2016 Issue 3 may/jun - Focus Mid-South magazine

community
Condomonium ‘16
Event Is A Wrap
by Robin Beaudoin
photos by Alex Smythe
The 2016 Condomonium
bash, benefiting Choices
Memphis Center for
Reproductive Health, and
raising awareness about
birth control, brought in
nearly $30,000 for patient
assistance. Partygoers “paid
their age” to enter three
stories of fashion, music,
gourmet food, and art at
Playhouse on the Square. The
attire was “anything goes,”
with sleeveless tuxedos and
denim mixed with cocktail
dresses and heels.
People made their way,
open-mouthed, through a
fashion show in a room full
of latex, glitter, and lights.
Fashions featuring condoms
and imagination were voted
upon and adoringly ogled.
At the awards ceremony,
Craig Brewer cheered on his
wife Jodie’s wedding dress
fashion, and bragged it was
not only for the wedding,
but the wedding night as
well. Overall Fashion winners
Mary Allison Cates and Erin
King won for their design
of an Isis dress of gold and
jewel-toned condoms, replete
with extending wings and a
stunning headpiece, worked
by model Julia Walz. Other
numbers included a 1960’s
Holly Golightly, a warrior
princess, a peacock-toned
two-piece, and a full wedding
gown including a toss bouquet,
all fashioned from condoms.
Choices’ executive director,
Rebecca Terrell, wearing an
abortion-themed dress, told
the crowd, “We need to end
the silence and the stigma
about using condoms, about
having safe sex, about having
HIV, about everything real in
our lives, and we should be
able to talk about it.”
Live acts at the event
included comedian Katrina
Coleman, and burlesque
performer Chloe Evans, who
hula hooped to Little Red
Riding Hood.
The evening’s finale came
with Terrell’s announcement
that Choices just closed on a
bigger, better building, which
will be Memphis’ first freestanding
birthing center, which
means more fund raising (and
merrymaking) is soon to come.
(Clockwise from top) Overall Fashion Winner, Isis. Isis was designed by
Mary Allison Cates and Erin King. Wedding dress, Starry Nights, Holly
Golightly. Rebecca Terrell, Choices Executive Director.
Memphis Gay Publications Timeline:
1975
First Issue of Gaiety
newspaper published
1977
Gaiety ceases
publication
1979
First Issue of
Gaze newspaper
published
1982
First mentions of AIDS
in Gaze
Page 10 / www.focusmidsouth.com / MAY+JUN 2016 / The Family Issue