Equality Forum: SundayOUT

You might think that, after my unpleasant experience attempting to volunteer for the Equality Forum last Friday, I'd be done with the event entirely. However, on Sunday I dropped by their "SundayOUT" festival. For at least the second year in a row, they held it outside of the Gayborhood, taking it to the Piazza in Northern Liberties. Admission was $10.00 and, to be honest, it wasn't worth it. Let me quote one of my Twitter pals, @gregs, who got there after I left and tweeted this: "Sunday out? more like sunday yawn. Overpriced drinks & food, lack of vendors and orgs."

This should give you an idea of the scope of this: when I took this photo I was sitting on the concrete steps at the foot of the stage.

The tables were lined up in three or four rows. Some were from organizations, others were vendors selling t-shirts, jewelry, etc., but there wasn't much on sale that remotely interested me. There were no food stands at all, save one or two restaurants and a table with someone selling cupcakes. No junk food at all or even a stand selling bottles of soda (although there were two stands for high-priced beer and some mixed drinks). My theory is that the facility's management wanted people to eat and drink at the restaurants located there and thus restricted the types of vendors allowed.

To the quote above by my Twitter pal, I would add "a lack of entertainment."

Friday With Equality Forum

I've got a number of things I want to talk about and am a bit pressed for time (with the Flyers starting in a half-hour, as I begin this). Plus I've been sneezing today -- I woke up to the sound of lawnmowing going on somewhere outside and I think it set off my allergies. Then I took some allergy medication and it made me sleepy. So I'm going to try and cover my odd little weekend in a few posts, starting with this one.

I decided to volunteer for this year's Equality Forum, a week-long series of LGBT-related events -- panel discussions, parties, etc. culminating in the SundayOUT festival held yesterday (more on that in a separate post). I went to an orientation meeting a couple of weeks ago and at that meeting I signed up to appear at two events to hand out fliers, surveys, etc. (according to the literature I was given at the orientation meeting). I ended up being assigned to just one event: a tribute to a choreographer, Zane Booker, held Friday at the Merriam Theater. The confirmation email said my shift was to start at 6:30 pm and we were told to arrive about 15 minutes before our shifts. It listed two other volunteers for this event as well as a board member who was to coordinate everything.

I arrived at the Merriam Theater at 6:15. The people inside the lobby had little or no idea what I was talking about when I arrived. One tried to insist I was in the wrong place. Another said he was aware of it but that he didn't know much else and that someone from Equality Forum was supposed to arrive shortly. I stood there (feeling like an idiot) waiting for nearly a half-hour while the lobby filled up with ticketholders. After this time, two people, a man and a woman, arrived from Equality Forum and eventually spoke to the man I had spoken to, who pointed me out to them. I spotted this, walked over and introduced myself.