"Pride does not belong to any one neighborhood," said Gerald Garth, LA Pride's vice president, community programs and initiatives. That also will be the site of its June 11 Pride in the Park festival, a ticketed event headlined by Christina Aguilera.
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On that same day, LA Pride will sponsor free events during Community Day at Los Angeles State Historic Park, about six times larger than the previous festival site and close to the city's even more diverse downtown and Chinatown neighborhoods. In Los Angeles, LA Pride faced criticism that its longtime event in the gay-friendly, but largely white city of West Hollywood didn't adequately represent the broad representation of LGBTQ life.Īs one way to become more inclusive, organizing non-profit Christopher Street West – which named Sharon-Franklin Brown as its first Black transgender woman board president in September 2020 – is moving its June 12 LA Pride parade to Hollywood, the birthplace of the Los Angeles event and an area with slightly more diverse demographics. "Leading this organization was never on my radar, but both the leadership and staffing have changed considerably and I think that's reflected in a lot of Prides."Ī wider representation of LGBTQ identity will be seen at NYC Pride from June 24 to 26, when singer Kim Petras is slated to become the first trans performer to headline the Pride Island music lineup, NYC Pride media director Dan Dimant said. "I am speaking to you as a Puerto Rican lesbian from the Bronx," said Sandra Pérez, who became executive director of NYC Pride last fall. That's changing, with Latina, Black and trans leaders now leading Pride organizations in some of the nation's largest cities, including New York, Houston and Los Angeles. The Stonewall leaders included trans people and people of color, but criticism has grown in recent years that many Pride events have historically not reflected the diversity of the LGBTQ movement. Pride Month commemorates the anniversary of 1969's Stonewall riots, a turning point in the pursuit of LGBTQ rights that saw bar patrons fight back against police raiding the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. After a day where people felt "like their very existence was being debated, it was an uplifting way to end the night – with music and flags and marching through our city." Seeking greater inclusivity
"We had multiple speakers talking about the impact, the relevance and what we were doing to combat these anti-trans bills and we ended the evening with a second-line parade," Shaw said. Booths and flags from the festival can be seen in the background. Legal dispute: Are anti-LGBTQ laws legal? Alabama trans laws spark debate over Constitutional rightsĪ transgender Pride flag unfurls in the wind during April's Pridefest in Mobile, Alabama.
More recently, Republican-dominated states began introducing a record wave of bills aimed at the LGBTQ community, including Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, which restricts classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, and a Texas gubernatorial order, blocked for now by a state appeals court, that treats gender-affirming medical care treatment for trans youth as "child abuse."
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The COVID-19 pandemic, which wreaked havoc with scheduling for two years, put a new focus on health and income disparities in the nation and the LGBTQ community, while police brutality was put on trial in many states in part fueled by the Black Lives Matter social justice movement. Organizers said it is no surprise that Pride events were in need of a makeover after two years of global upheaval. A few have banned police and corporations from gatherings based on behavior considered harmful to segments of the LGBTQ community. Pride organizations have added more people of color and trans people to their leadership ranks, while making participation more accessible for disabled and low-income people and others from diverse backgrounds through free and online events or changed locations.
As many Pride events return to full-scale, in-person gatherings for the first time since 2019, organizers are taking dramatic steps to make their events more inclusive and focused on fighting threats to LGBTQ civil rights.