On Wednesday, May 22, 4 — 7 p.m., join local elected officials and announced candidates at the Harvey Milk Day Meet and Mingle at The Birchwood Inn, 340 Beach Dr. N.E., St. Petersburg. Tickets are $50. Proceeds from the event support two local non-profits, Pinellas Youth Pride and You Are Valued.

Lovers of literature should head to the L Train, 900 Central Ave., St. Petersburg for Wordier Than Thou’s storytelling open mic series on Thursday, May 23, 7 p.m. With a focus on fiction and creative non-fiction, this month’s event features authors Jeff Strand and Beth Adele Long in addition to its open mic slots.

And it’s not this weekend’s only LGBT literary event. There’s also a book release party for lesbian author Fiona Zedde on Saturday, May 25, 5 — 8 p.m. at R Bar, 1820 N. 15th St., Ybor City. The party celebrates the release of her latest novel, “Broken in Soft Places.”

Someday Souvenir’s Chrissy DeRado hosts live acoustic karaoke at the L Train on Friday, May 24, 8 — 11:30 p.m. Cover is $7 and an additional $5 for singers. Iris Calling will open at 8 p.m. and karaoke begins at 9 p.m.

On a national level, same-sex marriage could soon be recognized by the United States government. This means that federal benefits for married gay couples will be the same as heterosexual married couples. What sort of federal benefits? Social security benefits, VA benefits, military benefits, IRS tax situations.

We’d be back home in the Pacific Northwest in just a few days and, we hoped, bed bug-less. Once on the road, my sweetheart read to me about Flatonia, which boasts 8,000 people and a proud melting pot history.

We sped through San Antonio, a pretty city of light-colored architecture we want to explore some day when we recover from traveling, on I-10. The more I see of America, the more I want to see.

Where El Paso by night looked like the inner circle of hell, as my sweetheart described it, in the daylight it was just another crowded city, baking in the desert heat. We motored on, stopping at a LaQuinta in Fort Stockton, Texas, gleeful at its cleanliness. We bought a little .99 cent moon cactus there, named her Cactus Rose after the Larry McMurtry book, and went on for lunch to the very windy outskirts of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Las Cruces is a required stop; writer Cate Culpepper and her imagination were nurtured there ("Riverwalker", et. al). We’d planned to visit an Alice B. Readers Appreciation Awards committee member, but messed up our geography and settled for her promise to visit us on the coast.

The three-day event espouses the late Milk’s ideals by showcasing emerging musicians and artists who support diversity and reject discrimination, while promoting equality for the LGBT community.

The festival kicked off Thursday, May 16 with the screening of the documentary “I Am Divine,” about the life of filmmaker John Waters’ muse, Divine. On Friday, May 17, the Equality Gallery opens at MillerBrady Fine Art with the theme of “Beyond Bullying,” and the main music festival takes place on Saturday, May 18 at Five Points Park.

The Tampa Museum of Art, 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza, hosts its eighth annual Pride & Passion event on Saturday, May 18 starting at 8 p.m. The event features cuisine from Timpano Italian Chophouse, complimentary cocktails and beverages, entertainment and gallery admission. Plus, every paid admission receives a full-year museum membership. Cost is $85 per person after May 1.

Girl2Girl Productions holds its second live music showdown on Saturday, May 18, 8 p.m. at the Local 662, 662 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. Three female-fronted bands — Iris Calling, Kill the Sound and Anyone’s Guess — are playing for a chance to win $500 and perform at the November Girls OutLoud Music Festival. Cover is $5.

Gay marriage is now legal in 12 states. Rhode Island, Delaware and Minnesota recently hopped the short fence to land on the right side of history.

It’s like America is a frat house, playing a game of Waterfall where gay marriage is Natural Ice and the other 38 states just can’t hang. Not yet, at least.

• Time Magazine

The Minnesota State Senate voted to approve same-sex marriages 37 to 30 on May 13, following approval by the State’s House of Representatives last week. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law later today.

This comes on the heels of Rhode Island approving gay marriage last week. Minnesota also has a marriage equality bill that is expected to pass by as early as this weekend.

• Author Lee Lynch grabbed some grub at the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro in New Orleans on her latest cross-country trek to her new home in Oregon.

Without our little darlings meowling, barking and barfing up kibble in strange motel rooms, we were free to see some of our friends along the way. Becky Arbogast, of Bella Books and the old Naiad Press, and her partner, author Robin Alexander, met us for dinner. It turned from a get together to a boisterous hoopla event when Becky’s mom and friend joined us for some tasty Tallahassee grub.

3/14/13: We drove to Metairie, Louisiana, tossed our essentials into the motel room and splurged on a taxi into New Orleans. Our driver was from Pakistan, and regaled us with tales of Mardi Gras shootings.

The writers J.M. Redmann and Greg Herren, after full days of work, kindly agreed to meet us at The Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro on Frenchmen Street in the heart of the blues and jazz Marigny district.

Missing our kitties, we stopped at The Spotted Cat Music Club and discovered a marvelous retro mix of Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald in Miss Sophie Lee and her band, The New Orleans Cottonmouth Kings. If you can’t get to NOLA, buy her CD “Tallulah Moon.”

The Snug Harbor boasted the best cheeseburgers in town, but I tried blackened redfish and ascended to culinary heaven. My sweetheart, who is thrilled by Nola’s open container policy, imbibed some of a Hurricane and a bowl of gumbo.

While a jazz quintet provided the mood music, we talked shop with J.M. and Greg, sister Bold Strokes Books authors. Greg drove us home in an interesting jalopy only a New Orleans writer could love.