Seattle Pride Announces Judges: Me and Marcy D’Arcy

Actress/director AMANDA BEARSE is a judge for the 2018 Seattle Pride Parade

Well, they announced the judges for the 2018 Seattle Pride Parade today…

Basically, it’s ME and all sorts of awesome women/womyn including Marcy D’arcy…aka AMANDA BEARSE the actor/director/part time Seattlite best known for starring as crazy uptight neighbor Marcy on “Married with Children”.

The other judges are ANGELINA VILLALOBOS aka 179, an artist; photographer/animator MELISSA O’HEARN; journalista SARAH TOCE (from The Seattle Lesbian) and film maker WENDY JO CARLTON.

Now I know what it feels like to be a token.

Or, maybe we’re just the only 6 people willing to get up at the crack of 10am to judge a parade.

I wish I could travel back in time to 1982 to tell my high school Spanish class I would one day in the future be judging gay pride parades with Amanda Bearse aka “Amanda Cousins” from the soap opera “All My Children”. It aired at noon in the Midwest and I’d watch it on my lunch hour then go to Spanish class and relay that day’s plot to everyone else (all 5 of them; small school!). They’d be shocked and amazed…mostly because neither Amanda nor myself was out of the closet at that time…

More poo on the judges!

We are honored to introduce the 2018 Seattle Pride Parade judges panel. They bring years of experience from the arts, entertainment, and journalistic disciplines. Our judges will select the best walking contingent and the best float in this year’s parade. The winners will be given free registration for the 2019 Parade along with other prizes.

 

Angelina Villalobos aka 179

“My name is Angelina Villalobos, my art superhero name is 179. I’m a Seattle born art activist and partner with communities connecting art with action. My work strives to engage viewers to partake in their environment through observation & participation. I believe community engagement is vital to successful art planning and that art should be accessible to all.” Angelina’s art graces the cover of the 2018 Seattle Pride Guide.

 

Amanda Bearse

Current Seattle resident, Amanda Bearse has enjoyed over thirty-five years in the entertainment industry, twenty-five of which have been directing comedy. She began her acting career in New York on “All My Children”, and after moving to Hollywood, Amanda was cast in the cult horror film “Fright Night” opposite Chris Sarandon, followed by another cult classic, the role of Marcy D’Arcy on the Fox sitcom, “Married…With Children”. She directed numerous episodes during the final six seasons and has since directed over a hundred sitcoms as well as the sketch comedy series, “Mad TV”. Amanda executive produced and directed “The Big Gay Sketch Show”, helping to launch the LOGO network.
In 1993, at the height of her acting career, Amanda came out as a lesbian to the public with a cover article in the Advocate. Amanda’s activism for the LGBT community began as the first poster child for HRC’s National Coming Out Day. She has served on the boards of The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and the LA Gay & Lesbian Center and has often spoken on behalf of the LGBTQ community, promoting visibility and equal rights, including Seattle’s World AIDS Day. In January, Amanda made her off-Broadway directing debut with “Party Face”. Here in Seattle, she is lead instructor in the Acting for Film program at the Seattle Film Institute.

 

Melissa O’Hearn

Melissa O’Hearn is an international product and fashion photographer and stop-motion animator. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Spin, the Seattle Met, and currently, is a contributing photographer at Starbucks. She lives in Seattle via Wyoming, with her partner, two cats, and two part-time chihuahua-cha-chas. Her keen eye and queer spirit capture the beauty in everything and everyone. Her work can be found on instagram.com/melissaohearn and melissaohearn.com

 

Michael Strangeways

As the Editorial Director/Co-Owner, Michael Strangeways writes, edits and does about a million other jobs for Seattle Gay Scene, Puget Sound’s most visited LGBTQ news, arts and entertainment website now celebrating its 10th year as a media outlet. A semi-proud Midwesterner by birth, he’s lived in Seattle since 2000. He’s also a film producer who would like you to check out the Jinkx Monsoon documentary, “Drag Becomes Him” now available on Amazon.com. In his spare time, he gets slightly obsessive about his love for old movies, challenging theater, “otters,” vodka, chocolate, “I,Claudius,” Lizzie Borden, real books made out of paper, disaster films, show tunes, Weimar era Germany, flea markets, pop surrealistic art, the sex lives of Hollywood actors both living and dead, kitties, chicken fried steak, haute couture  and David Bowie. But, not necessarily in that order.

 

Sarah Toce

Award-winning journalist Sarah Toce was honored with the 2017 Community Builder Award by
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. In June, she was recognized as one of the most powerful journalists of 2017 by Curve magazine. She was also the recipient of the distinguished 2016 LGBT Leadership Award from the Washington Diversity Council.

In 2014, she was named one of GO Magazine’s Red Hot Entrepreneurs. In 2012, the McCormick Foundation named Sarah one of their New Media Women Entrepreneurs for her work developing and publishing Seattle’s daily LGBT online newspaper – The Seattle Lesbian. In its first year alone, The Seattle Lesbian reached a threshold of one million readers on a global scale.

Sarah currently serves on the boards of the Society of Professional Journalists – Washington Chapter, GALECA -The LGBTQ Entertainment Critics Association, and is a founding committee member of Burien Pride.

 

Wendy Jo Carlton

Wendy Jo Carlton directed her first feature, Hannah Free, starring Emmy-winner Sharon Gless, in 2009. Hannah Free won several Audience awards and is globally distributed. Carlton wrote and directed her second feature, Jamie and Jessie are Not Together, (said to be the first lesbian romance musical), which film critics Roger Ebert and Michael Phillips giving glowing reviews. Her LGBTQ digital series, Easy Abby, received 50 million views for its 13-episode Season One, and both seasons are now distributed by Revry.tv.

Wendy Jo started her career in radio, producing fake travelogues for a weekly show. Her award-winning short films have screened internationally, including the American Film Institute and Sundance. Carlton founded a media literacy and filmmaking program for teen girls called Chicks make Flicks, and is committed to community collaboration. Carlton was an Artist-in-Residence at 911 Media Arts in Seattle and a recipient of the Navona Fellowship from the University of Illinois Chicago, where she earned a graduate degree in Moving Image.