This past weekend kinda kicked off the annual extravaganza, many LGBTQIA persons prefer to simply as Pride. In June ofd every year we remember and celebrate. We are remembering our history, and the role that a skirmish between the NYC Police and a ragtag mix of queer persons had in shaping the modern queer rights movement. Some will say, it all began with Pride (meaning Stonewall) and others will say, Pride started as a riot,[Read More…]
Pittsburgh, PA- Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 25th at 9:00 a.m. on the City-County Building’s Portico, City Councilperson Erika Strassburger and Council President Bruce A. Kraus will stand in solidarity with community leaders to honor the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a landmark event in the struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights. Also, Councilperson Strassburger, Council President Kraus, and the City’s Commission on Human Relations will announce the introduction of legislation to strengthen local protections against discrimination based[Read More…]
It isn’t hard to find memes and T-shirt’s, that announce Pride month by claiming that “the first Pride march was a riot.” This is true in some regards and misleading in others. We celebrate Pride in June to commemorate the Stonewall riots in New York City. A police raid on the Stonewall Inn in the early morning hours of June 28th, 1969 set off riots over multiple nights and is considered today to be the[Read More…]
Every June, I post some semblance of this list. These points apply to Pride each and every year, and are applicable to Pride anywhere, even though I’m in Pittsburgh PA and writing with our Pride at the center of my thinking. Here’s my list of 12 tips for making the most of LGBTQIA+ Pride: • Remember why we are celebrating Pride in June, and where the notion of a yearly remembrance and celebration came from.[Read More…]
We (queer activists) aren’t acting for the whole of the queer community or marginalized communities if we are calling for gay rights at the expense of clean drinking water, unpolluted land, and the constant feeding of high profits to the companies that cause environmental damage.
Pittsburgh City Paper recently published a story, by Rebecca Addison, titled, “Members of Pittsburgh LGBT community criticize EQT sponsorship of Pride Parade.” In it she details the issues some in the LGBTQ community have with the Delta Foundation, and highlights a counter march being organized in protest of the linkage of the (formerly called Pride March) EQT Equality March. Some question why confront Delta and raise criticism directly before Pride month. The folks who feel[Read More…]
This is part 2 of a post. Here is the first part. So what needs to change about Pride because of what happened in Orlando? Or I think I’d rather ask it this way: was the LGBTQ community as well prepared as it could have been to deal with such a devastating attack on queer people? I’m not sure we were. Pride is an opportunity for the community to celebrate while remembering the history of[Read More…]
Will the Orlando massacre prompt changes for Pride here and elsewhere? That is the question that should be central and replace old resentments about Delta and Pride. What has happened in the past is the past, but we live in a different world post the loss of these 49 mostly young queer persons of color.
Its Pride month and advertisers seek to display their openness to diversity and cash in on the queer dollar! Is that cynical of me? Maybe. Either way, representations of LGBTQ persons in ads become one of the primary ways the straight majority learn about non-straight identifies, and that, in my book is a good thing. Some ads do this in a wonderful way. An ad for Colgate comes from Mexico and does an especially great[Read More…]
Here’s my list of 12 tips for making the most of LGBTQIA Pride.