Q&As

On dating: “It’s not the guys, it’s once they tell their parents. They were there when HIV was considered a death sentence.”

“When I’m supporting all my weight with my forearm, it may not look like much, but it isn’t easy. When my partner spins me like a helicopter, sometimes I get dizzy and feel like my eyeballs are going to pop out.”

“There will definitely be some thrashing and head banging and good ol’ spontaneous banter—just a heavy non-stop night of GROUPLOVE. If you are there, you are a part of it.”

“I think I was about 7 years old. The morning after my parents had a party, I got up and tried some 10-hour-old Michelob,” she says of her first beer. “Not good, but that was my first.”

Says Bird about his return to the NBA team based in Indianapolis: “I don’t know if I’d be doing this if it was anywhere but here.”

The Hoosier rocket man talks about life in the International Space Station.

“If you want the arts to thrive in your area, you have to support them with funding. Apparently, our community’s priorities are elsewhere.”

Question: A friend says my Instagramming is disruptive to other trail-users, but everyone “hearts” my tilted shots of trees and bridges. What’s the verdict?

“At the end of the day, I have to make some very tough decisions that will not sit well with people. But they’ll understand why I made the decision and what my thinking was.”

The Circle City IN Pride Festival saw a spike in attendance in 2012, both in terms of volunteer manpower and goers at every one of a week’s worth of events from June 2 through 9. Here, Stephanie Swanson, 2012 Indy Pride chair, shares her thoughts on the successes, shortcomings, and opportunities that Indy Pride, Inc., and the Indianapolis LGBT community have both now and moving forward.