Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Fifty-five years after a raid on New York City’s Stonewall Inn sparked riots that catalyzed the gay liberation movement and became a cornerstone of modern LGBTQ advocacy, Pride celebrations are bigger and bolder than ever. Meant to commemorate the Stonewall uprising each June, Pride Month in many parts of the world has grown into a four-week extravaganza marked by parades, parties, concerts and an array of cultural events that pay homage to its roots in free expression and identity.
Corporations have cashed in on the festivities, especially since the U.S. legalized marriage equality in 2015.
But this year, public-facing Pride campaigns at some of the world’s largest brands were quieter than usual. At other companies that previously had them, they were completely absent. Fewer public campaigns mean less visibility, which LGBTQ advocates and consumers in the community say can be dangerous in myriad ways.
“Corporate Pride” entered mainstream conversations last summer as a flashpoint in the political debate over LGBTQ rights and, specifically, rights for transgender students and young people. To that end, 527 bills to limit those rights were introduced between 2023 and 2024 in legislatures in all but nine U.S. states, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Dozens have already passed.
In the shadow of that legislative trend, and as the mounting election cycle continued to polarize the country on issues around queer and trans rights, a handful of the world’s most prominent brands contended with a firestorm of backlash over their Pride campaigns leading up to, and during, Pride Month last summer.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Attacks on Target and Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, were among the most visible. At Target, which had been releasing Pride-themed collections for more than a decade, some customers took aim at a swimsuit labeled “tuck-friendly” that was intended to be trans-inclusive. Social media users claimed the swimsuit was designed for children, even though Target only sold it in adult sizes. For Bud Light, a longtime supporter of the LGBTQ community, a collaboration with trans social media star Dylan Mulvaney stoked conservative fury.
What began as disapproval from loud and impassioned fringe groups on the far right quickly spiraled into a wider crusade that at one point involved some Republican leaders, commentators and even some celebrities. Along with fierce calls for boycotts against both companies, Target said customers angered by the Pride collection had knocked over displays in some of its stores and gone so far as to threaten employees. In a viral video, one customer was seen confronting a Target worker over the brand’s “Satanic Pride propaganda.”
Target initially responded to the backlash by moving Pride collections to the backs of its stores in several Southern states, while Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth addressed the controversy indirectly in a statement that said the company “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” Leading LGBTQ organizations accused the brands of caving to conservative pressure at the expense of queer and trans people, in a moment where the allyship those companies claimed to value was being put to the test.
Bud Light and Target each reported a drop in sales in the aftermath of the controversies, with one Target executive attributing the decline to the “strong reaction” to its Pride merchandise.
This year, Target announced it was cutting back on the number of stores that would carry Pride Month-related merchandise, after previously featuring the annual collection at all of its 2,000 or so locations. The Minneapolis-based corporation said the 2024 Pride line would be “in select stores, based on historical sales performance,” but available in its entirety online.
“Target is committed to supporting the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month and year-round,” a Target spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News in May, noting Target’s programs to support queer employees and its internal plans to celebrate Pride in 2024.
“Beyond our own teams, we will have a presence at local Pride events in Minneapolis and around the country, and we continue to support a number of LGBTQIA+ organizations,” the statement added.
This was also the first year since 1999 without a Pride collection from Nike, which was historically a vocal ally. The company found itself facing criticism over a collaboration with Mulvaney leading up to Pride in 2023 and said it was turning its focus this year toward programming and ongoing support for the LGBTQ community in place of its traditional apparel line.
“Nike exists to champion athletes and sport — and for us that means all bodies, all movement, and all journeys,” a Nike spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. “Nike has a long history of standing with the LGBTQIA+ community, which focuses on uplifting, inspiring and educating through community grants, employee engagement, athlete partnerships, public policy, powerful storytelling, and products that celebrate the community.”
“While there is no global Be True product collection for 2024, Nike remains deeply committed to this work,” the spokesperson said.
A survey of executives at major corporations, including Fortune 500 companies, conducted earlier this year by Gravity Research found that one-third of the responding brands labeled “consumer staples” — like retail companies — planned to change their engagement strategies for Pride Month in 2024 compared with the approaches they took in 2023.
Advocates say Nike has built up its allyship behind the scenes — which, they emphasize, is what matters most — and it isn’t alone in doing so.
Still, as public-facing brand campaigns for Pride have partly fizzled, the consequences have trickled down to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations and LGBTQ influencers. Nonprofits have received fewer material resources from their corporate partners this year, according to Paul Irwin-Dudek, the deputy executive director for development at the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLSEN. And influencers said they’ve seen fewer commitments from clients since the 2023 controversy.
Around the time that Target announced its plans to scale down Pride displays in retail stores, the company also ended a decadelong partnership with GLSEN, which runs a huge network of programs centered around queer and trans youth as well as workplace inclusivity, said Irwin-Dudek. GLSEN helps companies shape their Pride campaigns, among other things.
Irwin-Dudek told CBS News that other corporations took a step back from previous partnerships with the organization — and from Pride Month — this year because they didn’t know how to engage with it without becoming part of the Target narrative or facing additional blowback themselves.
“At the end of the day, nobody wants to be part of that narrative,” said Irwin-Dudek. “I think, and I can say this across the entire landscape of queer organizations, we have all taken a hit to our revenues this year because of the setback that many corporate partners have done in the month of June.”
Members of the LGBTQ community who spoke to CBS News — and who aren’t affiliated with any political or advocacy organization — were largely disappointed by this year’s diminished corporate Pride displays, but they weren’t surprised. It was evidence, several people believe, that companies will only be allies for as long as it’s comfortable and convenient for them.
“We already had our criticisms of Pride being a hollow thing, and I think that’s what pushed brands to actually put more material support behind it and that meant that brands were listening to the queer audience about Pride, about how they could make Pride more inclusive or more reputable or legit,” said a 30-year-old queer and trans writer living in New York who asked not to be named. “So, the fact that they’re now listening and kowtowing to the right is very scary. Because suddenly we’re not in the demographic that they’re catering to. Regardless of whether the demographic they’re catering to is about money, it shows how they see our identities as being financially conditional.”
Some research has shown that American consumers are twice as likely to buy from a brand or use its products if that brand publicly supports and shows commitment to the LGBTQ community. A December 2022 study from GLAAD, a prominent LGBTQ nonprofit that focuses on media monitoring and representation, and the Edelman Trust Institute, a think tank, found that most Americans expect businesses and their leadership to stand up for LGBTQ rights.
For some companies, outward displays of support for LGBTQ rights and inclusivity during Pride are an extension of their support over the other 11 months of the year.
Other companies, however, roll out flashy Pride campaigns once a year without making sincere commitments to the people and issues they impact — drawing accusations of opportunistic advertising, virtue signaling and profitable exploitation. Some critics believe that launching arbitrarily Pride-themed product lines offends and belittles the cause that the merchandise claims to defend.
Some corporate attempts to make sales off of Pride Month with fleeting, and, by some accounts, haphazard, campaigns has fueled skepticism from LGBTQ consumers frustrated by the prevalence of “rainbow washing,” where Pride regalia is used as a profitable marketing tactic by brands that don’t offer lasting or meaningful support. Also called “pinkwashing” and “rainbow capitalism,” the practice is widely considered exploitative, and, with the rise of social media, it’s also becoming well known. Comedian Meg Stalter’s impersonation of a small-town butter shop employee who opens an ad with “Hi gay,” and says her business is “sashaying away with deals” for Pride Month, has been viewed almost 2.2 million times.
“We know that our community is critical of companies who pop in to be supportive for one month out of the year and then leave,” said Meghan Bartley, the brand engagement lead at GLAAD. “It feels like we aren’t cared about as a community.”
The British retailer Marks & Spencer’s notorious “LGBT sandwich” — a BLT with guacamole — is one example of the seemingly random array of goods that brands tend to refurbish in kaleidoscopic packaging come June, stamped with logos and taglines linked to Pride despite being evidently unrelated to it. Items that get the seasonal Pride treatment run the gamut from special edition lattes to Johnson & Johnson’s line of rainbow-packaged Listerine, and the list goes on. This year, iHeartRadio listeners in New York City who tuned in on June 1 would have heard a commercial for toilet paper tenuously crafted under the banner of Pride.
