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starting at just $25, you can have a fewdrinks with friends and follow it up with afantastic dinner in New Orleans. It’s a fan-tastic way to enjoy the true New Orleansspirit of giving back while having a greattime.

Guests can win fantastic prizes at theauction while checking out the fabulousfashion New Orleans offers all while help-ing the Louisiana SPCA. Tickets start at$25 and Sponsorship Tables start at $500.Call LA/SPCA Events Coordinator, MarisaCollins at 504.762.3307 or visit la-spca.org/alegria for more information.

Do You Have What ItTakes To Be MissLeatherette?

The Lords of Leather once again ispresenting their hysterically funny MissLouisiana Leatherette Pageant on Satur-day, August 10th at Michael’s On The Park.The 11th anniversary of the Miss LouisianaLeatherette 2014 takes a campy and teas-ing look at gay leather pageantry. Thecontest is open to all participants who wishto present their best outfits with a leathertwist. This contest is open to all gay,straight, transgendered, male, female, ba-sically anyone; they really are not thatcritical on entry. The winner gets a fabuloussash and a cash prize of $100.

So this is what you will be judged in.Best Parish Costume which is a creativeinterpretation of costuming representing aLouisiana Parish of the contestant’s choos-

ing. Talent is next. God only knows, beafraid, be very afraid. Swim Wear in whichcontestants will appear in a swim wearpresentation. And then finally there isEvening Gown/Fetish, what a category tobe put together. So basically it is going tobe one hell of a good time.

Make sure you attend this unique takeon pageantry. Tickets are $10 and thecontest begins promptly at 8pm. Michael’sis located at 834 North Rampart Street. Formore information or applications, go towww.lordsofleather.com.

Get SocialJoin the Krewe of Amon-Ra as they

present their holy Sister Sunday Social -Taking You To Church on August 11th at2pm at the Golden Lantern. This a GospelShow and a church chicken plate lunch withthe donation being $10 for the food. Socome on out and get some fried chicken andsoul saving as the “ladies” from Amon-Raget one with the Lord. And remember “AllYa’ll Bitches Need Jesus !!”

Party DownMy time in Chicago was fabulous (which

you will read about in a later article) but Iliterally had no time to rest when I returnedback to the Crescent City on Wednesdaybecause I was engulfed knee deep in Talesof the Cocktail events. My plane landedand I went straight to one of the events forset up. Tales of the Cocktail is a six dayevent for the industry’s most influentialbartenders and spirit lovers from aroundthe globe. This premier cocktail festivalreturned with another non-stop schedule of

educational seminars, tasting rooms, Spir-ited Dinners, Spirited Awards, competitionsand more tasting rooms than I could count.You will never ever leave thirsty from any oftheir events. TOC is recognized as theworld’s premier brand dedicated to theadvancement of the craft of the cocktailthrough education, networking and promo-tion.

On Thursday, I went to Diageo’s HappyHour at Gallier Hall where guests enjoyedtwo floors of cocktails celebrating portsfrom around the globe. There were gin,rum, bourbon, vodka and a host of otherspirits representing the South Pacific, Medi-terranean, Indian Ocean/East China Sea,Caribbean and Mexico and Central America.There were three dozen bartenders onhand mixing specialty drinks. Talk aboutnot leaving thirsty.

After, I met my friends for one of theSpirited Dinners where they pare eachcourse with a crafted cocktail. We went toRio Mar where they had tequila. You knowit is going to be interesting when tequila isinvolved. The event was presented byTrinchero Family Estates with hosts BarryAugus, President of Tres Agaves Productsand Pep Katcher, President-Co FounderCruz Tequila. Chef Miles Prescott madethe amazing six course meal and ChefYuval Soffer from LA crafted all the drinks.After that epic dinner experience, I wasdone for the night.

Friday I was working all day andevening, but Saturday I was able to enjoythe festival. I spent the day with my friendBeaux going from tasting room to tastingroom at the Royal Sonesta, HotelMonteleone and other venues in the Quar-ter. Going to Tales is a committed day ofdrinking starting with a Bloody Mary andcoffee martini bar at 8:30am. After that, itwas a blur of libations and tasting roomsfrom Drink Like A Russian to the Taste ofJamaica.

Once we had our fill and I mean wewere pretty happy, we went directly toPetronius’ Cocktails and Crowns event attheir den, where they announced their roy-alty King LIII Elect Eunice Evans and QueenLIII Elect Theresa Braggs and the theme ofthe ball next year which is The Fill In TheBlank Ball. Congratulations to the newroyalty and I cannot wait to see how thistheme will come to life. Immediately after,we went to the Phoenix to catch the tail endof the Big Easy Sisters Tea Room TradeBingo fundraiser. It was a hoot and thesegals have a great time. Talk about quite adiverse day of events. You have to lovewhen you go from one spectrum of peopleto the other in less than 24 hours.

