Category: Pride

MIAMI BEACH PRIDE 2023

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date April 17, 2023

MIAMI BEACH PRIDE

EVENTS

04-16-23

Moments from the 15th annual Miami Beach Pride Parrade at Ocean Drive. A newly elected member of the Florida House of Representatives for the 106th disctrict Fabián Basabe makes an appearance at the Parade only to be booed by the Parade-goers. A few bottles fly towards his convertible while he tries to talk to the crowd with his hand on his chest. One of his bodyguards physically shoves me towards the barricades telling me to stay away and that he’s not going to repeat himself again. According to Miami New Times, Basabe has gotten into hot water with the Florida LGBTQ community after “backtracking on 2022 campaign promises by voting in favor of the “Don’t Say Gay” expansion bill and failing to enter a vote on the state’s six-week abortion ban.” An LGBTQI activist Linda Riley mentions in her IG post that one of the festival’s performers Keeana Kee‘s lyrics were censored because of Florida’s anti-LGBTQ legislation.

View the rest of the photo library HERE.

Tags Alexey Kim, alexey-kim_, fabian basabe, fantasia royale gaga, keeana kee, lupe reyes, queef latina, shangela

Events Nightlife Pride Timeline

Dive & Drag: Pride 2022! at Nemacolin

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date June 21, 2022

pennsylvania drag artist Andy Whorehol poses in orange and green fringe hat on front of drive & drag projection

Dive & Drag:

Pride 2022!

THE PEAK, NEMACOLIN

NIGHTLIFE

06-11-22

A luxury Pennsylvanian resort Nemacolin celebrates Pride on its premises for the second year in a row. Susanne Bartsch and her team were invited to host this year’s festivities just like the year before. Amber Valentine kept the guests dancing in and around the heated pool all night long, while Milk, Maddelynn Hatter, Glow Job, Ann Artist, Nicky Ottav, Neon Calypso, and local artists Phoenix Fatale and Alora Chateaux were entertaining the guests with their performances on a gigantic stage.

All proceeds from the first 100 general admission tickets were donated to Pennsylvania-based Persad Center which “is dedicated to improving the well-being of the LGBTQ+ communities in the southwestern PA area.”

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Alexey Kim

Founder

For image use or to request to see the full album of the event e-mail

[email protected]

If you enjoy our work, please consider donating:

Events Pride The Mixer Timeline

Life in the Bubble: Celebrating Pride in a COVID Free Country

Post author By Nick Van Halderen
Post date December 7, 2020

THE MIXER | EDITORIAL

Life In The Bubble:

Celebrating Pride In A

COVID Free Country

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Foreword by Alexey Kim

06-28-20

On October 31 of 2020, over 130,000 people took to the streets of Taipei to celebrate Pride, making it the world’s largest in-person Pride celebration that year. Taiwan has been extremely successful at curbing its COVID-19 infections and on October 30, 2020, just one day before the 18th annual Taipei Pride, the island hit a milestone of 200 days without any locally transmitted cases of the disease.

A local photographer Kuan-Lun Chang set out to capture this year’s festivities.

“The theme for this year is ‘Beauty, My Own Way (成人之美)’, and it has a double meaning,“

he says,

“‘成’ means ‘adult.’ On the other hand, ‘成’ could be ‘成全,’ which means ‘consent’ or ‘help.’ Therefore it symbolizes helping others to accomplish their own beauty. This is very important. Everyone is different in their gestures, personalities, feelings, humility, and this is why we are similar but different. We have to find our own beauty and respect ourselves and others who might be different from us.”

In May 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Kuan-Lun shares that he saw many families taking part in this year’s parade,

“It’s a great chance to tell their children that there are many people in the world, everyone is different, but unique and beautiful in their own way. After last year’s legalization of same-sex marriage, conservative members who oppose it always say they have no idea how to teach their kids about it; the parents who took their kids to the parade provide a perfect example of how to do this.”

Take a look at Kuan-Lun’s photos from Taiwan’s 18th Annual Pride Parade below and find out what it is like to live in a coronavirus-free country from Taipei-based drag artist Taipei Popcorn.