Yet as imperfect as corporate Pride marketing can be, critics of rainbow washing or trivializing Pride displays largely agree that the opportunity to critique LGBTQ brand campaigns is a privilege, and many say the fact that those campaigns exist is usually better than them not existing at all.
Many members of the LGBTQ community who talked to CBS News say that even rudimentary Pride displays, like rainbow flags or graphic T-shirts in a storefront window, provide some level of visibility that can help normalize LGBTQ identities and, ultimately, move the needle in terms of acceptance among people outside of the community.
Bartley, with GLAAD, echoed their sentiments and said the visibility that public Pride campaigns offer can have a measurable impact on the daily experiences of people who are closeted, or who’ve come out in an environment that doesn’t welcome who they are.
“Greater visibility for Pride campaigns has allowed more and more people who are in our community, and maybe not comfortable coming out, understand that there’s a space for them to be accepted when they see more and more visibility and acceptance in their lived spaces,” said Bartley.
Some corporations that push Pride campaigns have made an effort to be allies beyond Pride Month alone.
Johnson & Johnson’s thematic Listerine bottle was released in 2019 as part of its ongoing “Care With Pride” initiative, which partners with LGBTQ advocacy groups to foster an inclusive workplace and has so far donated at least $1 million to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations, according to the company. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, has also ranked Johnson & Johnson as one of the best places in the U.S. for queer people to work.
Disney, Hollister, REI and Proctor and Gamble are a few more brands that advocacy groups have commended for taking steps toward consistent allyship — both publicly and behind the scenes.
When looking at the overall landscape, the LGBTQ advocacy groups that talked to CBS News don’t believe corporate Pride campaigns will disappear in the long term.
Both Irwin-Dudek and Bartley said companies can change their ethos by ensuring LGBTQ people are at the table whenever marketing plans are conceived and developed for Pride, whether they’re employees of the company or outside resources. And Eric Bloem, vice president of programs and corporate advocacy at the Human Rights Campaign, told CBS News in a statement that the organization’s own research shows “that the business environment, despite the best efforts of fringe groups to derail long-standing principles of inclusion, has and always will be pro-equality.”
CBS News has reached out to Target, Disney and Anheuser-Busch for comment.
During the counterculture chaos of 1960s and ’70s New York City, amidst the avant-garde art scene eddying around Andy Warhol’s Factory, the transgender actress Candy Darling was striving to live her best life as a woman. Born into a body that never felt like her own, Candy found purpose in this haven, where gender norms were challenged, identity was fluid, and the mashup of celebrity worship and creativity reigned supreme. For the 20-something disrupter, who portrayed a range of characters in Warhol’s and other off-off indie films, fitting in meant embracing her true self, even as society outside the Factory walls rejected her Tinsel Town aspirations and the transsexual revolution she might have been unaware she was pioneering. Candy’s critique of “Tricky Mother Nature” (who messed around and birthed an effeminate boy when she wanted a girl), her brief dalliance with Christian Science, and her laments conflating the struggles of racial and transgender identities are what author Cynthia Carr is exceptionally adept at demystifying in her new biography, Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar.
The backlash for promoting Candy’s story was swift and polarizing. Two weeks before its official publication, on March 14, I had written a Facebook post appreciating and upvoting Candy Darling. This enraged an expatriate conservative fringe from Brooklyn’s West Indian community. Instead of taking the fight directly to me on social media, the self-titled “West Indian Culture Vultures” blew up my cell phone with passive aggressive, homophobic chantdowns. Days later, I attended a private memorial for a friend in the “Little Caribbean” neighborhood of Flatbush, where a bunch of us were honoring “a playa” we knew had lived a closeted life as “a gay man from the islands,” but who had suffered from a quiet desperation we all believed, in the end, had suffocated him.
At this somber event, a handful of these Vultures — with whom I had clashed throughout the years over gay rights, discrimination, and privilege — swooped down from their moral high ground like a murder of crows, circling their prey. As customary, the Vultures had shown up uninvited, bearing a silver crucifix, a chalice of holy water, and a bundle of lavender-scented incense sticks soaked in two petit quarts of garlicky coconut oil. These were the “spiritual tools,” they told me, that they would use to perform the ceremonial libation for “disemboweling the homosexual” who had embedded “itself” in the ostensible lady-killer.
But actually on this late evening, the Vultures, from what I referred to as the Torture Trans Department, had come for me. I could tell this from the political malodor wafting from their vented spleens. The crux of their indignation was the audacity of liberal compatriots like myself who have been advocating for equality regardless of sexual orientation and promoting the constitutional protections we believe the LGBTQ+ community has the right to enjoy. The presence of the Vultures signaled that they would not be settling only for “smoking out Beelzebub” or gorging on just any dirty rotten heretic.
This time around, I was to be eaten alive. This manner of exsanguination, once a certainty by the Vultures, however, was hastily commuted down to a mock execution. It wasn’t because I’d been granted a reprieve. They just couldn’t tolerate my strongest defense yet of the growing admiration for Candy Darling. Taking a page from Carr’s book, I argued that the importance of its protagonist and sheroine to a still “evolving trans movement” cannot be understated — because all “during Candy’s lifetime,” up until her death from lymphoma, on March 21, 1974, at the age of 29, “Homosexuality was illegal. So was cross-dressing.”
Ten years in the making, Candy Darling really is an ode to a transgender equality movement that is navigating an America it cannot live without, yet one that often refuses to coexist with it. “As I worked on this biography … I saw that community increasingly demonized in ways both cruel and traumatizing,” Carr writes in her intro about her raison d’être for Candy Darling. The author describes what it’s like living inside the head of Candy (born James Slattery, in 1944), who would bathe late at night after everyone was asleep because if anyone saw Candy’s genitalia, it would deeply upset her. (“Candy knew that she was beautiful — but was it the right kind of beautiful? Her obsession with appearance was not rooted in narcissism. It was how she affirmed her female identity in a world where there was very little support for even the idea of gender fluidity.”)
Carr unties Candy’s tongue, allowing the fille audacieuse with “a quick wit” to portray herself as the loosed lips in a pissed-off vagina monologue. (Candy once went to a hotel roof party for Liberace, the famous pianist and entertainer known for his flamboyant performances and extravagant lifestyle — who wasn’t openly gay — and kept trying to talk to him, but he avoided her. When she finally cornered him and said, “We have much in common,” a “horrified” Liberace outed her to hotel management). Candy’s tongue becomes as mighty as the sword, slicing through the veils of restraint to reveal the raw, unfiltered truth, fueled by the trans’ pent-up rage. Candy, who had complained of a lancing pain (“I have a baby in my stomach”) that would turn out to be lymphoma, lashed out after she checked herself into the now defunct Cabrini Medical Center, on 19th Street in Manhattan. “As she left her room in a wheelchair, a nun approached and asked if she was Catholic. ‘She saw the beads around my neck. I said no I just wear them to keep the vampires away. She said, ‘Well God bless you.’ I said remember ‘god’ spelled backwards is ‘dog.’ Ha ha.” Carr captures not just a story but the very essence of Candy’s tortured soul (her indecision about undergoing a sex change), laying bare her deepest desires, fears, and regrets. Candy Darling becomes the poster trans for sexual liberation. Considered to be way ahead of her time, Candy’s swaggering insouciance may have ushered in the modern version of the radical trans feminista sashaying down international catwalks. She “predates many of the conversations about gender going on now,” though, as Carr also puts it, “Candy would prove to be no feminist. She had no interest in politics and saw herself as a traditional woman.”
That day in Brooklyn, the West Indian Culture Vultures cawed in unison. Their hectoring escalated to vituperative attacks on my alleged “history of gay sexuality” (presumably I’ve been a screaming “Batti Boi!,” a “She She Man!,” and have been “Poom Poom Afraid!” all this time). They bemoaned “the American lifestyle” that had corrupted my strict West Indian upbringing (some knew I’d tried out to become an acolyte at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Trinidad). But a gay man I am not. There was nothing I was trying to keep secret from the fake electors of who’s going to make it into heaven or not for embracing the legacy of Candy Darling.