The following week, started with agathering on Wednesday Fulton on Taphosted a Pride night. This very cool ware-house district bar developed rainbow col-

ored specialty martinis (the watermelonwas my favorite) as the Pride board andsupporters came out in full force. I metsome great new people and the event waswell attended. Pride has made incrediblestrides at creating a growing festival eachyear.

On Thursday, the holidays came earlyfor me. I went to not one, not two, but yesthree Christmas in July parties on that day.Seriously, three, talk about the getting yule-tide spirit in overdrive. The first one was atAntoine’s restaurant where they reintro-duced the hospitality industry to an oldfriend showing off their private dining spaceand the delectable cuisine. They even hadSanta Claus and an intoxicated elf. God, Ilove the holidays. Next was at the HotelMazarin, also in the Quarter. There wasmore drinks and food as they promotedtheir venue for holiday parties. Last butcertainly not least, Razzle Dazzle hostedtheir soiree at the design center on ElysianFields. I got some great decorating ideasand even bought a few ornaments. Hey itis never too early to get a jump on theholiday.

I hosted a small dinner party on Fridayfor my friends Beaux, Barrett and Jeff (akaElizabeth Bouvier) who came in for theweekend. We had some great barbecuebefore going to catch Cathy Fox’s TresFemmes show at JohnPaul’s. As always,she was just lovely and they had a goodcrowd on hand. Then we had a few cock-tails at Phoenix before calling it a night.

Saturday was another rapid day be-ginning with the Gay Appreciation Awardsat Oz. Rip and Marsha put on an entertain-ing evening for all who attended. LisaBeaumann and Teryl-Lynn Foxx kept thingslively and the nominated show bars didsome inspired performances. After theshow, I hopped over to my friend Rachel’shousewarming party at her new digs in theFrench Quarter on Barracks Street. It wasso much fun and I have to say, since I havebecome a barbecue fanatic it is alwaysgood to taste great grilled food. Rachelhands down is an awesome griller, so I wasable to get her tips to the perfectly sea-soned meat. It was also good to catch upwith friends I have not seen in a while.

I twirled next at the Golden Lanternwho was basking on a few of their wins atthe GAA and was in the midst of theirSaturday night show; then I went to Michael’son the Park for the Bootsie and the Bitchesshow, where Barbara Ella and Bootsiecelebrated their birthdays. I ended thenight with a nightcap at JohnPaul’s, thenhome for a much needed rest.

My two weeks concluded with a fabu-lous Sunday Funday. I helped put on theParty with the Queens drag cruise on the

under the gaydar ...from 14

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Creole Queen. It was a fun-filled afternoon on the river withperformers Barbara Ella, Elizabeth Bouvier, Summer Rayne,Monica Synclaire-Kennedy and Gia GiaVanni who rockedthat boat. Flowing cocktails, great entertainers, food and aspectacular view, who could ask for more. It was animpressive inaugural event that will be repeated soon.

Next some friends and I went to Harrah’s for a littlegambling, unusually I actually won. That never happens.Then we finished the night with a laid back dinner at AlbertCarey’s house. These nights are always enjoyable whenyou can relax and talk to your friends without any pretense,just good conversations over a wonderful meal. What a greatweek!

Tony’s Tidbitsof Gay Wisdom

Love is in the air everywhere which always make meexcited, giddy and gay. Speaking of gay, I am thrilled to beattending my first gay wedding this month in New York. I amnot sure why this is my first one, mainly because my friendsdo not even have the word marriage in their vocabulary, andthose who do have to fly somewhere else to make it happen.Well, since Louisiana is dragging their feet, I decided toattend none other than Rip and Marsha’s nuptials and I amhonored that there ceremony will be my first one. Probablythe only time I will be a virgin at a wedding. We have comeso far, especially with the recent defeat of DOMA.

But many of the states still do not recognize gaymarriages. Recently two Louisiana men, Derek Penton andJon Robicheaux have decided to take a stand. They weremarried in Iowa (seriously you can get married in Iowa andnot here) while on vacation last year and returned to theirhome in Louisiana to their normal lives living with a legalmarriage license from another state that is not recognizedhere in Louisiana. After DOMA was struck down, they werestill surprised to find out that in reality, because of theLouisiana Constitution and Louisiana Civil Code, not muchchange had been bestowed upon them. Although a very

under the gaydar ...from 22 good will would take care of that.Questions arose about property, death, taxes, and what would

really happen in the event of one of their demise. They decided tochallenge the unconstitutionality of Louisiana civil code and constitu-tion under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the US Constitution inFederal Court, so on July 16, 2013 they filed a Same Sex Marriage Casehere in Louisiana’s Federal Court.

While they understand it will be a long and drawn out battle, it isworth it. They have created a website to allow people to show supportby signing up for email updates about the case. Follow the link to learn

more about the complaint, and how you canshow your encouragement: http://s p i v e y e s q . c o m /Robicheaux.html?no_redirect=true.

Join our brothers and sisters in lend-ing your voice to demonstrate that love isstronger than hate and bigotry.

If you have an event, story or idea, youwant covered, contact me atledgemgp@gmail.com.

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