Well, it kinda felt like all parts of my life came together last night at Radio City Music Hall. The stars certainly aligned for Hillary Clinton at the I’m With Her concert, where we all celebrated her strong Super Tuesday wins in 7 states. A little backstory first.
My friend, attorney and MAJOR Hillary supporter Risa Levine, invited me to join her and a group of friends to see Andra Day, Elton John & Katy Perry. Tickets were not cheap at $250, but if you’ve been to a concert in the last decade, that is NOT really expensive either and it was money I want to contribute the campaign so, win-win.
Growing up gay in Texas, Elton John was my hero. I had 200 pictures of him on my wall and his early music was the soundtrack of my teens, more than any other artist. We’ve both come out since and living in New York City during the 80s & 90s AIDS epidemic, his fight against HIV and AIDS has raised some $350 million dollars and saved countless lives and always put him on another level politically.
By the time we had a few cocktails and took our seats, we were ready for the big show. From the first chords of Tiny Dancer, I couldn’t hold back the tears. I know. What a sap, right? But I was really moved by his performance of that as well as Your Song and Levon. There is a reason this guy has been an international superstar for 5 decades. He still has the piano playing and performing chops and did an 8-song set, getting a standing O after each classic dedicating his final song of the night, Still Standing to Hillary. (I know what you haters are thinking. No, he did NOT do The Bitch Is Back!)

Andra Day

Julianne Moore
Oscar-Wining goddess (and my neighbor) Julianne Moore spoke movingly, before introducing Chelsea Clinton,
“Hillary has always fought for us and now it’s our turn to fight for her.”
Our future first fellow and former POTUS, Bill Clinton spoke sweetly and passionately about the woman he met “45 years ago this month,” and gave a shout-out to Neil Patrick Harris in the audience. (Also, from some pictures I’ve seen, Orlando Bloom was in the house too, supporting his new girl friend, the headline act, KP.) Perry did a full mini-concert with band, back-up dancers and a red white and blue star spangled stage look. The whole evening was VERY pro women’s rights and VERY LGBTQ positive. I had to imagine fundraisers on the other side, turning to my new lesbian pal during Katy’s performance of E.T.o to say,
“Ted Cruz doesn’t have acts like this at his rallies, does he…?“
Katy did all of her hits like California Gurls, Dark Horse and Teenage Dream finishing with –what else?– Firework. She made a dedication to Hillary with Unconditional.
“I sing this next song for her because I do believe this woman shows unconditional love.”
Hillary’s comments were pretty brief, but she was obviously still happy about Super Tuesday calling last night Super Wednesday. After it was all over, web hit the street just blocks away from Trump Tower… the freezing night suddenly seemed surreal. I remembered what I said earlier as we sipped cocktails,
“You know, as New Yorkers, we were hating Donald Trump LONG before it was cool…“
All kidding aside, myself along with lots of other folks, rich and no-so-rich and famous and not-so, believe Hillary is the only person that can stop Trump. Elton said during his performance, that this election was SO important and
“…she’s your only hope.“
Hillary herself closed with…
“The stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric from the other side has never been lower. So we’ve got work to do my friends, but not to make America great again, America never stopped being great. We have to make America whole!”
What she said.