Upcoming events.
Queer Book Club
Cantoras
by Caro de Robertis
A revolutionary new novel about five wildly different women who, in the midst of the Uruguayan dictatorship, find one another as lovers, friends, and ultimately, family.
Vito
Movie Night
Run time: 1 hr 33 min.
On June 27, 1969, a police raid on a Greenwich Village gay bar took a surprising turn when patrons decided it was time to fight back. As a riot erupted outside the Stonewall Inn, a new era in the Gay Rights Movement was born. Vito Russo, a 23-year-old film student, was among the crowd. Over the next twenty years until his death from AIDS in 1990, Vito would go on to become one of the most outspoken and inspiring activists in the LGBT community’s fight for equal rights.
Directed by award-winner Jeffrey Schwarz, Vito paints a galvanizing portrait of this outspoken activist in the LGBT community’s struggle for equal rights, using period footage and film clips to capture a vibrant era of gay culture.
Chat and chew!
Join us for a "bring your own" pre-movie dinner, held at the Redwood Room at Gateway from 5:30-6:30. Come early at 6:45 for a pre-movie discussion about how movies from this period portray LGBTQ+ characters. Members, family, and friends are all welcome!
Queer Book Club
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations.
Queer Book Club
Queer Book Club
Call or email Denise Mauldin at (925-457-4496, or dmauld@aol.com) for meeting details.
Queer Book Club
Queer Book Club
Call or email Denise Mauldin at (925-457-4496, or dmauld@aol.com) for meeting details.
Advise and Consent
Advise and Consent
Run time: 2 hr 19 min.
Chat and chew!
Join us for a "bring your own" pre-movie dinner, held at Peacock Plaza from 5:30-6:30. Come early at 6:45 for a pre-movie discussion about how movies from this period portray LGBTQ+ characters. Members, family, and friends are all welcome!
The Rossmoor LGBTQ+ Alliance presents the 1962 film version of Allen Drury’s Pulitzer-winning political thriller “Advise and Consent.” Arriving in theaters in the wave of the McCarthy era, the film serves to warn of the dangers of demagogy and its handmaidens, corruption and ambition. Homophobia plays a major role as well.
In the film, the settings include smoke-filled committee rooms of the U.S. Senate and even a back alley gay bar. Intrigue, personal jealousies, a vicious and scandalous smear campaign are all set in motion when the President asks the Senate to confirm a controversial candidate for Secretary of State (an “advise and consent duty” of the Senate).
Featuring a remarkably gifted cast and a timeless story, this film invites us to once again ask ourselves how past and current characterizations of LGBTQ+ people in the media have impacted and continue to impact the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals and our culture.
Queer Book Club
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is the debut novel by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother.
Me, My and Her
Movie Night
Run time: 1 hr 42 min.
Polar opposites in personality but perfectly aligned in love, Marina and Federica have built their five-year relationship on trust, respect, and chemistry. They share a beautifully appointed apartment in Rome, complete with a Bengal cat and an observant (and often disapproving) queeny maid named Rolando. A former beloved actress, the stunning Marina is gregarious and warm and has been open about her sexuality for years, while Federica is reserved, even “frosty,” as noted by family members, with a past that includes an ex-husband and a 24-year-old son. Federica’s fears about public perception tend to drive rifts between the two, although it is obvious they are very deeply in love. A chance meeting with a male crush from Federica’s past sets off a litany of doubts and threatens to disrupt the blissful world she and Marina have created together. Which version of herself will Federica ultimately choose?
Striking a mature balance between comedy and drama, Tognazzi finds the universal chord in her characters’ romantic struggles and delicately unfolds an affectionate story of love and compassion, graciously observing tempestuous hearts searching for their true home.
In Italian with English subtitles
Chat and chew!
Join us for a "bring your own" pre-movie dinner, held at the Redwood Room at Gateway from 5:30-6:30. Come early at 6:45 for a pre-movie discussion about how movies from this period portray LGBTQ+ characters. Members, family, and friends are all welcome!
Just Charlie
Just Charlie
Just Charlie from director Rebekah Fortune, tells the story of a young soccer star who is struggling with his own identity. He is under a lot of pressure from his parents, particularly his father to be this amazing up and coming soccer star so he doesn't have to grow up and be just another factory worker like his dad. While Charlie has a deep love for the game, he struggles with loving himself. Deep down he doesn't feel like a boy and with every passing day, he identifies more and more with being a girl. When the pressures of everyday life finally get too much too bear Charlie must face coming out to his parents and to his small British town about who he really is and who he wants to be. As Charlie's transition begins we see the struggle not only with acceptance from family but from the entire town. Charlie just wants everyone to know that despite what you see on the outside, she is still Just Charlie.
