GetEQUAL

While the government may not be ready to accept same-sex marriage it seems the man upstairs is giving his thumbs up. Well, sort of. The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin will be performing a mass same-sex marriage and commitment ceremony on the Capitol steps this Saturday at 5:30pm. It may be too short of a notice to get your wedding invites printed, but your friends will understand it's not shotgun.

“Marriage is about love and commitment, and GLBT citizens want the same rights to express their commitment to a life-partner that heterosexual citizens enjoy,” says Reverend Meg Barnhouse, who will be officiating the ceremony by the powers vested in her.

An experienced yoga professional and energy healer, Catherine has also been featured on the TV series, “Great Yoga Teachers.” Self discovery and acceptance are major aspects of yoga and this inspired Catherine to open a studio that focuses on a community that often struggles with these issues. Based on her own life journey and the role yoga has played in it, Catherine saw this as an opportunity to make a difference. Her new endeavor provides a space for LGBT yogis to practice and talk comfortably, honestly, and naturally about their lives, struggles, and rewards.

It certainly isn’t the primary tagline, but Austin might be one of the biggest sports towns in the world. Longhorn football, baseball, and basketball are among the most prestigious in college programs, and given that about 50,000 students and a solid percentage of the native ostensibly care quite a bit about the ‘horns, that’s quite an industry. People here are willing to get excited about sports; of course most of it happens over the course of a school year, leaving the summer months completely absent of any major competition. Naturally the MLS season runs from March to October, directly through Austin’s most inactive part of the year. For a city with a lot of disposable income, a decent amount of daytime inertness, and notoriously arduous heat - a trip to the Soccer field seems like a pretty easy sell.

There’s already a stadium ready.

The Mike A. Myers Track & Soccer Stadium holds 20,000 people and stays dormant for a solid portion of the year. 20,000 is more than enough for an American soccer venue, especially when you consider the most notable team, L.A. Galaxy, has an exclusive stadium that only hosts 27,000. For the means and expectations of an MLS franchise, there’s a conveniently low barrier of entry in terms of, you know, a playing field. Mike A. Myers lies quite close to the city center, which means no excursions to the outskirts because of zoning regulations. Having a team home so close to the rest of the city makes for an easy path to community-building, looming like a constant reminder to cure a lulled afternoon.

There’s a rivalry waiting to happen.

Soccer tends to thrive on rivalry; some of the most successful teams in North America earned their fanbase through local, goodhearted shit-talk. The Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders, and Portland Timbers have been competing for the Cascadia Cup long before they were affiliated with the MLS, and that’s garnered one of the most devoted fanbases in all of sports. For Austin, the Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas are already well-established, and perfectly ready to foster an instate rivalry. And generally speaking, Austinites are always ready to represent their city’s superiority, especially in the context of other Texan cities, in any way possible.

This is Austin we’re talking about.

The two most successful teams in the MLS are the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders. It’s really not even a contest; they’ve been selling out their stadiums nightly. It’s pretty easy to lump Austin within the same ethos of those two cities, music towns with a liberal edge and something to prove. Sure it might not be as big population-wise, but Austin’s demographics are just the thing to ignite the same sort of fever. Enthusiastic, forward-thinking individuals, eager to reciprocate the same sort of European passion for the sport - not out of an image thing, but it’s not going out on a limb to say there’s a higher density of soccer-literate people here than in, well, Houston or Dallas. It just seems like a natural fit. If soccer is going to continue to be a concern in America, it’ll be alternative-leaning towns like Austin that facilitate the revolution.

Hush

Austin's more adventurous gays have already wandered past the usual 4th street haunts and discovered Austin's newest gay bar, Hush. Two of Austin's long time bar barons have ventured into business of the homosexual persuasion, which coincidentally befits the partnered couple. While Hush has been open for business for about a month, last week was its official coming out party. Located in the building that formerly housed Light Bar, Hush features two dance floors, multiple rooms, a rooftop lounge, and a late bed time - all crucial for attracting the cruising homosexual.