Gay Things to Do This Weekend: Gender Reel Film Festival, “Dash” Comic Debut, Philly Beauty Ball, and Lots More

FRIDAY is all about dancing

• Kick off your weekend shenanigans at the hairiest happy hour in town: Happy Bear at Tabu. This week, the men of Wolfstryker Leather are showing up.
• Later, move upstairs for Bearlesque.
• If smooth-and-sexy is more your style, Dr. Timaree and Sara Kelly will be hosting Sleepover. The Party. at Venture Inn. This month’s theme is SCREAM!
• Nolita Selector and Precolumbian are spinning at CUTN PASTE. Smear on your black lipstick to fit the “teen goth” theme.

SATURDAY is going to be rainy, go watch movies

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  “Dash” creators Dave Ebersole and Delia Gable. Photo by Meagan Ebersole.

  The annual Gender Reel Film Festival is finally here. This year’s event covers two days of films dedicated to the transgender community. There are over 30 flicks being shown this year—everything from shorts to feature lengths—and a variety of performances and panels. The Saturday itinerary goes from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it includes panels on “youth and family,” and “trans men of color,” and of course all kinds of films. For more, go here.

• Later that night it’s the Philly Beauty Ball at Woody’s, a hilarious evening of amateur drag to benefit Philly’s Mazzoni Center.
• Philadelphia playwright Dave Ebersole debuts his gay-themed detective noir comic book “Dash” at a party at Society Hill Playhouse. The evening will include a 1940s-style radio play of the first issue.
• Speaking of debuts: Philly singer-songwriter Joshua Thomas will perform his newest EP, The Harboring, at First Unitarian Church. In case you missed it, G Philly gave it all kinds of thumbs ups.
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  See Bev and company Sunday for brunch at Tabu.

  This month’s Vixens & Vagabonds Queer & Kinky Cabaret is food-themed. Show up ravenous.

SUNDAY brunch and more movies

• Bev, Maria TopCat and Dinah B. Sore host a “Wine, Spirits, and the Holy Toast” brunch at Tabu. I hope you like blasphemy with your eggs.
• Gender Reel continues with Out Activists, a collection of films and discussions that “explore everything from the oppression of trans woman of color, to Pakistani sexual minorities, to the inaccessibility of the public transit system for gender non-conforming individuals.” Get ready to learn a thing or 12.