Chat and chew!
Join us for a "bring your own" pre-movie dinner, held at the Redwood Room at Gateway from 5:30-6:30. Come early at 6:45 for a pre-movie discussion about how movies from this period portray LGBTQ+ characters. Members, family, and friends are all welcome!
BONUS
Click here to read a review by Houston Film Fanatics.
Queer Book Club
Go Tell It On A Mountain
by James Baldwin
A semi-autobiographical novel set in 1930s Harlem that explores the religious, familial, and personal struggles of John Grimes, a fourteen-year-old boy. The story unfolds during a single day and night, focusing on John's spiritual awakening and his complex relationships with his family, particularly his fanatically religious stepfather, Gabriel, and his mother, Elizabeth. The novel delves into the history of John's family, revealing the backstories of his mother, his biological father (who died before his birth), and Gabriel, highlighting the influence of the Pentecostal church on their lives.
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain - 20th Anniversary
A sweeping epic that explores the lives of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection. The complications, joys and heartbreak they experience provide a testament to the endurance and power of love. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver emotionally charged, remarkably moving performances. Directed by Ang Lee. Run time: 2 hr 14 min.
Chat and chew!
Join us for a "bring your own" pre-movie dinner, held at the Redwood Room at Gateway from 5:30-6:30. Come early at 6:45 for a pre-movie discussion about how movies from this period portray LGBTQ+ characters. Members, family, and friends are all welcome!
BONUS
Click here to read the short story by Annie Proulx.
Click here for NY Times article about the film.
Queer Book Club
Diary of a Misfit
by Casey Parks
This engaging story interweaves a memoir of the author's own coming-out journey with a historical investigation into the life of Roy Hudgins, a rural Louisiana musician who lived as a man but was assigned female at birth.
Parks, also from the Deep South, explores how Roy's life and her own experiences intersect in a narrative that grapples with identity, acceptance, and the complexities of Southern culture.
Pride Walk
Pride Walk
The Pride Walk is a quintessential event at Rossmoor Pride. Each year more than 100 people from our LGBTQ+ community and allies show our Pride by walking around the Creekside Golf Course. Safer Streets has generously agreed to monitor the walk so all will be safe. Meet at the Plaza at 9:45 and plan to stay after the walk for music and a light continental breakfast of pastries, fruit and drinks.
Pride Kickoff
Pride Kickoff
Join us on the Plaza for music, light refreshments and receive a Pride Swag Bag.
Queer Book Club
Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant
by Curtis Chin
"Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" is a memoir that chronicles Curtis Chin’s upbringing in 1980s Detroit, specifically within his family's Chinese restaurant, Chung's Cantonese Cuisine. The book explores Chin's experiences as a gay, American-born Chinese kid navigating a changing city, a large and loving immigrant family, and his own self-discovery. It's a story of coming of age and coming out; it's woven with the flavors and lessons of a beloved family-run business. ?
Call or email Denise Mauldin at (925-457-4496, or dmauld@aol.com) for meeting details.
Board Meeting
Please join us for our monthly board meeting where we discuss current and future plans. We appreciate your input. This meeting will take place in MP3 in the Gateway complex.
PRIDE Planning Meeting
Come join the PRIDE Planning Committee as we make plans for our June Pride Celebration. This years theme is “Stronger Together”.
Queer Representation in Early Television
Prior to the movie, guests are welcome to “bring your own” alfresco dinner to the Redwood Room at Gateway. Guests may gather from 5:30pm – 6:30pm for dinner.
On May 6, the Discovery Film Series program focuses on the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters and their portrayal on television over the last five decades of the 20th century. These portrayals showed slow and unsteady movement from bemusement to vilification to expanding visibility, then limited acceptance to positive characterizations (with notable regressions).
Using film clips and classic TV episodes, the May 6 program focuses specifically on Firsts: thefirst recurring gay character, first depiction of a gay marriage, first lesbian main character, etc. Shows such as Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater, Barney Miller, Maude, and Mash are featured.
As with all programs in the Discovery Series, Queer Representation in Early Television invites the audience to address the question of how past and current characterizations of LGBTQ+ people in the media continue to impact the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals and culture.
Contact Alex Baccaro (1-510-541-4719) with questions about the film event or membership in the Alliance.
Board Meeting
Please join us for our monthly board meeting where we discuss current and future plans. We appreciate your input. This meeting will take place in MP3 in the Gateway complex.
PRIDE Planning Meeting
Come join the PRIDE Planning Committee as we make plans for our June Pride Celebration. This years theme is “Stronger Together”.