In lieu of biting off my head in public, the Vultures denounced the Facebook post, for which they said I should eat crow for predicting that Carr’s book would “appeal to diverse audiences, wider than you may think.” For them, my post is a blasphemous screed, antithetical to their Christian values, Shango faith, and Bobo Shanti Rasta beliefs. By praising Carr’s book (“Carr is saying out loud what the transphobic right would prefer to keep quiet about the irrepressible Candy Darling and our Transgender family as a whole”), they pontificated that I’d facilitated the zombie resurrection of Frankentrans: an impostor of feminine eroticism, embodying the outlandish couture of the devil’s handmaiden.
While we’ve brutally tangled in the past (there were instances involving near fisticuffs and them brandishing their lyrical guns over my 1993 cover story in the Village Voice, “Batty Boys in Babylon: West Indian Gay Culture Grows in Brooklyn. And So Does Violence”), I was sickened by the intense emotional outrage with which the Vultures regurgitated my own words back to me.
What also infuriated the Vultures was my “commiserating out and loud” with Candy’s whiteness, that I was playing the race card to engender empathy for Candy. I responded that as immigrant Blacks in America who have been systematically discriminated against because of the color of our skin, we had more in common with Candy than they cared to admit.
For one, had they read Carr’s book, they would have been surprised by Candy’s equating the struggles of mixed-race ancestry with transgender identity in describing the rejection she faced. Writer Julie Baumgold tells Carr that Candy “identified with the lead character in I Passed for White, a film that falls into the ‘tragic mulatto’ category but for Candy it was about having a core identity that she often had to keep secret.” Even when she relied on the tragic mulatto reference to explain the Black and white duality present in society, Candy, who was quite comfortable in her “ghostly, lily-white skin,” didn’t want to offend anyone by taking sides.
One day while Candy was standing on a kitchen table as her friend Holly drew a seam down the back of Candy’s leg with an eyebrow pencil (to create the illusion that her nylon stockings were two-toned), Holly joked with Candy: “Just don’t cross your legs or you’ll look like you’re half black and half white. They won’t know what you are.” Candy shot back, “They don’t know what I am now….”
Based on what Carr has unearthed about Candy, she didn’t seem to have a racist bone in her body. And in fact, a racist thing was done to Candy, who “began her life as a tortured effeminate boy because she wasn’t really a boy” growing up in a “very conservative, very Republican, very Catholic, very white” neighborhood in Massapequa Park, Long Island. Carr recalls the story of Ed Yazijian, a nerdy elder boy who lived across the street from Candy’s family, who “was warned against having anything to do with Candy. Warned, that is, by the other boys on the block in declarations like ‘If we catch you with that faggot, we’ll beat the shit out of you.’” Yazijian’s mother told him that one day while she was washing dishes, she’d looked out the kitchen window and noticed that two teenage white boys had tied a noose to the cherry tree in the family’s backyard. She saw Candy standing on a box with the noose around her neck. “They were about to push the box away when my mother ran out and stopped them,” he tells Carr.
In my quarrel with the Vultures, I compared the staged execution of Candy to the backwood Southern lynchings of Black men and boys, as both acts stem from deep-seated bigotry: marginalizing or stigmatizing to enforce conformity to oppressive codes. In both instances, Candy and those Southern Blacks (whom no one intervened to save) were targeted not for any wrongdoing but for their inherent identity.
There is ample evidence in Carr’s book that while growing up, Candy Darling might not ever have seen a Black person in real life before she was taken to a hospital at age 14, in 1958, for an emergency appendectomy, and remained there for a week. “While hospitalized,” Carr writes, “she made note in the diary of two ‘colored’ people — the first she’d ever met, judging by the notice she took of them: ‘There’s a cleaning lady here. Colored. Her name is Sunshine. Ha ha. She is one of the most wonderful persons I have ever known. Also there’s a colored nurse here. Her name is Lee. I like her a lot.’ By the end of her stay, Candy did not want to go home. ‘I was almost in tears! I hated to leave everyone! Lee and Sunshine.…’”
In my parting message to the West Indian Culture Vultures, I emphasized that regardless of your own identity (hidden or openly expressed), you might find inspiration in reading Candy Darling’s story, which is about an American being unapologetically herself in a world that demands conformity. ❖
Peter Noel writes mostly about social, racial, and criminal justice, focusing on police violence, culture, poverty, and politics. He lectures as an A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholar at Columbia University. Noel is the author of Why Blacks Fear ‘America’s Mayor’: Reporting Race, Crime and Black Activist Politics Under Rudy Giuliani.
R.C. Baker
Source link
At 78 years young, openly gay Houstonian Dennis Beedon has been there, seen that and lived to tell the tale. The septuagenarian has been one of the key behind-the-scenes players with some of the most influential movers and shakers in Houston in an effort to benefit the LGBTQ community as well as Houstonians writ large.
While he may not have been born in Texas, Beedon got here as soon as he could (after growing up in Chicago, serving a stint in the U.S. Army, and living in Puerto Rico and Florida), and he picked up the moniker as the “Mayor of Montrose” amongst his inner circle because of his status in the neighborhood – or “gayborhood,” as he might call it.
How he earned that title is really where the story begins, and living his truth, especially when it comes to his sexuality, has been a tenet that he has never shied away from.
“I was out to everybody, including my family and friends, since I was relatively young, give or take my military career,” he said. “I knew that I was gay during the military because I had a boyfriend when I was in the army, but I never never had any issues with anything LGBTQ during my time. My mind and openness really set in place when I moved to Houston, though, and that is because I lived in Montrose. I was exposed to everything and everybody during that period of time, both positive and negative in the sense of how Montrose was back in 1979 to 1981. I mean, it was pretty decadent.”
Montrose — known nowadays for its eclectic cafes, coffee shops, bars, nightlife, restaurants and the rest — holds a rich history of being a safe haven for Houston’s LGBTQ community when the times were more or less as less pleasant for the queer community. It was also a place where the queer community felt free to live their life proudly, no matter how demure or flashy it might have appeared to outside eyes.
The small in stature but mighty in voice Beedon followed suite. He did not let the fickle finger of popular opinion about the queer community sway him during his new beginnings in Houston. In fact, it’s where he found his passion for community involvement.
That was also shortly before the outbreak of what is now known as HIV/AIDS, which galvanized Beedon’s determination to make a difference. He left his job in the insurance industry and answered the calling to community service.
“I went to work for what was then still being put together, The Assistance Fund, [which consisted of] five gentlemen who were donating $500 a month each into a general fund,” Beedon said. “Because HIV was becoming so widely known as well as the issues created from it, those that were stricken with that illness were being fired from work. These five gentlemen were making $500 donations each month in into a general fund, and then they were paying for the COBRA insurance for those that were fired from their positions because of HIV just to keep their medical insurance covered.”
Part of his passion for battling the spread and stigma of HIV/AIDS stemmed from his own personal experience. Beedon had witnessed the public shock of Rock Hudson’s death as well as the uproar over the game of musical chairs played by various funeral homes regarding Liberace’s body — both of whom passed away due to complications from the virus.
However, over the course of his years, Beedon has seen healthcare progress to the point that an HIV diagnosis is no longer the death knell it formerly was. Instead, people are now living full and healthy lives thanks to breakthroughs in medication partnered with a healthy lifestyle.
“It’s progressively gotten much, much, much better, in fact, to the point I was [in a relationship] with somebody for my first 21 years of living in Houston who was stricken with HIV.”
Because of his involvement through various initiatives to promote awareness of and testing for HIV, which largely took place in the Montrose neighborhood, Beedon earned his now unforgettable nickname as the “Mayor of Montrose.”
“In the clubs, I would run into people who would visit me at The Assistance Fund. Automatically, the connection was quite obvious of why they were at The Assistance Fund … it’s because they were looking for testing and for dollars to get medication. So they would approach me at the clubs and pull me to the side, and they would say, ‘I have a friend. Would you please talk to him or her, because they won’t go to a clinic to get tested.’” he said. “So, I would approach whomever they were talking about, counsel them and bring them into The Assistance Fund.”
Because of his motherly nature, he earned the additional nickname “Mother of Montrose.” To examine the initials, it fittingly spells “mom.” But it’s also because he was well connected to local dignitaries.
“They called me the Mayor of Montrose, or mom, because I was getting things done for them. I actually could go downtown and see the mayor of Houston, whoever that was at the time, and get some things done rather quickly,” he said.
