30 Anniversary Holiday Concert

The annual must-do Holiday traditions of New York City are seeing the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center, the store window displays at Macy's and Bloomingdale's, ice skating in the park, AND seeing the NYC Gay Men's Chorus holiday concert. This year it was especially amazing since it was also the 30th anniversary of the group! I had a wonderful time at their concert and after-party this year. They guys sounded amazing and were gorgeously on tune with Maestro Conductor and artistic director Dr.Charles Beale. I went with the handsome Jed Ryan who wrote a fantastic review for DishMiss.com.

I Talk About HIV/AIDS

I am so honored and proud to be included in a special educational program that informs and keeps awareness about HIV and AIDS called "I talk about AIDS because. . ." We know that open and honest conversations can prevent new HIV infections and reduce the stigma attached to people living with HIV/AIDS. Today, over 100,000 New Yorkers are living with HIV/AIDS and thousands don't know they are infected. The program is a partnership with the NY City Council, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS and other organizations. Others who participated in the program included Wendy Williams, Alan Cummings, BD Wong, Rosie Perez, Kristen Johnston, Jeffrey Crowley (White House AIDS Czar), Judy Gold, Lovari, Jed Ryan, Michael Lavers, Al Sharpton and many others. I stopped by City Hall with Lovari where we video taped our public service announcements.

Yuletide - Jersey Style

As most of you know, I'm a New Jersey native, which is why I was especially happy to be a Hostess and Entertainer of the annual Holiday extravaganza sponsored by JCLGO (Jersey City Lesbian and Gay Outreach) at the fabulous Star Bar in Downtown Jersey City, the hippest gay bar West of the Hudson River! In Jersey City, the metropolis next to Manhattan, there's a huge, thriving queer and artistic community and it was so much fun hob-knobing and celebrating the holidays with everyone! I sang Santa Baby to the packed house where food, drink and mistletoe were enjoyed by everyone!

New York City Council Holiday

I was delighted to attend a special Holiday party given by the Speaker of the New York City Council, Christine Quinn. It soiree was held at the beautiful Planet Rose in Manhattan's East Village. My friends from Stonewall Democrats and Council offices were in a festive mood as we celebrated the holidays and Christine Quinn's efforts to make New York an even greater City. We sang Holiday songs and New York State of Mind with the clubs Karaoke system.

Celebrity Magazine Interview

I'm so proud to be featured in an interview article that appears in the current Out In Jersey magazine, a journal about Gay arts, culture and community in the Garden State. Being born in New Jersey, I'm so glad to be able to express my views to others in the state. The article by the brilliant, renowned journalist and photographer Alina Oswald also appeared in the mainstream newspaper Newark Examiner. I've received so much great feedback about this interview. Thanks to everyone for hearing my Q & A session. I have the text pasted below:

She is the first openly transgender correspondent to appear on a national TV show—Under the Pink Carpet, an LGBT news and entertainment show. She has performed on stage and on screen, in large and small production films. She has her own gossip column—Gossip Girl—and curated art shows like Strike A Pose - Gender Id in 2008, hosted by SoHo’s Leslie-Lohman gallery. She is Lady Clover Honey, a fixture in New York City social and entertainment life and in the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade.

“I think I was born with a feminine spirit,” Lady Clover Honey (a.k.a. Clover Welsh) describes herself. “I have a man’s body, which is fine with me, and I have a female spirit, so that I can express myself sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman.”

Born in Totowa, New Jersey, Lady Clover Honey recalls always being different growing up. “I don’t know what it’s like to be normal,” she comments. As a kid, she never fit in. Other kids used to call her names, but she didn’t care because she was mature enough not to care. She has always been out, never in the closet. She’s also been lucky to have parents who accepted her the way she was.

Right after graduating from college, Clover moved to New York City where she started writing poetry and became involved in a neo-pagan movement that accepted those living on the fringes of normal, and also accepted women as divinity. That’s how Clover discovered the Radical Faeries, a spiritual movement started by Harry Hay in 1979. While most of the members of this spiritual movement are usually gay and feminine, they vary from one region of the country to another. Clover joined the Radical Faeries community in Brooklyn, where she lived at the time. She describes them as wearing beautiful blouses and broaches, not necessarily dressing as women, but starting to create the image of a woman, reaching for God (or Goddess) and the spirit.

“It’s always been my fantasy to be a beautiful woman, like Marilyn Monroe,” Lady Clover Honey confesses. A decade ago, when she started being a drag queen, she got her first wig on sale on 14th street. “I thought anybody can be a blonde or a brunette, but I’d rather be a purple, actually more of a maroon.” When three photographers for the Radical Faeries wanted to take her picture, she was happy to model—the photo appeared in Time Out NY. Today Clover is on the Board of Directors for Fresh Fruit Festival. She believes that drag queens are interesting, and that gender expression makes such a visual art that she decided to put together a show for them in Strike A Pose, celebrating gender identification in our contemporary society.

