Northport Tea Dance promotes visibility, inclusion and civil rights for all

By Abby Chatfield

Sun contributor

Leelanau County’s most remote village will host the final event of Pride Week for the fourth consecutive year. Sanctioned by Up North Pride and produced by The Chetcuti Evans Foundation, the Northport Tea Dance will take place at Faro on Sunday, Sept. 29, as a grand finale sendoff following a week of Traverse City-based celebrations centered around Northern Michigan’s queer community. The focus of this inclusive, family-friendly event is to create awareness and visibility for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Leelanau (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and the plus reflects the countless affirmative ways in which people choose to self-identify).

The Chetcuti Evans Foundation co-founder, Michael Chetcuti, was heavily involved in organizing Up North Pride in its earlier days, which has grown at a rapid rate since 2012. The Traverse-based celebrations soon required paid staff, so Chetcuti decided his energy was better spent in Leelanau County, where a satellite event for Pride Week could create more visibility in Leelanau for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. As a resident of Northport, he was particularly interested in the event happening there, also the farthest north and hardest to visit town in Leelanau. People from as far as Ann Arbor and Detroit who come in for other Pride events add the Northport party to their itineraries as well. Chetcuti said, “It’s been really well received. We’ve had great attendance and a lot of support. It’s basically a sold-out event.”

Besides delectable food, libations, and general comradery, the event’s highlight will be live entertainment by Monique Madison and the Kunty Kittens and music by DJ Jay Harnish. Madison is a new act this year and is handling full production herself. Madison’s entertainment company, based in Kalamazoo, is known for its diversity and variety as stand-up comics, live vocalists, dance divas, rock and roll enthusiasts, Broadway and Burlesque performers. Madison shared, “I myself am a stand-up comedian, published author of The Serial Showgirl series, actress, and mistress of ceremonies. Nobody hypes the crowd up better than Monique Madison.”

Madison started her career as a drag entertainer more than 28 years ago in a tiny Kalamazoo bar called Brothers Beta Club. “My drag mother, Chelsea Del Rey, saw a star in me before I did,” recalled Madison. “I have always loved being on stage, making people laugh, and being a voice for the LGBTQIA+ community.” Although this is Madison’s first Northport Tea Dance, she has visited Northport several times before to perform drag queen bingo for Mario Batali’s annual Northport Promise fundraiser. Batali is listed as a donor to Northport Promise, a nonprofit providing scholarship money for Northport Public School graduates.

The Chetcuti Evans Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit that hosts and sponsors paid events to raise money for Northern Michigan and South Florida charities in need. It focuses on the 2SLGBTQIA+ and other under-served communities through events that promote visibility, awareness, and inclusion. While the party is always fun, the real reason why Chetcuti produces the event is to create awareness for everyone, whether they are for or against it. He wants to make sure that local youth know there is a community here where they are accepted.

Although in previous years only one person has repeatedly shown up at the event to protest it, a post from a private Facebook group called Overheard in Leelanau County, composed of over 44,000 members, highlights local tensions surrounding the event and what it supports. On Aug. 16, Chetcuti shared a Leelanau Enterprise article about the tea dance, and the post collected more than 560 comments covering a spectrum of opinions. While many group members vocalized support for the event and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, there was a generous share of dissenters as well. After reading the comments, it was apparent that most people vocalizing a strong distaste for the event believe it as either too sexual or that it encourages mental illness and indoctrinating children. As Chetcuti puts it, “We’re fighting against a group of people that would much rather have our civil rights taken away and much rather not have us included in society. And not witness any of the culture that the LGBTQ unit has to have. We have our own culture.”

While adult-audience drag shows often play with sexuality, drag performance in general is not inherently sexual. The Northport Tea Dance is a family friendly, inclusive event with non-sexualized performances by professional drag performers. When addressing accusations of supporting mental illness, Chetcuti said, “It’s completely absurd. Somebody who goes to mass every day and takes communion every day, that’s kind of crazy too.” The message is live and let live. You do you, and let others do the same.

“We should be focused on the children who are getting bullied by all ages because they don’t fall in line with the mainstream,” Chetcuti said. “They need visibility so they aren’t cornered or feeling alone.”

According to The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, 41% of LGBTQ youth ages 13-24 seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, while fewer than 40% of LGBTQ youth found their home to be LGBTQ-affirming. Creating affirming spaces for these youth can be a life saver.

Online comments can feel worrisome, considering the current political temperature and culture wars in the U.S. spurred by politics. Chetcuti said, “Truly the point is, people yelling the loudest are people bolstering their faith.”

“I feel that if somebody does not agree with me or my lifestyle that is their choice, and it’s their freedom of speech,” Madison shared. “However, when people choose anger, hate speech, or violence, that is when I take the situation seriously. I am lucky enough to have a platform to be able to have a voice to call out unacceptable behavior while reminding everybody that being a part of the LGBTQIA community that we are queer, we are here, and we are not going anywhere!”

Northport resident and local business owner, Daniel Caudill, shared the reason his business, Olean’s, sponsors the event every year. Caudill said, “Northport has a lot of great events all year, like most of the events in Northport are really family oriented. This event has a lot of allies with friends, families, siblings. Lots of people coming together to support and have a good time.”

The Northport Tea Dance’s other sponsor, Shapiro’s Delicatessen, is based in Indianapolis and is the oldest family-owned Jewish-style deli in the United States. Owners Brian and Sally Shapiro have owned a home in Omena for 30 years and have two children who are members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Shapiro’s is sponsoring the event to be supportive of their family and community. Brian attended the event last year and saw a need to step up its hot dog game.

“Mario (Batali) was cooking hot dogs, and I was harassing him that he didn’t have the proper hot dog or condiments with it. At that point, I said that I would just take care of the hot dog situation for this year.”

Chetcuti said, “I just encourage everyone to come and certainly if there are people out there that want to help family or friends, bring them to the event. We get a lot of smiles and a lot of emotion. We are really looking for these people to unwind and have a good time. If we can help one kid a year from harming themselves or being abused, we did a good job.”

For more details and to purchase tickets to the Northport Tea Dance, click here.

For a list of all Up North Pride events taking place the last week of September, visit upnorthpride.com/events.