Since then, the name has stuck, as has his involvement in LGBTQ causes. One of his most recent endeavors is volunteering with the New Faces of Pride. The organization’s mission is to foster unity, inclusivity and empowerment within the diverse LGBTQ+ community of Houston through year-round events and fundraising initiatives.
It’s signature event will be the New Faces of Pride Festival and Parade, with the festival running from noon to 6 p.m., Saturday followed by a parade at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 901 Bagby. Planet Pink!, the official after party, takes place at POST Houston, 401 Franklin until 2 a.m.
The New Faces of Pride’s inaugural parade is the first of two pride-related parades this month, which has been a topic of conversation in the LGBTQ community, but Beedon says it is all good.
“The New Faces of Pride has been very well received,” he said. “It’s a community thing, and that’s the focus.”
As he slowly approaches 80, Beedon has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
“I’ve been able to do a few good things in people’s lives, and that makes me want to get up every day and keep going. I really am not going to retire, no matter what,” he said.
The New Faces of Pride Festival runs from noon to 6 p.m., Saturday followed by a parade at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 901 Bagby. Planet Pink!, the official after party, takes place 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. at POST Houston, 401 Franklin. For information, visit newfacesofpride.org. The festival is free to $250 to attend. The parade is free. Planet Pink! is $25 – $60.
Sam Byrd
Source link
Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando was filled with love Saturday morning. It’s been almost eight years since the massacre that forever changed Orlando.The CommUNITY Rainbow Run helped residents come together to honor the 49 lives taken and all those impacted by the Pulse tragedy. This year’s race has a new location and route. It moved from Wadeview Park to Orlando City Hall Plaza, located at 400 South Orange Ave., in downtown Orlando. Runners started at City Hall Plaza, went down Orange Avenue to Esther Avenue and back to the plaza.Forty-nine lives were taken in the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and dozens were injured on Jun. 12, 2016.Orlando Mayor Buddy Dryer says this race is showing the city’s kindness, compassion and commitment to inclusion. A week of remembrance for the victims, their families, first responders, and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community kicked off Saturday.Thousands filled the streets of Orlando with pride, running, walking, showing support for the LGBTQ+ community and honoring those affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting. John Larese is a relative of Eddie Justice and Jason Josaphat, two of the 49 victims who were killed at the Pulse nightclub.“It still affects our family every day, and Eddie’s mother is grieving every single day. We all go on with our lives, but they are left to grieve every single day,” said Larese. This is the first year the city is hosting the CommUNITY Rainbow Run after the One Pulse Foundation dissolved. On Friday, the city of Orlando announced it had hired a company to help put together a committee with survivors, family members and people from the community.The plan is to pick the committee this month, start meeting in July, and have a design concept for a permanent memorial by the end of the year. “It feels great that we finally have a concrete plan and that we are going in the right direction,” said Brian Zieth, who attended the run. The city said the meetings will be public and can be seen in person or online. And in contrast to previous efforts by other organizations, the city said feedback is welcome from everybody. Dyer said all the proceeds from the run will go toward the memorial.
Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando was filled with love Saturday morning. It’s been almost eight years since the massacre that forever changed Orlando.
The CommUNITY Rainbow Run helped residents come together to honor the 49 lives taken and all those impacted by the Pulse tragedy.
This year’s race has a new location and route. It moved from Wadeview Park to Orlando City Hall Plaza, located at 400 South Orange Ave., in downtown Orlando.
Runners started at City Hall Plaza, went down Orange Avenue to Esther Avenue and back to the plaza.
Forty-nine lives were taken in the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and dozens were injured on Jun. 12, 2016.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dryer says this race is showing the city’s kindness, compassion and commitment to inclusion.
A week of remembrance for the victims, their families, first responders, and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community kicked off Saturday.
Thousands filled the streets of Orlando with pride, running, walking, showing support for the LGBTQ+ community and honoring those affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting.
John Larese is a relative of Eddie Justice and Jason Josaphat, two of the 49 victims who were killed at the Pulse nightclub.
“It still affects our family every day, and Eddie’s mother is grieving every single day. We all go on with our lives, but they are left to grieve every single day,” said Larese.
This is the first year the city is hosting the CommUNITY Rainbow Run after the One Pulse Foundation dissolved.
On Friday, the city of Orlando announced it had hired a company to help put together a committee with survivors, family members and people from the community.
The plan is to pick the committee this month, start meeting in July, and have a design concept for a permanent memorial by the end of the year.
“It feels great that we finally have a concrete plan and that we are going in the right direction,” said Brian Zieth, who attended the run.
The city said the meetings will be public and can be seen in person or online. And in contrast to previous efforts by other organizations, the city said feedback is welcome from everybody.
Dyer said all the proceeds from the run will go toward the memorial.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — This weekend is a chance for Portland’s LGBTQ+ Community to shine bright and craft the perfect recipe for success.
The Portland Gay Prides Pageant is back and six contestants will be showing off their talents, passion and pride.
AM Extra was joined by Ian Morton, Pride NW director of programs, and co-hostess Kourtni Capree Dove to talk more about the pageant.
Watch the full video in the player above.
Emily Burris
Source link
In a post online, the Colorado Republican party called to “Burn all the #pride flags this June,” drawing criticism.
Photo from Sophie Emeny, UnSplash
The Colorado Republican party marked the beginning of Pride month by condemning LGBTQ people as child groomers and calling to burn Pride flags.
The anti-gay messaging, included in an email and online post, quickly drew criticism.
“The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children,” the state GOP party wrote in a recent mass email, according to 9News.
The email was titled “God Hates Flags” in an apparent riff on an anti-gay slogan perpetuated by the Westboro Baptist Church. It was signed by state party chairman Dave Williams, according to the outlet.
Williams previously sponsored an unsuccessful bill to ban same-sex marriage in Colorado in 2020, according to Colorado Public Radio. He is currently a candidate for Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District, and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Following the email, the state party wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”
“Really State GOP?!” Valdamar Archuleta, the president of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights, wrote in a reply to the email.
“The morons running our state party make it EXTREMELY hard for some of us to accomplish our goals for Liberty,” Archuleta wrote. “I’m really mad right now…”
In a reply to the party’s post on X, State Rep. David Ortiz wrote, “Y’all, under your current leadership, have more in common with the Taliban than the founding fathers.”
Ortiz, a Democrat and Afghanistan veteran, added, “LGBTQ folks served and serve in the military. We are cops, we are firefighters, we are your family members & neighbors. We will outlast your bigotry and hate.”
In a statement to McClatchy News addressing the criticism, Williams said, “We make no apologies for saying God hates pride or pride flags as it’s an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority, and the only backlash we see is coming from radical Democrats, the fake news media, and weak Republicans who bow down at the feet of leftist cancel culture.”
The majority of Coloradoans, 72%, support allowing same-sex marriage, according to a Public Religion Research Institute poll from 2023.
This story was originally published June 5, 2024, 3:08 PM.
Awe Inspired Partners with Actor Zane Phillips to Launch First Ever Male Pendant Highlighting Achilles to Celebrate Universal Love; 100% of Proceeds Benefit GLSEN
LOS ANGELES, June 4, 2024 (Newswire.com)
–
Renowned fine jewelry brand Awe Inspired announces its collaboration with actor Zane Phillips and GLSEN for the launch of the Achilles Necklace.
Awe Inspired, a brand deeply committed to celebrating diversity and spreading messages of love and acceptance, is thrilled to announce the launch of the newest addition to their famed Goddess Collection; the heroic and homosexual Greek warrior Achilles. This marks the brand’s first venture into men’s jewelry, coinciding with Pride Month.
The Achilles pendant is named after the legendary Greek hero known for his courage and strength. This piece was designed to symbolize universal love and inclusivity, making it a powerful statement of self-expression and identity. Zane Phillip, embodying the essence of strength, resilience, and authenticity, has been chosen as the face of the campaign. Through his partnership, Awe Inspired aims to inspire individuals to embrace their true selves without reservation.
“This launch is special for many reasons,” said Max Benjamin, CEO of Awe Inspired. “Not only is Achilles our first men’s piece, but it also celebrates Pride Month and marks our ongoing commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. As a queer-founded brand, we are dedicated to amplifying voices and stories that promote inclusivity and equality.”
