson and Roen Ako, both of whom are West Seattle residents and are excited to share the unique culture of Seattle’s largest neighborhood.

Roen serves on the board of the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA), a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allied business and professional chamber of commerce. They were recently married this past January and were one of the first couples married in Hawaii after the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act made same sex marriage legal in Roen’s home state. Together, they share a passion for great food and guiding both locals and visitors off the “eaten path.”

Seattle has a wealth of amazing food, and Taste Seattle aims to allow their guests to sample tasting portions, which allows eating at multiple locations to give a broad sampling of the best the neighborhood has to offer. They partner with local, artisanal businesses that offer superior and unique products that showcase Seattle’s rich food scene. Eating and biking your way through a neighborhood is a fun and flavorful interactive activity.

The afternoon is spent sampling your way along the beach on a beach cruiser bicycle (provided as part of the tour in partnership with Alki Kayak Tours) with stops at five eateries. The eating is kicked off at Marination voted by ABC’s Good Morning America as the best food truck in America. Guests will sample a few examples of this Hawaiian-Korean fusion-style street food.

Next, it is on to a relative newcomer on the beach, Slices on Alki, a pizzeria owned by a husband and wife team. Slices focuses on carefully selected ingredients (organic whenever possible) and fresh daily house-made sauce and dough that is then hand-tossed in a thin-crust style and paired with a craft micro-brew from neighboring Ampersand Cafe. Next it’s onto Seattle’s oldest fast-food restaurant, Alki Spud Fish and Chips, which has been on Alki Avenue since 1935 (celebrating 80 years next year). They use the original recipes for their fish and chips, which are still hand-cut and prepared. The tour is capped off with a sweet ending at Salty’s on Alki Beach. Salty’s is a local favorite for special occasions with one of the most impressive views of any restaurant in the area and award-winning cuisine.

“It’s been a privilege and a joy to offer Seattle’s gorgeous skyline view to our dining guests at Salty’s on Alki Beach, so we were especially eager to partner with Felicia and Roen on their new Alki Beach, Bikes and Bites Food Tour. The history of West Seattle is rich with stories and we are honored to be included,” says Kathy Kingen, Salty’s co-owner along with husband and founder Gerry Kingen.

Taking the Alki Beach, Bikes and Bites tour provides a taste for Seattle’s beach neighborhood while revealing stories of its origins like answering why there is a replica Statue of Liberty on Alki Beach. The tour visits several points of cultural interest like the former site of the Luna Park amusement park, a few of Seattle’s oldest residences still standing today and a working lighthouse on Alki Point.

Stories of the neighborhood come to life in between bites, as guests are guided alongside a knowledgeable tour lead who offers insight into Alki’s colorful past and present incarnations, pointing out hidden gems from quirky public art to a working lighthouse.

Skip all the long summer lines, planning and fuss and let Taste Seattle Food Tours entertain you for a few hours replete with tasty riches. The new tour begins July 18th and will run on Friday and Saturdays at 11 a.m. through the rest of the summer. Alki Beach is easily accessible from Seattle’s waterfront by taking the King County Water Taxi from Pier 50 to Seacrest Park where the tour begins and ends.

To buy tickets or for more information on taking Taste Seattle Food Tour’s newest Beach, Bikes and Bites tour, please visit their website.

The post Taste Seattle, a unique lesbian-owned business first appeared on Lesbian.com.

The post Proud proud pride first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY TheSeattleLesbian.com

Social Outreach Seattle is starting the 2014 round of community forums off with “Lesbian Life Forum” combined with the “Body Diversity Photo Project” on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at City Hall (Bertha Knight Landes Room, 600 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104).

The focus of this forum will be discussions about living life in work, social, and business as it pertains to lesbians in the Seattle community. Panelists include: Seattle City Councilmember Sally Clark, Judge Anne Levinson (Ret.), Aretha Alexander (City of Seattle Parks Department), Angela Hughes (Director – Seattle, Sistah Sinema), Fran Dunaway (Co-Founder, TomboyX), and Sarah Toce (Publisher, The Seattle Lesbian).

Expert and novice photographers were invited to submit their favorite lesbian-related photos for consideration. All pieces will be unveiled at the event at City Hall.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

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Seattle gay club Neighbours set on fire by suspected arsonist New Year’s Eve

About of liter of gasoline was poured over a staircase and lit on fire on New Year’s Eve at Neighbours Nightclub in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Though the fire ended the New Year’s Eve show, performed by drag queen Aleksa Manila, not one of the nearly 700 guests were injured. Everyone was able to evacuate into an alley, many leaving coats and bags inside to retrieve Wednesday.

“Neighbours is one of the symbols of queer nightlife in Seattle,” she said. “To put that much effort and thought into doing something like that, as heinous as that, because somebody could’ve died.” Drag queern Aleksa Manila has been performing at Neighbours for 10 years, and was upset the act of intimidation would damage a bar with such a long history.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally

The post Seattle gay club lit on fire New Year’s Eve first appeared on Lesbian.com.

The 18th Annual Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, presented by Xfinity, returns October 10-20. This year’s festival is more ambitious than ever before, combining the very best in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) film along with unique live performances.

