"thank you glammy awards and everyone who voted. i'm honored. i would also like to thank mike peyton, the band nekked and the eagle for giving me the stage and box i ever danced on. i also have to thank the following, linda simpson, paul short, rich king, stephen cloutier, max scott, matt rau, mark nelson, man parish, joe fiore, matthew bank, gary lacinski, jeffrey eason, peter lau, view bar, nowhere bar, g lounge, the cock, the center, bana, the saint at large, alegria, hx and next. each of you has had a hand in and contributed to my receiving this award, so from the bottomeof my heart, i thank you!and a very special thank you to my uber sexy partner in crime... jack. your love and support means the universe to me. oh, and for the record... i'm the lucky one! i have one more thank you... to every bar owner, party promoter and night life legend here tonight or not... thank you for fighting for our fuckin right to party!thank you.
BOYCOTT CRUNCHAfter two years at Crunch Gym on Lafayette Street John and I (Alessandro) terminated our memberships and we urge everyone who currently works out there to either terminate their memberships or to decline to renew them at expiration. We ask this because the gym's operating staff and managementhas failed to respond to someone who has been intimidating, abusive andhomophobic and in such failure the gym has failed to offer a safe orenjoyable environment.At the Crunch facility on Lafayette there is a particular individual who has a history of intimidating other members in order to gain priority on the use of work out equipment. He had behaved this way to me before but typically I just tried to ignore him. On October 7th, however, behaviour became more aggressive and abusive. He was annoyed that he had to wait for my work out partner and me to finish working out on a particular piece of equipment he wanted to use. He tried to intimidate me by standing a foot from my face with his arm crossed and staring directly right in my eyes. I ignored him for the first set but politely confronted him after the second.My questioning his actions cause him to become hostile and belligerent including calling my work out partner a faggot and physically threatening us. Crunch staff failed to intervene even as they witnessed the situation escalate and even after my workout partner's call for assistance. We filed a complaint with the gym and reported the event to the Anti Violence Project, which opened a file as a bias hate crime. Given the lack of involvement by gym staff we contacted the corporate office. We got considerable run-around but because of our determination and persistence finally made contact with the regional manager after a month of trying. Following initial interest, concern and promise of takingaction Crunch ultimately told us we should let it go and be gentlemen. They did not understand or decided not to understand the gravity of the situation and the impact it had on us. All we really got was a lot of lip service.I am 41 years old. I joined a private establishment where I pay a membership. It is unacceptable that someone believes they have the right to try and intimidate me. I refused to be bullied when I was a teenager and I am not going to accept it now. To call someone a Faggot is a hate crime. It is illegal for a nyc establishment to tolerate this behaviour and quite frankly it is stupid for a nyc gym to do so.It's a long and tired history. There are some warped individuals that still believe that it is okay to intimidate, physically threaten or disparage someone simply because he is gay. By not responding Crunch staff is tacitly condoning this mindset. John and I terminated our membership, because we cannot continue to support an establishment that condones homophobia and is incapable of providing a safe environment for its members.Individually, John's voice and my voice will be of little consequence to Crunch. All of us collectively, however, have the ability to influence change. With this, we are asking all of you to boycott Crunch as a statement that we do not condone the firm's actions.Crunch advertises: NO Judgment, that is....unless you are gay. Join a different gym that respects its members. We did.This e-mail was sent to 956 people in New York City including various magazine (OUT, HX, NEXT, THE BLADE, TIME OUT, The Village Voice, WWW.BILERICO.COM). Please circulate this information.Best,Alessandro/John