The launch of Achilles is part of Awe Inspired’s fourth consecutive Pride campaign. Previous years have seen successful collaborations such as the @indyamoore x Marsha P Johnson Necklace, the @kerricolby x Hermaphroditus Necklace, and the @leishahailey x Sappho Necklace, each supporting organizations that empower LGBTQ+ communities. This year is no different, with 100% of proceeds from the Achilles pendant going to GLSEN, an organization dedicated to creating safe and inclusive schools for all students.
“Every purchase of the Achilles pendant directly contributes to GLSEN’s mission,” added Benjamin. “We are proud to continue this tradition of giving back to our community and ensuring that LGBTQ+ youth have access to the resources and support networks they need.”
For more information about the Achilles pendant and Awe Inspired’s campaign, please visit aweinspired.com or contact press@aweinspired.com.
About Awe:
Awe Inspired is a leading designer of ethically sourced fine jewelry, committed to empowering the modern woman on her new-age spiritual journey. Since its inception in 2018, Awe Inspired has made a significant cultural impact with its Goddess Collection, featuring medallions honoring iconic women from mythology and history. Embraced by women worldwide, including a roster of celebrity fans and feminist icons including Taylor Swift, Meghan Markle, Billie Eilish, and Megan Thee Stallion. Awe’s jewelry serves as a celebration of the divine feminine. A portion of proceeds from all sales are donated to causes championed by the Awe community.
Media Contact:
Heather Weaver, Brand Manager
Awe Inspired
Email: press@aweinspired.com
Source: Awe Inspired
Press Release
•
Jun 3, 2024 14:00 PDT
Dive into Pride with Aquarium of the Bay’s PRIDE Night Waves
SAN FRANCISCO, June 3, 2024 (Newswire.com)
–
The Aquarium of the Bay invites the LGBTQIA+ community and allies to celebrate Pride amidst the awe-inspiring underwater world at its PRIDE Night Waves event on Wednesday, June 12th, 2024, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Embrace the Spirit of Pride
This 18+ event is a vibrant celebration of diversity and inclusion. Guests can dance the night away to the beats of DJ Lando, enjoy dazzling performances by drag queen Sadyst Payne, Rosa Robada and entertainment by Mermaid Atlantis, and explore the Aquarium’s galleries after hours.
Unforgettable Evening Awaits
“PRIDE Night Waves promises an unforgettable evening filled with dazzling entertainment, delicious food, and the opportunity to explore the Bay’s incredible marine life,” said Jaz Cariola, General Manager at the Aquarium of the Bay. “We’re thrilled to celebrate Pride with our community and continue our commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
Event Highlights:
Tickets & Information
Tickets for PRIDE Night Waves are available now at: www.aquariumofthebay.org/nightwaves.
About the Aquarium of the Bay
The Aquarium of the Bay is a 501 c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting, restoring, and inspiring the conservation of San Francisco Bay. Aquarium of the Bay fosters a deeper appreciation for the bay’s extraordinary ecosystems through interactive exhibits, educational programs, and research initiatives. www.aquariumofthebay.org
Source: Aquarium of the Bay at PIER 39
Pride Month, the worldwide celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights, kicks off Saturday with events around the globe.Video above: New LGBTQ+ bar set to open in Kansas City, MissouriBut this year’s festivities in the U.S. will unfold against a backdrop of dozens of new state laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, particularly transgender young people.Here are things to know about the celebrations and the politics around them.Why is June Pride Month?The monthlong global celebration began with Gay Pride Week in late June 1970, a public celebration that marked the first anniversary of the violent police raid at New York’s Stonewall Inn, a gay bar.At a time when LGBTQ+ people largely kept their identity or orientation quiet, the June 28, 1969, raid sparked a series of protests and catalyzed the movement for rights.The first pride week featured marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and it has grown ever since. Some events fall outside of June: Tokyo’s Rainbow Pride was in April and Rio de Janeiro has a major event in November.In 1999, President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.What’s being celebrated?Pride’s hallmark rainbow-laden parades and festivals celebrate the progress the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement has made.In the U.S. in April, a federal appeals court ruled North Carolina and West Virginia’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory.Video below: Weekend LGBTQ+ Pride festival kicks off in West Hollywood, CaliforniaIn one compromise in March, a settlement of legal challenges to a Florida law critics called “Don’t Say Gay” clarifies that teachers can have pictures on their desks of their same-sex partners and books with LGBTQ+ themes. It also says books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes can remain in campus libraries and gay-straight alliance chapters at schools need not be forced underground.Greece this year legalized same-sex marriage, one of three dozen nations around the world to do so, and a similar law approved in Estonia in June 2023 took effect this year.What’s being protested?Rights have been lost around the world, including heavy prison sentences for gay and transgender people in Iraq and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” in Uganda. More than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws, advocates say.Tightening of those laws has contributed to the flow of people from Africa and the Middle East seeking asylum in Europe.In recent years, Republican-controlled U.S. states have been adopting policies that target LGBTQ+ people, and particularly transgender people, in various ways.Twenty-five states now have laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Some states have taken other actions, with laws or policies primarily keeping transgender girls and women out of bathrooms and sports competitions that align with their gender.GOP state attorneys general have challenged a federal regulation, set to take effect in August, that would ban the bathroom bans at schools. There also have been efforts to ban or regulate drag performances.Most of the policies are facing legal challenges.Video below: Thousands take part in LGBTQ+ Pride march in JerusalemSince Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, leading to restrictive abortion laws in most GOP-controlled states, LGBTQ+ advocates are worried about losing ground too, said Kevin Jennings, CEO of nonprofit civil rights organization Lambda Legal. On the eve of Pride, the organization announced a $180 million fundraising goal for more lawyers to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ laws.Progress such as the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide could be lost without political and legal vigilance, Jennings said.“Our community looks at what happened to reproductive rights thanks to the Dobbs decision two years ago and has enormous anxiety over whether we’re about to have a massive rollback of what we’ve gained in the 55 years since Stonewall,” Jennings said.What about businesses?While big businesses from Apple to Wells Fargo sponsor events across the U.S., a pushback made ripples last year at one major discount retailer.Target was selling Pride-themed items last June but removed some from stores and moved displays to the back of some locations after customers tipped them over and confronted workers. The company then faced additional backlash from customers who were upset the retailer gave in to people prejudiced against LGBTQ+ people.This year, the store has said it would not carry the items at all its stores. But the company remains a major sponsor of NYC Pride.Are events safe?Keeping the events safe is the top priority, organizers said, but there could be challenges.The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory in May that foreign terrorist organizations could target events associated with Pride. The same month, the State Department renewed a security warning for Americans overseas, especially LGBTQ+ people and events globally.Law enforcement officials noted ISIS sympathizers were arrested last year for attempting to attack a June 2023 Pride parade in Vienna and that ISIS messaging last year called for followers to attack “soft targets.”The agencies say people should always watch out for threats made online, in person or by mail. People should take note if someone tries to enter a restricted area, bypass security or impersonate law enforcement and call 911 for emergencies and report threats to the FBI.NYC Pride has a heavy security presence and works with city agencies outside the perimeter, said Sandra Perez, the event’s executive director. The group expects 50,000 people marching in its June 30 parade and more than 1.5 million people watching.“The fight for liberation isn’t over,” Perez said. “The need to be visible and the need to be mindful of what we need to do to ensure that the future generations don’t have these struggles is really top of mind.”
Pride Month, the worldwide celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights, kicks off Saturday with events around the globe.
Video above: New LGBTQ+ bar set to open in Kansas City, Missouri
But this year’s festivities in the U.S. will unfold against a backdrop of dozens of new state laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, particularly transgender young people.
Here are things to know about the celebrations and the politics around them.
The monthlong global celebration began with Gay Pride Week in late June 1970, a public celebration that marked the first anniversary of the violent police raid at New York’s Stonewall Inn, a gay bar.
At a time when LGBTQ+ people largely kept their identity or orientation quiet, the June 28, 1969, raid sparked a series of protests and catalyzed the movement for rights.
The first pride week featured marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and it has grown ever since. Some events fall outside of June: Tokyo’s Rainbow Pride was in April and Rio de Janeiro has a major event in November.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.