Life in the Bubble:

Celebrating Pride

in a COVID Free Country

My name is Nick, but I also go by my drag name Taipei Popcorn. I’m originally from New Zealand but I’ve been living in Taipei, the bustling capital of Taiwan, for three years now. I live here with my New Zealand-Taiwanese husband Henry, and I teach English and do a lot of drag. It has been an absolutely surreal experience to experience living here during this time of global turmoil. Taiwan’s COVID response has without a doubt been the best in the world. Despite this exemplary response, it is still barred from participating in the WHO due to pressure from China.

Due to rigorous preemptive measures, Taiwan has experienced no lockdown, just over 600 coronavirus cases and seven deaths, and zero community spread for over 230 days. This is all the more impressive when you consider Taiwan’s population of 23 million (more than Florida) concentrated in several dense cities on an island the size of Maryland. Additionally, it is only a hundred miles from China, the epicenter of the outbreak. Over a million Taiwanese live and work there, flying back and forth from cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Owing to their complicated historic relationship, Taiwan has a deep distrust of China and their government. This meant they began doing medical checks on flights from Wuhan in late December 2019 already, and were one of the first countries to ban flights from China altogether. Mask wearing was quickly introduced, and is still compulsory in most indoor spaces. Taiwan’s digital minister Audrey Tang (who is from a hacker background and also happens to be trans) rolled out a highly efficient digital mask rationing system in a matter of days, while domestic mask production was ramped up over several weeks through government support of factories. The government also instituted a system of phone geo-tracking for incoming travellers undergoing compulsory two week hotel or home quarantine, ensuring they don’t break quarantine. This tracking automatically ends after two weeks and is subject to strict data privacy laws.

Giant rainbow flag unfurled in front of Taipei City Hall

It is important to mention that these are not the draconian measures of an authoritarian nation. Taiwan is a multi-party democracy with a vigorous culture of protest, open internet, highly active human rights movements, healthy criticism of government, and a thriving queer scene. It is these very qualities that are the reason my husband and I chose to live here and get married here.This openness and transparency has been vital in Taiwan’s decisive and well coordinated national COVID response, and has allowed its citizens to enjoy freedoms which are presently unimaginable in other places. The same can be said of New Zealand and some Nordic states, while the opposite applies to countries under populist, anti-science leadership like the UK, the US and Brazil, which have seen confused public communication, internal political division, soaring death rates and economies in freefall. In Taiwan, restaurants, bars, schools and workplaces are operating at full capacity, people feel safe, and the economy is forecast to grow at a slower but still healthy 2.5% this year. The sense of dread and pity we get from reading the international news feels like something far removed from our daily reality.

Taipei Popcorn

It is with this backdrop that we celebrated Pride in October. It was a month of packed nightclubs, sold out circuit parties, extravagant drag shows, in person LGBT rights conferences and passionate political rallies. Taipei held its second annual Trans Rights March, which was attended by politicians and celebrities, and major companies like Tinder, Gap and Google sponsored floats in the main Pride event. The huge parade culminated in a city wide party which went on all weekend. Taipei was jammed with ubers, taxis and scooters as partygoers, drag performers, DJs and gogo boys hopped from one event to the next, temperature checkers worked overtime at nightclubs doors, outdoors stages blared music to roaring crowds, and countless Taiwanese dollars flowed. Not many people are aware that Taipei is secretly one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and the business elite and local government were surely rubbing their hands at the surge of consumer activity this injection of pink dollars provided. Taipei’s city council promoted Pride heavily, and major magazines like Vogue and Marie Claire invited queer celebrities and drag performers (including me!) to feature in special Pride month editions.

The reason I recount the month through such a capitalist lens, is that I am increasingly aware of a growing disconnect between this COVID free haven and the rest of the world. The unprecedented and wrenching impact of mass death and economic depression that so many countries are currently experiencing have coincided with massive social movements and calls for radical change. There is a growing awareness that the system was fundamentally broken, and the huge cultural, economic and political shifts that COVID has unleashed will change the world forever. From the Black Lives Matter movement, to calls for a Universal Basic Income, taxes on the wealthy, and expansion of welfare and access to affordable healthcare, the world seems to be questioning the exploitative capitalist systems which are the root of so many of the social ills that COVID merely exacerbated.

It is this radical political component which I feel was missing from our Pride. As they say, the first Pride was a riot. I believe it should be a fundamentally radical event which embraces protest and anticapitalist values. I am guilty of flouting these myself this year, as I was paid by a major brand to ride on their float and promote them on social media, which led me down this train of thought. Of course, we are extremely privileged and blessed to be living in our bubble of safety and prosperity. We are privileged to be able to gather with our local queer community and party while our queer family abroad remain isolated at home, afraid to go outside and not knowing where their next paycheck will come from.

