Tobin and company gay up West Roxbury

Though I'm sure it's hard for some of you to believe that we actually get invited to the events we write about, as opposed to just barging into any old gathering of two or more people - as candidates campaigning for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council are wont to do - we recently received an invite to an LGBT fundraiser for West Roxbury City Councilor John Tobin and a couple things jumped out at us.

First, the event wasn't being held at Club Café, the LGBT fundraising capital of the Greater Boston Area. Second, except for a few exceptions like state Rep. Liz Malia, Sarah Hamlen, a former state rep. candidate, and comedian Jim Lauletta, we didn't recognize any of the names on the host committee. Instead, in the interest of keeping things home-grown, Tobin rounded up average LGBT constituents and other gay friends like George Sauer, a Dedham dentist he met while working on Dedham state Rep. Paul McMurtry's campaign a few years back. "For the most part I really wanted it to be JP- and West Roxbury-centric," Tobin explained of the June 3 event. "Folks who lived in my district who I've gotten to know over the years." As for the event's location at West on Centre, a West Roxbury restaurant located in the heart of the neighborhood, Tobin wanted to move the event away from the more tried-and-true LGBT-friendly venues of Jamaica Plain and Boston's South End.
"I said, you know what, why don't we do it West Roxbury ... right in the heart of my district, and do it where so many gay and lesbian ... individuals and families live?" Tobin recalled saying during the planning of the event. "And West [on Centre] is just a terrific place. It sits right in the middle of West Roxbury and JP. So that's what we're gonna do. I'm pretty proud of it."

And in Tobin's experience, West Roxbury, despite its mostly Irish-Catholic heritage, is getting pretty gay anyway. "I joke around about it, but I'm serious about it [too] - if someone had told me six, seven years ago there'd be a lesbian couple in the frozen food aisle at Roche Brothers, I'd reserve a bed for you at McLean for some observation." Then again, where else would discerning lesbians from West Roxbury pick up their Morning Star Farm veggie burgers?

Tobin's exposure to the neighborhood's burgeoning LGBT population, actually came courtesy of his mother Kathy Tobin, who accepted the daughter of a lesbian couple into her day care center, Kathy's Kids Corner, about 19 years ago. Tobin says that the couple had been turned down at a couple of other centers and eventually wound up at his mother's place. "That's groundbreaking," said the councilor. "You can imagine the types of conversations that my mother had to have with existing parents, people who had their kids in the day care." Viewed in that light, said Tobin, "Me doing a GLBT fundraiser in West Roxbury is nothing compared to what my parents have done."

Tobin's GLBT fundraiser takes place on Wednesday, June 3 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at West on Centre, 1732 Centre Street in West Roxbury. For more info contact Brooke at 617.922.0094 or brooke@thescannellgroup.com.

Barrios on the Cuban sandwich press for Arroyo?

Speaking of invitations and interloping at-large Boston City Council Candidates, we were also recently invited to a May 31 house party for candidate Felix G. Arroyo at the Jamaica Plain abode of Jarrett Barrios. The openly gay former state senator is enthusiastically co-chairing the campaign to elect Arroyo, the son of former at-large councilor Felix Arroyo, a stalwart supporter of the LGBT community. "This is the hardest I've worked on a campaign other than my own," says Barrios, who will be cooking up the Cuban dishes for the party himself (which presumably means grilled Fluffernutters won't be on the menu).

"He's an excellent cook," said Arroyo. "And he for good reason would want to show people that."

Arroyo, who also lives in Jamaica Plain is making his first bid for public office in an at-large race that has attracted a large field due to the fact that two of the four at-large seats - those of mayoral candidates Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon - are up for grabs. Like his father before him, Arroyo is working hard to establish himself as a progressive leader, evidenced in part by his outreach to the LGBT community and his decision in March not to participate in South Boston's St. Patrick's Day Parade, which excludes LGBT organizations from participating (ditto anti-war groups).

"I am the only person who had a campaign account at the time who did not march in the parade," said Arroyo, noting that parade organizers sent out invitations to march to all Council candidates who had opened the accounts. "I think the decision to not march in the St. Patrick's Day is an easy one," he also said. "I'm surprised that there weren't more of us making that decision."

More surprising, Arroyo, a political organizer and former aide to City Councilor Chuck Turner, was the only Council candidate to crash this year's Youth Pride march and rally on the Boston Common earlier this month, an impressive show of support for sure, considering most of the youngsters there probably weren't of voting age, or even city residents. "I deal with a lot of teenagers as a youth sports coach," said Arroyo of his reason for attending the event. "I know how difficult it is for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual young people, when they're going through that process of understanding who they are, how hard it is as far as peer pressure from other folks, how difficult that is. There was nothing there as far as votes," he added of the event. Well, okay, maybe one: Arroyo's brother Ernesto Arroyo's hip-hop outfit, the Foundation Movement performed at this year's Youth Pride festival. Ernesto, Arroyo pointed out, is unfortunately "one of the few hip hop artists who will perform at these events."

Ultimately, said Arroyo, "I consider myself a friend [of the LGBT community] in this campaign. I'm really proud of the fact that Liz Malia has already endorsed [me], Jarrett Barrios has already endorsed [me]. I see that as a good sign in my race," he said "... I'm proud of that."