Pride’s hallmark rainbow-laden parades and festivals celebrate the progress the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement has made.
In the U.S. in April, a federal appeals court ruled North Carolina and West Virginia’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory.
Video below: Weekend LGBTQ+ Pride festival kicks off in West Hollywood, California
In one compromise in March, a settlement of legal challenges to a Florida law critics called “Don’t Say Gay” clarifies that teachers can have pictures on their desks of their same-sex partners and books with LGBTQ+ themes. It also says books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes can remain in campus libraries and gay-straight alliance chapters at schools need not be forced underground.
Greece this year legalized same-sex marriage, one of three dozen nations around the world to do so, and a similar law approved in Estonia in June 2023 took effect this year.
Rights have been lost around the world, including heavy prison sentences for gay and transgender people in Iraq and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” in Uganda. More than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws, advocates say.
Tightening of those laws has contributed to the flow of people from Africa and the Middle East seeking asylum in Europe.
In recent years, Republican-controlled U.S. states have been adopting policies that target LGBTQ+ people, and particularly transgender people, in various ways.
Twenty-five states now have laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Some states have taken other actions, with laws or policies primarily keeping transgender girls and women out of bathrooms and sports competitions that align with their gender.
GOP state attorneys general have challenged a federal regulation, set to take effect in August, that would ban the bathroom bans at schools. There also have been efforts to ban or regulate drag performances.
Most of the policies are facing legal challenges.
Video below: Thousands take part in LGBTQ+ Pride march in Jerusalem
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, leading to restrictive abortion laws in most GOP-controlled states, LGBTQ+ advocates are worried about losing ground too, said Kevin Jennings, CEO of nonprofit civil rights organization Lambda Legal. On the eve of Pride, the organization announced a $180 million fundraising goal for more lawyers to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Progress such as the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide could be lost without political and legal vigilance, Jennings said.
“Our community looks at what happened to reproductive rights thanks to the Dobbs decision two years ago and has enormous anxiety over whether we’re about to have a massive rollback of what we’ve gained in the 55 years since Stonewall,” Jennings said.
While big businesses from Apple to Wells Fargo sponsor events across the U.S., a pushback made ripples last year at one major discount retailer.
Target was selling Pride-themed items last June but removed some from stores and moved displays to the back of some locations after customers tipped them over and confronted workers. The company then faced additional backlash from customers who were upset the retailer gave in to people prejudiced against LGBTQ+ people.
This year, the store has said it would not carry the items at all its stores. But the company remains a major sponsor of NYC Pride.
Keeping the events safe is the top priority, organizers said, but there could be challenges.
The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory in May that foreign terrorist organizations could target events associated with Pride. The same month, the State Department renewed a security warning for Americans overseas, especially LGBTQ+ people and events globally.
Law enforcement officials noted ISIS sympathizers were arrested last year for attempting to attack a June 2023 Pride parade in Vienna and that ISIS messaging last year called for followers to attack “soft targets.”
The agencies say people should always watch out for threats made online, in person or by mail. People should take note if someone tries to enter a restricted area, bypass security or impersonate law enforcement and call 911 for emergencies and report threats to the FBI.
NYC Pride has a heavy security presence and works with city agencies outside the perimeter, said Sandra Perez, the event’s executive director. The group expects 50,000 people marching in its June 30 parade and more than 1.5 million people watching.
“The fight for liberation isn’t over,” Perez said. “The need to be visible and the need to be mindful of what we need to do to ensure that the future generations don’t have these struggles is really top of mind.”
Bring a blanket but not a Bluetooth speaker to a picnic at the Mann this weekend, where you can leave the music to the professionals.
The Roots Picnic is bringing another slate of rap and R&B stars to Philadelphia for outdoor concerts in Fairmount Park. The lineup includes André 3000, Nas and Lil Wayne, who will lead a celebration of New Orleans sound with the Roots themselves.
But it’s far from the only festival in town. Trapeze artists and contortionists will perform in the Hand to Hand circus showcase, while comedians will crack jokes at the Philly Sketchfest. Oyster lovers can claim a few dozen shells at the Shuckfest on Penn’s Landing. And Philadelphians can start their Pride Month celebrations at one of the many marches, balls and shows scheduled for this weekend.
That’s a lot of partying, but stargazers should remember to set an alarm on Sunday: You’ll need to be up by 4:30 a.m. at the latest to catch the planetary parade.
Questlove, Black Thought and the rest of the Roots are returning to the Mann Center for another weekend of music under the summer sun. This year, the Roots Picnic will feature fellow Philly legend Jill Scott alongside Nas, Lil Wayne, André 3000 and Gunna. The concerts run over Saturday and Sunday, but the picnic will move indoors Friday for a series of panels on music education, real estate, film, television and beauty at the Fillmore.
From Friday until next Saturday, June 8, comedians vying for Colin Jost and Kenan Thompson’s jobs will perform in Philly Sketchfest. The weeklong showcase highlights troupes and comedy acts specializing in scripted sketches (as opposed to free-form improv). Bring $15 and your biggest belly laugh to either the Adrienne Theater or Sawubona Creativity Project, depending on the performance.
Whether you like acrobatics or clowns, the Hand to Hand festival has a circus act for you. The three-day showcase will be split across two shows featuring students of the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus and professional artists. All will take place at the FringeArts theater in Old City.
Seafood lovers will crack open a few cold ones at the returning Shuckfest on Sunday. The oyster festival will bring a dozen New Jersey farms — including Sweet Amalia, Cape May Salt Oyster Farms, Barnegat Oyster Collective and Brigantine Oyster Company — to Liberty Point between noon and 3:30 p.m. Ticket-holders can sample their shellfish and watch the pros face off in a shucking competition.
Saturday also marks the start of Pride Month, and the first weekend is a busy one. Dust off your formal wear for a summer ball at the Franklin Institute on Friday night, or save it for the Pride Promenade at the art museum on Saturday. You can also check out a queer comedy show, boat party, park party, Dyke March or fitness classes over the course of the weekend. Finally, there’s the annual Philly Pride Festival on Sunday, featuring an evening performance from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” diva Sapphira Cristál.
Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
| @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Have a news tip? Let us know.
Kristin Hunt
Source link
.jpg)
The LGBTQ+ Pride flag will no longer fly over a Southern California city during Pride Month in June after city leaders adopted a “neutral flag policy,” reports say.
Photo by Sophie Emeny via Unsplash
The LGBTQ+ Pride flag will no longer fly over a Southern California city during Pride Month in June after city leaders adopted a “neutral flag policy,” reports say.
The new policy reversed the previous one that allowed the LGBTQ+ Pride flag to fly at Downey city buildings during “specific historic events or causes,” KTLA reported.
The Downey City Council voted 3-2 to adopt the “neutral flag policy” during the Tuesday, May 14, council meeting, the station reported. The city started flying the Pride flag during Pride Month three years ago.
Councilmembers Claudia Frometa, Dorothy Pemberton and Hector Sosa voted in favor of adopting the new policy, KTLA reported.
“I don’t think it’s our role as elected officials to pick and choose which groups get to fly their flags,” said Sosa, who is concerned about the requests the council receives to fly flags in support of a variety of causes.
Two council members voted against the policy: the city’s first openly gay Mayor Mario Trujillo and Councilmember Horacio Ortiz, ABC7 reported.
“This is not progress. This is a step backwards for my city,” Trujillo said. “And that’s very unfortunate.”
He said the issue was put to a vote after the Downey chapter of Mass Resistance launched a campaign against it three years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported. Mass Resistance describes itself as a “pro-family activist organization.” It has been labeled as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Voters in nearby Huntington Beach banned Pride flags from flying on city property in March, McClatchy News previously reported.
Huntington Beach is about a 25-mile drive south of Downey.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn weighed in on the decision on X, formerly known as Twitter.
She said that although she was disappointed in the decision, the Pride flag would still fly at county-owned facilities, including eight in Downey, one of the cities in her district.
“I worry about the message it sends to LGBTQ+ residents,” she said. “We raise the Pride Flag as a reminder of where we stand: no matter where in LA County they may live, LGBTQ+ residents have the unwavering support of their county government.”
