14th Annual Community Tree-Lighting Celebration Set for Saturday, December 5th

October 26, 1:32 PMNashville Gay Community ExaminerDon Bradshaw

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Photo by Tom Goss

NASHVILLE, TN - The Annual Community Tree-Lighting Celebration sponsored by OutLoud! Books will be held on Sunday, December 5, beginning at 7 p.m. For the past 14 years, OutLoud! Books has organized this event to bring together the community for a celebration of our work and our hopes for the upcoming year.

Everyone is invited to join in the celebration, which welcomes participation from all faith traditions and spiritual journeys. Participants are encouraged to create their own ornament to put on the community tree. Children are welcome. Refreshments will be provided.

There will be an opportunity to mingle--and to shop! Just like the past 14 years, 10% of all purchases during the celebration will go to the Tennessee Equality Project. TEP is a statewide organization dedicated to promote and sustain the equality of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons in the State of Tennessee through the establishment of fair and equitable laws protecting these rights and the elimination of laws that would seek to counter this effort.

Washington, DC-based musician Tom Goss will be performing at OutCentral Cultural Center beginning at 8 p.m. Goss is a singer-songwriter whose muscular style and sensitive spirit has earned him a growing national following. With an acoustic guitar (and sometimes piano), He moves from powerful pop to beautiful ballads as he sings of love, loss and longing. Tom has released three albums since 2006; he is just back from a 58-city US tour in support of his latest, Back to Love. The video for 2008's "Rise" soared to #2 on MTV's LOGO and the video for 2009's "Till the End" created an instant buzz, generating more than 100,000 views on YouTube and Facebook. The concert will begin at 8 p.m., and is free to the public.

From 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., Santa will be around to hear everyone's wish list. Kids, pets, singles, couples, friends and entire families are encouraged to get their picture taken with Santa for $5 a print. All proceeds will go toward the OutCentral Cultural Center. OutCentral is a hub, if you will-that welcomes gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex individuals and their friends and families into a positive energy-filled environment where organizations can collaborate, where enduring relationships can be created, where there is integration rather than isolation, and where recreation and education flourish.

OutLoud! Bookstore is an independent bookstore committed to providing the LGBT and progressive communities essential educational and entertaining resources, an interesting and diverse selection of books and general merchandise, high quality clothing and gifts, extensive community programming, and public access to current information and opportunities in a comfortable, inviting, and inclusive environment. We are located at 1703 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37203.