I can’t help but feel that among the circuit parties and the corporate sponsorship, safe in our island paradise, we are oblivious to the extent of the rapid changes occurring in the outside world. We will never truly understand what the rest of the world is going through, and I fear we will always lack a certain empathy for the anxieties they faced. I hope that lessons can be shared both ways as the world reopens, that the deep social shifts occurring overseas reach Taiwan’s shores. I would also like Taiwan to share its advanced medical expertise and exemplary pandemic response with the rest of the world, even if that means going outside of the WHO system.

This pandemic has resulted in unprecedented international isolation, and as we gradually begin to open up to one another again, I feel we will be surprised how much we have all diverged and changed forever. How we bridge these new differences will be crucial for our shared futures.

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Nick Van Halderen

Artist

Kuan-Lun Chang

designer

For image use or to request to see more photos from the event e-mail

[email protected]

If you enjoyed Nick’s work, please consider donating:

Tags covid-19, kuan-lun chang, kuan-lun-chang_, nick van halderen, nick-van-halderen_, pride, pride roundup 2020, taipei, taipei popcorn

Activisim Events Pride Timeline

Amsterdam Pride Walk: Walking For Those Who Cannot Join

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date July 21, 2020

ACTIVISM/PRIDE

Amsterdam

Pride Walk 2019

The annual Amsterdam Pride Walk has been cancelled due to coronavirus in 2020, but it still serves as a good reminder of why Pride marches started happening in the first place.

sidewalkkilla

EVENTS | ACTIVISM

Amsterdam Pride Walk

The annual Amsterdam Pride Walk has been cancelled due to coronavirus in 2020, but it still serves as a good reminder of why Pride marches started happening in the first place.

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Every year,

Pride Amsterdam

is opened by the Pride Walk.

It follows the route between Homomonument – a memorial in the centre of Amsterdam that commemorates all gay men and lesbians who have been subjected to persecution because of their homosexuality – and Westerpark, taking about an hour to complete. An estimated 15,000 people participated in the 1.8 kilometer (1.118 mile) walk in 2019.

Pride Walk in Amsterdam is more of a demonstration for equal rights, therefore making it different from some other Pride parades such as those in the US, where it seems that the celebration of freedom and diversity has become the foremost purpose. People who participate in the Pride Walk are marching for those who cannot or do not have an opportunity to march for their own rights, mostly because of the oppressive regimes of their native countries. Did you know that there are 72 jurisdictions in the world where being gay is illegal, 11 of which punish homosexuality by death? One of them being Uzbekistan, a neighbor country to Kazakhstan, where I was born. All of the countries where homosexuality is punishable by death operate under sharia law.

The Amsterdam Pride Walk was helmed by a dozen bikers, followed by a solitary man carrying a memorial photo of Yelena Grigoryeva, who was killed just days before the march near her home in St. Petersburg, Russia. Yelena was a prominent figure in protesting the widespread animosity towards nontraditional sexuality in Russia, earning her a spot in a terrifying website called “Pila” (Saw), where personal information like addresses, phone numbers, and names of LGBTQ activists were being leaked and people were encouraged to kill them off. Even though the website was taken down, the damage was already done. Russian police claim that Yelena’s death was a domestic dispute, refusing to treat the case as a hate crime; all of her earlier reports about fearing for her life due to the many death threats she received were ignored by the authorities in the past.

After the lone man carrying Grigoryeva’s memorial, 74 people followed holding the 74 flags of countries where homosexuality – at that time – was either criminalized or, where there are no laws against homosexual acts but there are repressive laws against “homosexuality propaganda,” like in Russia. Back in 2016 Huff Post wrote about Russian Neo-Nazis “allegedly luring and torturing gay teens with online dating scams,” while in reality, Maksim Martsinkevitch, the originator of the movement called Occupy Pedophilia, might have started operating as early as 2010 and not allegedly so, but very much so. Maksim and a group of other men would scam gay men and teenagers into meeting them through a gay website, only to beat, humiliate, and torture them, while recording the whole ordeal and posting it online for everyone to see. Maksim has appeared on major TV shows talking about his movement, equating homosexuality to pedophilia and garnering support of many in the local community as well as the local authorities who would turn a blind eye to his actions. Maksim’s YouTube channel currently has over 40K subscribers.