Brooke Baitinger
Source link
Denver PrideFest emcee DeMarcio Slaughter vamps for a crowd at Civic Center Park’s Greek amphitheatre. June 25, 2022.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
It’s a big year for Denver’s annual Pride festival. The Center on Colfax is celebrating 50 years running the event, and longtime emcee DeMarcio Slaughter says his signature variety show at Civic Center Park’s Greek Amphitheatre needs to be extra excellent to live up to all that history.
“Me and my team are really working to create a very diverse show. We really want to capture five decades worth of style, music and genres, which is going to be difficult in two days,” he said. “We want to have entertainment that represents our community, all of the letters in the LGBTQIA+. So we want to find entertainment that represents all of that and bring to the stage.”
Auditions for Slaughter’s stage will take place at the Town Hall Collaborative (525 Santa Fe Dr.) on Thursday, April 18th, from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
For years, he said, The Center has asked audiences to join them for the tryouts, to weigh in and help them select which acts will take the stage.
“Actually it was friends who suggested, let’s do an audition. And so we started that process a while ago, and it has just grown into this crazy — at times — very difficult process of selecting performers to strut their stuff,” he told us. “They were really looking to expand the network and performers that would come and join us.”
There will be official judges for the 20-30 acts trying out on Thursday, but audience feedback is integral to their rubric.
“Each performer can score up to 100 points. We have five judges. Each judge can, on a scale of one to five, rate audience reaction, performance, song choice, blah, blah, blah,” Slaughter said. “And audience participation is one of those categories that we rank. And there have been performers that just got up there and the audience was all about it.”
Last year, 15 of 17 acts made it through to prime time. Slaughter said he’s careful not to green-light anyone who’s not quite ready, both for their sake and the audience’s.
“[If] someone is green and ambitious, that’s great, but when you’re standing up there in front of 7-8,000 people, trying to do your stuff and the audience walks away because it’s hot and they’re standing on the concrete, that is something I’m always incredibly considerate of,” he said. “You don’t want to crush dreams when you get up there.”
Signups for Thursday are now closed for people who want to get on stage.
And, yes, they usually get a lot of drag kings and queens, but Slaughter said he’s open to anything that’s creative and speaks to the PrideFest audience.
“Every now and then, someone will just — for me having done it so long — they’ll just blow me away. Because it’s original, it’s clever, it’s fun,” he said. “And so that’s what I’m looking for.”
Tucked in the massive government funding package signed Saturday by President Biden is a provision banning the flying of LGBTQ Pride flags over U.S. embassies. But even on the same day Mr. Biden signed the package, the White House vowed to work toward repealing the provision.
The prohibition was one of many side issues included in the mammoth $1.2 trillion package to fund the government through September, which passed early Saturday shortly after a midnight deadline.
As Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a conservative Christian, scrambled for votes to get the bill passed in his chamber, he allegedly touted the Pride flag ban as a reason his party should support the bill, the Daily Beast reported.
The White House said Saturday it would seek to find a way to repeal the ban on flying the rainbow flag, which celebrates the movement for LGBTQ equality.
“Biden believes it was inappropriate to abuse the process that was essential to keep the government open by including this policy targeting LGBTQI+ Americans,” a White House statement said, adding that the president “is committed to fighting for LGBTQI+ equality at home and abroad.”
The White House said that while it had not been able to block the flag proposal, it was “successful in defeating 50+ other policy riders attacking the LGBTQI+ community that Congressional Republicans attempted to insert into the legislation.”
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images
The law signed by Mr. Biden says that no U.S. funding can be used to “fly or display a flag over a facility of the United States Department of State” other than U.S. or other government-related flags, or flags supporting prisoners of war, missing-in-action soldiers, hostages and wrongfully imprisoned Americans.
But while such flags may not be flown “over” U.S. embassies, it does not speak to displaying them elsewhere on embassy grounds or inside offices, the Biden camp has argued.
“It will have no impact on the ability of members of the LGBTQI+ community to serve openly in our embassies or to celebrate Pride,” the White House said, referencing the month, usually in June, when LGBTQ parades and other events are held.
The Biden administration has strongly embraced LGBTQ rights. In a sharp change from the Trump administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not only allowed but encouraged U.S. missions to fly the rainbow flag during Pride month.
Blinken’s predecessor Mike Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, ordered that only the U.S. flag fly from embassy flagpoles.
In 2015, former President Barack Obama’s administration lit up the White House in rainbow colors — delighting liberals and infuriating some conservatives — as it celebrated the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States.
Bakers around Chicago, including Justice of the Pies Maya-Camille Broussard, were happy to flip their calendars to February. Carbs and sweets are easy targets for New Year’s resolutions, and that means business can be slower. She’s responded with more lighter offerings, like quiche.
But Broussard is ready for Mardi Gras with two holiday-inspired cakes available this weekend, February 9 to 11, only.
She explains that while growing up her father, Stephen, had King Cake shipped to Chicago from a Louisiana bakery — his family’s from Lake Charles and New Iberia, Louisiana. The tradition involves finding the tiny plastic baby baked inside the cake, it can mean good luck. In the Broussard household, it meant being crowned king.
“If after biting into the pastry and my teeth hit something hard, I’d extract a little pink baby from my lips,” Maya-Camille Broussard says. “I’d win but most years, I’d lose.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25275021/JUSTICE_FOR_THE_PIES0018.jpg)
However, one year, the future baker, who many know from Netflix’s Bake Squad, says she bit into the cake and found a little brown baby: “I was so overjoyed to win a baby that was brown like me. It made up for all the years that I didn’t win,” she says.
That memory meant a lot to Broussard, and as her bakery, 8655 S. Blackstone Avenue in Avalon Park, sits in a predominantly Black community, she figured other customers would enjoy that feeling. So she spent some time searching online for packs of little, plastic, brown babies. She consents that it wasn’t easy. But she achieved her goal.
“I hope to share that joy that I received when I won as ‘king’ after finding a little brown baby,” Broussard says.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25275006/JUSTICE_FOR_THE_PIES0057.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25275005/JUSTICE_FOR_THE_PIES0055.jpg)
She bakes her king cake with a cinnamon layer and folds dried cherries, blueberries, and raisins. She’ll sell them by the slices. And there’s an incentive for the customer who finds the baby — they’ll win a slice of Justice of the Pie’s famous key lime pie.
That’s not the only holiday-minded treat the bakery will sell. Broussard is testing out a new cake that might appeal to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Her dark ale cake is made with stout ale, chocolate, espresso, and sour cream. It’s topped with cream cheese frosting. Broussard is hoping she can find a fandom among South Side revelers, and if it’s popular enough, she might offer it in March in time for the holiday. But for now, it’s this weekend only leading up to Fat Tuesday.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25275014/JUSTICE_FOR_THE_PIES0086.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25275000/JUSTICE_FOR_THE_PIES0024.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25275004/JUSTICE_FOR_THE_PIES0041.jpg)
Ashok Selvam
Source link
Two school districts in California banned the display of LGBTQ+ pride flags this week, amid ongoing efforts by conservatives to crack down on the LGBTQ+ community’s visibility and civil rights.
In Southern California, the Temecula Valley Unified School District passed a resolution Tuesday banning all flags except U.S. and state flags, in a meeting that drew a large turnout of parents, teachers and students. “Tensions flared at times,” local news outlet KTLA reported.
Meanwhile, in the San Francisco Bay Area, chaos broke out as the Sunol Glen Unified School District approved a ban on LGBTQ+ pride flags specifically.
The Mercury News reported that the entire audience was thrown out of the meeting Tuesday night before board members took a vote, passing the resolution 2-1.
Some people in the Sunol district are now talking about recalling the conservative board members who backed the measure.
“A lot of average parents are about to learn a lot more about recall,” parent Matthew Sylvester told The Mercury News.
The Temecula board passed its resolution by a 3-2 vote. The three board members who voted together — Jen Wiersma, Joseph Komrosky and Danny Gonzalez — all received backing from the Inland Empire Family, a conservative Christian political action committee. In recent months, they have whipped up turmoil in the district with antics including a meeting on whether the district should hire an anti-“critical race theory” consultant, as well as launching a ban on discussion of California civil rights icon Harvey Milk.
The pride flag bans are part of a larger push by conservative activists to focus their political efforts on local school districts — particularly in California, given the hold Democrats have on the state.
