22.22 Editor’s desk

“It takes no compromise to give people their rights … it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.” – Harvey Milk

From this vantage point, high atop an ivory tower bedazzled with mellifluous ideas and glorious non-functionality, we can clearly say that we are pleasantly exhausted. (We’d like to say, “Elegantly Wasted,” but Michael Hutchence would stare us down for the sky and tell us that sometimes we kick, sometimes we get kicked.) Minus some excess – or INXS, if you will (enough already) – it was an amazing Come Out With Pride celebration in Orlando on Oct. 10, a fabulous Sarasota Pride on Oct. 17 and a ridiculous Headdress Ball benefitting Hope and Help on that very same Saturday.

All of this and more could be yours if you rifle through the pages of what is now staring back at your face. We had fun! So did you, apparently!

But fun is fun, and work is work, so we spent some time on the backend figuring out exactly what it was that was making our community thrive over the last two weeks. Guess what! The world isn’t always a party, but, increasingly, it’s a good time, and we’re celebrating it.

Though this issue hangs a heavy bleeding heart on the Orlando municipal elections coming up on Nov. 3 (vote, please!), it’s basically all over the map from there. Sure, that’s Lady Patty Sheehan gleaming on our cover again and running for her fifth term as Orlando city commissioner. Yes we do throw in a couple of whatnots and wherefores about the suddenly nasty tones drowning out our pearl-clutching arena of political noisemaking; no, some people will not be angered by all of that; yes, we take risks sometimes and have them blow up in our faces. Yay, life!

But there are other amazing things, too. More than two decades ago, Watermark owner and founder Tom Dyer sat down with Married with Children out-and-proud star Amanda Bearse for what would be the paper’s first cover. Bearse has evolved from her laugh-track days as the first lesbian on prime-time television and into her rightful place in the LGBT pantheon. Also, she’s a vampire, so watch out.

In this amazingly lady-laden issue, we also speak with up-and-coming (OK, she’s been winning at this for a while) singer-songwriter Brandy Clark, famous for her work with The Band Perry and Miranda Lambert (and Reba!). Clark’s coming out from behind the curtain with a new record, some of which she’ll hopefully be performing in Clearwater and Melbourne when she makes her late-October Florida trek.

We swish and swash through various parties and galas, because life is hard; we make a little bit of noise here and there about the Democratic presidential debate; our conservative columnist Jason Leclerc takes us on a leafy pastoral ride through taxation and what it means to our communities (it’s fun! Seriously!); and Watermark publisher Rick Claggett takes his eyes off the fireworks and sequins for a minute to remind us what it is that we’re fighting for in the shadow of National Coming Out Day and the horrifying reality that was Matthew Shepard’s hateful, public murder in October 1998.

In truth, none of these things are as disparate as their names and dates imply. Politics make rights, people need help, parties are great sometimes, acting can be revolutionary, songwriting can make lives better and build bridges. We’re all in this together.

Even with the noise filling up the current sphere of local politics – and its adjacent echoes banging along with the drum leading up to next year’s political primaries and general election – there remains a song to be sung, a smile to be felt and some work to be done. None of us are perfect, but, cough, some of us should try harder.

We’re watching as progress happens. We’re a little worried about some of the things we’re hearing whispered in back rooms. We hope you don’t give up the fight; we won’t. There’s too much at stake, so much that even an elected figurehead cannot fix. It takes no political deal to give people freedom.