Recently, Clover had a small, yet poignant role in Lovari’s directorial debut, Shore Thing, a film taking a fresh look at possible shark attacks in the New York waters. In Shore Thing Clover plays a librarian—a woman usually not perceived as good looking. And, with the fine artistry we are used to, by now, Lady Clover Honey shows that all women, even librarians, can be glamorous. As with everything else she does, Lady Clover Honey uses her Shore Thing character to continue breaking taboos.

Today, drag queens are still on the fringe of what society considers “normal.” Drag queens are also different images of God. “I think God is a force,” Clover explains. “It’s important to have a spiritual connection to the universe. It helps us to be strong. [I] hope that the universe, God (or Goddess), loves me as well.”

Lady Clover Honey cherishes her connection with the universe, and also wants to do her part and help others here, on earth. Therefore, she reaches out to the person who is afraid to go out dressed as a woman because people would throw stuff at him. She reaches out to all individuals and encourages them to be who they truly are, to come out of the closets of their lives. While she is very aware that coming out is not always easy or safe, she hopes that “We all have to respect one another, because we’re all children of God, with different ways to express ourselves.”

She’s always been an optimist, especially when it comes to gay rights, when she believes that we make progress every year. “I do have hope,” Lady Clover Honey concludes. “We’ve come a long way in 40 years. We have a long way more to go.”

Thanksgiving Calorie Burn-off

The day after Thanksgiving was the day to dance and party away all those extra calories! And that I did as I was the official Hostess of a fantastic Dance Circuit party called Jive Turkey with the legendary East Village DJs and Party Event Promoters Grant Johnson and Austin Downey of Mr. Black and Club Pyramid at the luxurious new hotspot Uncle Charlie's Lower East Side in New York City!

"Back Room" at Comix Comedy Club

I was a special guest at The Back Room, a sexy and provocative Stand-Up Comedy show with New York City's best, queerest and sexiest Comedians! The event took place at Ochi's Lounge in Comix Comedy Club. Other comics in the line-up included: Susana Perlaman (from NBC's Last Comic Standing), Calvin Cato, Jillian Snow Harris (as Liza), Jenny Rubin (WE's Cinematherapey) and Shawn Hollenbach (Here! TV's Hot Gay Comics). You never know what will happen in the Back Room! Special Thanks to the gorgeous Bob Montgomery (Homocomicus) for taking these fabulous photos!!

Tricks AND Treats !!!

It's the most spooktacular time of the year. Everyone get dressed up in bizarre costumes and goes out into the street looking for Tricks and Treats! Well, for many people that's every day of the year, but on Halloween, it's even more special. I was thrilled to be the Hostess at Dance 208 at The LGBT Center of NYC. What an exciting time I had with sizzling hot physique models Torez and Jase and other hot gentlemen friends! I certainly cast my spell on the boys that evening! It was an amazing costume contest and DJs Gustavo and Rich King, of the SNAXX parties, kept us dancing all night long! It was great to see Bruce Michael Gelbert of New York Q News who took fantastic photos that appeared in the Press. Joe Fiore, the manger put it all together nicely with the Imperial Court and the NY Metrobears! It's no wonder that Dace 208 is the longest running gay dance in New York City history!

Halloween BINGO

We had a spooktacular time at Center BINGO on the day before Halloween. My co-hostess for the evening was Ginger Snapt, who is known as a Bingo Hostess at several Gay bars around NYC, including Splash, a premiere dance club and Lips, a drag restaurant. Ginger is used to Bingo player who are under the influence of alcohol. I told everyone the the players at The Center aren't here to get drunk or to get laid. They're here to win the $500 Jackpot!! A lot of the regulars came dressed in costume. One of my favorites was an emerald green Irish wich. Out physique models also kept in the holiday spirit with Tass as a sexy zombie and Mel as a hot taxi cab driver. Our manager Danny was a vampier. Ginger came as a Hogswart wizard student and I was a sexy red she-devil, complete with horns and red-fishnet hose.

Next Magazine "Celeb"

I'm featured as one of "Next Magazine's Celebs of New York" revealing my favorite take-out restaurant joint, Arte Pasta (81 Greenwich Ave., NYC.) It's on page 84 in the current issue of New York City's premiere Gay nightlife guide and magazine, Next. It's the Fall dining guide issue 17.17 dated October 13, 2009 available now through Friday. Pick up a copy. Next always has fabulous feature articles, reviews, event listings and more!

Birthday for a King and a Cowboy with a Queen

On September 26, I was thrilled to be a guest at the highly anticipated annual birthday bash called Kings & Cowboys, celebrating the birthdays of Randy Jones, the original Cowboy of the iconic disco group The Village People, and Keith Collins, King of New York, event/party promoter and star of Games People Play on VH1 and The F List of the Fuse network. The soiree took place at the posh Citrine nightclub in Chelsea area of New York City. A party featuring a King and a Cowboy was in need of a Queen!