The Los Angeles-area Chino Valley Unified School District landed itself in hot water this summer by requiring teachers to out transgender students to their parents. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit to stop the district. But others have passed similar rules, including Temecula and the nearby Murrieta Valley Unified School District.
Seven U.S. attorneys general sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning that clothes and merchandise sold as part of the company’s Pride month campaigns might violate their state’s child protection laws.
Republican attorneys general from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, writing that they were “concerned by recent events involving the company’s ‘Pride’ campaign.”
The attorneys said that they believed the campaign was a “comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children,” criticizing items like T-shirts that advertised popular drag queens and a T-shirt that said ‘Girls Gays Theys.’ They also highlighted merchandise with “anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.”
The letter also criticized Target for donating to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ organization that works to end bullying in schools based on sexual and gender identity. The company stated in a 2020 guide that school staff should not tell parents about a child’s gender or sexual orientation without consulting the child first, something the attorneys general said undermines “parents’ constitutional and statutory rights.”
Getty Images
The letter did not include any specific demands nor did it outline how they believe the campaign could violate child protection laws, but the attorneys general did suggest that Target might find it “more profitable to sell the type of Pride that enshrines the love of the United States.”
The attorneys general also said they believed Target’s Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a “fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company” and suggesting that company officials “may be negligent” in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target’s stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.
“Target’s management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists,” the attorneys general wrote. “However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company’s best interests.”
KSTW, a CBS News affiliate, reported that contrary to the letter’s claims, stock prices were less impacted by backlash to the Pride campaign and more by general economic factors. Other retail giants suffered major stock impacts, with some companies like Children’s Place seeing a drop twice as large as Target’s. Inflation and changes in spending habits likely also impacted the retailer, KSTW reported.
Backlash to the Pride campaign did involve threats of violence to Target stores and workers. Some merchandise was relocated to less popular areas of the store, and other pieces, including the swimsuits criticized by the attorneys general, were removed.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement earlier in June. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
By .
“Real Housewives of Orange County” star Taylor Armstrong revealed she’s bisexual during the latest episode of the show.
Armstrong — who was previously a cast member on “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” — spoke about previously being in a relationship with a woman for five years while she was chatting to newcomer Jennifer Pendantri.
Armstrong dated the woman before she married the late Russell Armstrong in 2005.
Armstrong — who made the comments during a girls trip to a Montana ranch — shared, “Most people are surprised to find out that I’m bisexual probably just because of stereotypes,” ET reported.
“I mean it’s not something I broadcast, but I’m open to all people who have great souls that you can love.”
READ MORE:
‘RHOC”s Tamra Judge Tearfully Says Daughter Is ‘Traumatized’ After Her School Went Into Lockdown
The reality TV star’s first husband, Russell, died by suicide the same year as their split in 2011. The pair share daughter Kennedy Caroline, 17.
She then married current husband, John Bluher, in 2014.
READ MORE:
‘RHOC’ Star Heather Dubrow Says Her 12-Year-Old Has Come Out As Transgender
Armstrong recently made history in the “Housewives” franchise after becoming the first cast member to make the move from one show to another.
Earlier this month, she told ET about joining “RHOC”, “I’m in such a happier place now in my life, I thought it would be fun to just go have fun with the girls and not feel the pressure of my home life and everything.”
However, she did admit, “Walking into an existing cast vs. a cast where we started together has been a bit of a learning curve.
“I’m like, ‘wait, what are you guys mad each other about?!’”
Click to View Gallery Pride 2023: The Best Shows And Movies To Stream This Month
Becca Longmire
Source link
By .
Kylie Minogue is proud of her LGBTQ+ fanbase.
The singer, who has been in the music industry for over 40 years, has cultivated a large demographic of queer fans over the years.
When asked why she thought that was the case, she told ET Canada’s Dallas Dixon that part of it came down to a sense of camaraderie.
“I would say around that time in the ’90s … There were plenty of moments where I was just being absolutely kind of [shakes head] it was…. it was not pleasant,” she recalled. “And I feel like my gay audience felt some kind of solidarity with me. They protected me. I’ve been trying to give out nothing but goodness and when you when you cop it a little unfairly, I think they’re ready to bite.”
READ MORE:
Kylie Minogue Reacts To Those ‘Padam Padam’ Memes: ‘I Love Seeing Them!’
Where the LGBT+ community has been supportive of the singer, she’s also tried her best to return the favour.
In February, she performed at the Sydney World Pride event with her sister Dannii, which was a moment she’ll never forget.
“It was pretty electric. I’m not going to lie. I mean, I was really stressed before the show,” she admitted. “My sister’s there and we really want it to be amazing. And we hadn’t done that before. And, you know, just like technical stuff; is the lift going to work and is that going to happen? We’re going to do the normal show stuff. But after that, it was a really special night for so many people and we were able to perform together. It was amazing.”
Looking back on her history with the queer community, she recalled one of her first introductions was through a Kylie Minogue drag show.
READ MORE:
2023 Monaco Grand Prix: Kylie Minogue, Orlando Bloom, Tom Holland & More Spend A Day At The Races
“I was kind of adopted when I heard there was a Kylie drag show in Sydney in 1990 or whatever it was. And that’s kind of the first I heard of that, that kind of thing,” shared Minogue. “I’ve since been to a few drag shows and trust me, I’m the least Kylie in the room.”
Tune into “One-on-One with Kylie Minogue” airing Friday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Global, and streaming live and on demand on STACKTV and the Global TV App.
Anita Tai
Source link
As Starbucks continues to battle unionization efforts by baristas, the company has been accused by some U.S. employees of banning LGBTQ Pride decorations. The company says this isn’t true and that their policy around Pride Month has not changed.
Starbucks Workers United, the labor group leading unionization, claimed in a series of Tweets that during Pride Month, the company has for the first time disallowed Pride decorations, which “have become an annual tradition in stores.”
“In union stores, where Starbucks claims they are unable to make ‘unilateral changes’ without bargaining, the company took down Pride decorations and flags anyway — ignoring their own anti-union talking point,” the group claimed in a tweet.
But Starbucks says there has been “no change” to its policies, and that the company “unwaveringly” supports the LGBTQ community.
“There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride Month in June,” the spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company is “deeply concerned by false information that is being spread especially as it relates to our inclusive store environments, our company culture, and the benefits we offer our partners.”
“Starbucks has a history that includes more than four decades of recognizing and celebrating our diverse partners and customers – including year-round support for the LGBTQIA2+ community,” the statement reads. The company said it empowers employees to show support for several heritage months.
On its website, Starbucks has a timeline of its history of inclusion of the LGBTQ community, starting in 1988 when the company began offering full health benefits to employees including coverage for same-sex domestic partnerships.
Starbucks Workers United claims several employees have reported the alleged ban on Pride decor. The group is calling on the company to stand up for the LGBTQ community and to negotiate union contracts “that legally locks-in our benefits, our freedom of expression, and ways to hold management accountable.”
Starbucks and the labor union don’t see eye to eye on a number of issues. Since October 2022, Starbucks has filed more than 100 Unfair Labor Practice charges against the union, saying they have failed to appoint representatives for several bargaining sessions and have failed to bargain in good faith. Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board accused the company of using an “array of illegal tactics” against the union, and a judge ruled the company violated labor laws “hundreds of times” during a unionization drive in Buffalo, New York.
Companies’ support for Pride Month and the LGBTQ community has become a target of protests, with Target deciding to remove some Pride merchandise from their stores, saying employees had received threats. Bud Light also received backlash this year after partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which resulted in a drop in sales of the beer.
Starbucks recently launched a collaboration with artist Tim Singleton, who designed bright, reusable cups as part of the company’s Artist Collaboration Series. In an Instagram post, he referred to the six rainbow-themed cups as “this year’s Pride Collection,” and Starbucks describes it as “a mish-mash of pop culture, queer culture and nostalgia with bold visuals and rainbow-bright colors.”
While June is a month designated for celebrating LGBTQ pride, the community has been facing an increase in threats and political backlash from the right. This year, more than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced at the state level — a record — and 74 such laws have been enacted, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
.jpg "The LGBTQ+ Pride flag will no longer fly over a Southern California city during Pride Month in June after city leaders adopted a “neutral flag policy,” reports say.")