There have been many reported cases of missing persons in the Chechen Republic, a part of the Russian Federation: forced abductions, torture, and imprisonment by authorities of men based on their “perceived” sexual orientation. Up to 100 men have been reported missing, while an unknown number of men have been reported dead after being held by the authorities on suspicion of being gay or bisexual.

It seems that the organizers of arguably the biggest Pride celebration in Amsterdam, Canal Parade, pay very keen attention to who they let float their boats down the canals. Only 80 boats were selected to float in 2019, and the companies that participated went through rigorous investigation of their HR sectors. Basically, let’s see the receipts of what you really do for our community. Very different from the “If you pay, you can be gay” approach adopted by the NYC Pride.

In June of 2019 NYC celebrated the first WorldPride on the American turf, while simultaneously celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stonewall Uprising. The same month The NY Times has published an article about a brewing boycott over Pride celebrations. In the article, Bill Dobbs of the Reclaim Pride Coalition who was responsible for organizing the alternative march, claimed that NYC Pride “allows corporate sponsors to ‘pinkwash’ their images as gay-friendly organizations with progressive principles.” Bill’s side argued that the parade should be more of a protest instead of the over-the-top show that Pride has become. Reclaim Pride Coalition has also expressed that they would like minimum involvement from the police, calling the N.Y.P.D. commissioner James P. O’Neill’s apology for the Stonewall raids “empty.” Ouch.

On the other side, Cathy Renna, a spokesperson for Heritage of Pride (that does business as NYC Pride), said that corporate sponsorship is a step in the right direction, as it shows how far our community has come, garnering such mainstream support. The organization allowed the N.Y.P.D. to walk in the parade, claiming that this was a step towards improving relationship with the police. None of the parties involved in the argument would have a slightest idea that in 2020, Pride in NYC would shift its focus back to its protesting roots, making it very similar to Pride Walk in Amsterdam.

If there is anything I’ve learned by exploring LGBTQIA+ cultures around the world, it’s that we might seem divided, but we are all still in the same boat. It’s disheartening to read about instances of the community turning on each other, like in an article written by an LGBTQIA+ and women’s rights activist Phaylen Fairchild, that explores the complicated relationship between gay men and transgender people. It’s absurd to think that instead of uplifting each other every step of the way, we can be argumentative and downright hateful towards each other. As an LGBTQIA+ community, we must work as one and find peace within our own culture before trying to figure out how to achieve global acceptance.

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AMSTERDAM_PRIDE_WALK_2019 - Sidewalkkilla.com

Alexey Kim

Founder

For image use or to request to see the full album of the event e-mail

[email protected]

If you enjoy our work, please consider donating:

Tags Alexey Kim, alexey-kim_, amsterdam, pride

Activisim Events Pride Timeline

This Is The Future Queer Liberation Protesters Are Fighting For

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date July 7, 2020

EVENTS | ACTIVISM

NYC Queer Liberation March

“It’s 2020, and we are still dealing with issues that we’ve been dealing with for hundreds of years. It’s ridiculous. This needs to end now.”

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On June 28, 2020 instead of celebrating the annual Pride Parade in the usual way – with barricaded streets, company-sponsored floats, and police convoys – the people of New York took to the streets to protest police brutality and walk for Black and Black Trans Lives.

Sidewalkkilla was commissioned by BuzzFeed LGBTQ to interview NYC’s Queer Liberation March protesters on their hopes for the future. Find out what brings people out on the streets day after day.

Special thanks to Angel OrtÍz-Perreira for assisting with the project.

Katie Rose Summerfield

Bones Jones

Daniel Nieto

Rollerena

J. Alexander

Gabriella Rosa Morales

Ty Sunderland

Glow Job

Terence, Samy, Luis

Iman Le Caire

Cory Walker

Justin, Onika, Emilie, Spencer, Luke, Jordan

Angel Ortíz-Perreira

Jonas Bardin

Andy Jean

Steven the Neptunite

Sugar B.

& Jen Cinclair

Madelyn Keith &

Graham D’Craquer

Xander Gaines

Joel Riviera

@ohmykatierose

Katie Rose Summerfield

What brings you out here today?