“We’ve been working all year long to bring you an extraordinary 10 days of the best LGBT films of the year, from Cannes award-winners to world premieres and short films you might not otherwise get a chance to see on the big screen,” said Keith Bacon, who takes over the role as SLGFF Artistic Director from Jason Plourde (now Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s Executive Director).

Visit Three Dollar Bill Cinema for additional information on the 18th Annual  Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and additional Three Dollar Bill Cinema programs.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

The post Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival: ‘Bold is beautiful’ first appeared on Lesbian.com.

The Order Muppet of Out Abroad, Ky Ventura, is off to Peru. Her days are filled with Incan adventures, beer sampling, jungle hiking, finding nuggety places to sleep, ceviche, making monkey friends and learning inappropriate words at language school. Meanwhile, I’m holding down the gay fort Stateside. Normally I’d be in a cloud of travel envy, but right now I’m summering the shit out of this place and well, Seattle is a mighty fine place to celebrate summer.

Everyone knows we have garbage winters. Seattle’s a soggy, dark, dreary place from about November to March. And even after that we’re still sporting rain jackets and complaining loudly through May. During all that time we’re clinging to one thought: days overloaded with sunshine. Pacific Northwest summers aren’t terribly hot (we rarely break 90 degrees). We have virtually no humidity. And they’re mosquito-free. As our badass local meteorologist (heck yes we’ve got one and his weather blog is of the sexy/smart sort) Cliff Mass puts it in a recent post: “Seattle is a meteorological heaven during the summer months.” We couldn’t agree more.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

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The Greater Seattle Business Association unveiled its new Seattle LGBT Visitors Center on Capitol Hill to a select group of Tourism industry professionals Thursday, July 18.

The Center opened to the public on Friday, July 19.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) visitor center is Seattle’s first (and one of only two) such visitor centers in the U.S. Miami is the home of the other LGBT visitor center.

“Seattle’s vibrant, progressive and welcoming community is the perfect home for this unique resource for the LGBT traveler,” says Louise Chernin, executive director of the GSBA. “Open to all, The Seattle LGBT Visitors Center will be a great destination for all travelers to find hotels, exciting nightlife spots, fabulous food, entertainment, shopping and attractions.

“The LGBT traveler will know that each business found inside the visitors center is friendly, supportive and gladly welcomes the LGBT traveler,” continues Louise.

The 200-square-foot visitors center, hosted by 1st Security Bank, features a street-side space located at the bank’s 614 Broadway E. branch.

The center, a project of the GSBA, will be staffed part-time and offers a wide array of Seattle visitor information and services including brochures, visitor guides, maps, a 60” TV screen with scrolling information and access to Travel Gay Seattle, the GSBA web travel portal.

“As a local bank, we are deeply committed to the communities we serve. What better way to support Capitol Hill’s vibrant neighborhood than to host GSBA’s Seattle LGBT Visitors Center? We thank Louise and the GSBA for this amazing opportunity,” says Joe Adams, CEO of 1st Security Bank.

LGBT travelers comprise approximately 10 percent of the consumer travel market share in the U.S. and, on average, have higher disposable incomes than members of other niche travel markets. The estimated annual economic impact of LGBT travelers is $70 billion. The GSBA and its travel industry partners continue to work together to position Seattle as a top destination for these travelers, and help create new sources of revenue for Seattle and the Puget Sound region.

“The LGBT community already plays a vital role in the economy and vitality of the Puget Sound region, and now with marriage equality, we now have an even greater opportunity to harness the economic impact of the LGBT traveler,” says Louise.

In just the first four months that legal same-sex marriages were performed in Washington State, 14 percent were for out-of-state couples, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

“We’re proud to support the GSBA with this new venture during an important time for LGBT civil liberties,” says Tom Norwalk, president and CEO of Visit Seattle. “Our city has always been known as a progressive, welcoming destination that promotes LGBT civil rights and equality for all, and now Washington State has joined in extending marriage equality.”

“Extending a warm welcome is the right thing to do, but we also hope it encourages more LGBT tourism dollars which, in turn, strengthen our local and state economies,” he adds.

LGBT visitor centers brick and mortar or virtual are catching on.

New York, Vermont and Portland, Ore., all that states and cities with large LGBT communities and welcoming environments are jumping onboard to get its share of the pink travel dollar.

Portland, Ore. launched its own virtual LGBT travel center a year ago, QueerNW.com. Rose City queer community travel experts – Travel Portland, the Q Center and the Portland Area Business Association – partnered up to create the dedicated LGBT tourism website.

Earlier this month, New York launched its virtual LGBT visitors center I Love NY LGBT, an initiative spearheaded by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.

Vermont has welcomed LGBT travelers with the Vermont Gay Tourism Association for several years. The association was launched by Willie Docto, who owns the Moose Meadow Lodge with his husband Greg Trulson, is supported by the State of Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. The organizations also sponsor Northern Decadence, an LGBT food and travel expo now in its third year.

Travel and tourism industry presenting partners include 1st Security Bank and Visit Seattle, which has maintained an LGBT tourism marketing partnership with the GSBA since 2009. Travel and tourism sponsors include the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, Sound Transit, Amtrak and OutCity Magazine.

Full Disclosure: Heather Cassell is a contributing travel writer to OutCity Magazine.

Originally published by GirlsThatRoam.com

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