I am an artist and a human in the world who cares about the humanity of all people. I think it’s essential that we show up for our brothers and sisters who have not been treated with any fairness, kindness, justice, or humanity for hundreds of years. And it’s time that we all be accomplices in the fight for abolition of white supremacy, racism, the police brutality and inequality across everything.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hopes for the future are that everybody in the world, everybody in America, feels safe to live in the body as they are, to be exactly who they are, to be loved tirelessly and fearlessly, and for everyone to feel safe.

@xo.bones

Bones Jones

What brings you out here today?

I am here today at the Queer Liberation March to liberate humanity, honestly. People of the LGBTQIA+ community are the backbone of how culture moves in this country. So I am here to support humanity in this outfit, have a good time, and support those who need support.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is that all people have the same rights, the same opportunities, the same abilities. We’ve seen what happens year after year after year when it comes to these things. It gets us nowhere to just oppress one group of people, so my hope and my wish is that we all just get the equal rights, equal opportunities, and just live in peace. Celebrate in peace, love in peace, have sex in peace.

@daboy13

Daniel Nieto

What brings you out here today?

I am here to fight for freedom, equalities for everybody. Black lives matter, trans lives matter, gay lives matter.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is for everyone to be treated equally, with respect, and to have equal freedom and opportunities in this country and everywhere else in the world.

Rollerena

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is the blue wave on election day, that everybody gets out there and votes. Votes with their conscience and gets this horrible regime out of office.

@daddyl0nglegs

J. Alexander (right)

What brings you out here today?

I’m here for Pride, I’m here for Black liberation. I’m here to take a stand with all the people that are here today.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope is that when these people go home, they actually do work, and they educate themselves about decolonizing the mind; they have the hard conversation with their racist aunts. I hope that they speak up for people of color — especially Black people — in these safe white spaces. I hope that the work goes beyond the streets and that we see actual change.

Gabriella Rosa Morales

What brings you out here today?

I’m an Afro Latina, bisexual woman, and I’m tired of the bullshit that’s going on. Honestly, it’s time for change and this is what needs to be happening and nobody is listening to us, so we are going to make them listen. So we are going to keep fighting every day until they listen to us, until we get what we need.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is that they defund the police, that they treat every citizen the way they need to be treated and that fucking capitalism changes. White supremacy needs to be out of this country. It’s 2020, and we are still dealing with issues that we’ve been dealing with for hundreds of years. It’s ridiculous. This needs to end now.

@ageofaquaria @theejessa @jimmypezzino @tysunderland

Ty Sunderland (right) & friends

What brings you out here today?

We are marching here for our liberation. We are not free until our entire community is free. Right now we have to be out here marching for Black lives and Black trans lives.

What are your hopes for the future?

A future where we are all free, we are all safe, where we all have equal opportunity, equal rights, and equal access to resources.

@queenglowjob

Glow Job

What brings you out here today?

I am here today, because it’s the Queer Liberation March; it is Pride.

We need to show up; we need to show out. We need to be here for Black lives, for Black trans lives. This feels like, what I imagine maybe, the first Pride was like. It was a freaking protest; it was a riot. And so we are here to make a difference.

What are your hopes for the future?

I feel like things are actually changing for once. I think people are stopping to think… I think they have been disrupted from the system. I want the police to be defunded. I want Black trans people to be respected. I want joy to come back to everyone’s life. That’s why we’re here doing this.

@nysocialbee @samyforbrooklyn @luisfernando.nyc

Terence, Samy & Luis

What brings you out here today?

Terence: What brought me here today was trans rights, Black Lives Matter. An equality for all of us — we are marching together to be with all my sisters and brothers and nonbinary folks.

Luis: I am here with my friends and my community. This is our family. Until all of us are liberated, every single person in our community is liberated — trans, Black, queer, nonbinary, Latino people — the queer community will not stop until all of us are fully equal.

Samy: I’m here because this is the real Pride. It started 51 years ago with Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson — a riot against police brutality — and we are still criminalized and oppressed by the state and the police forces. So we need to continue organizing, running for office, voting, and getting engaged with our community to actually fight for change, including social justice and a [city] budget that really helps our community. So we are honoring that life and that spirit of resistance. This is what this march is — to bring that rioting spirit to actually fight for equal justice.

Terence: And the rights for sex workers, which we can’t forget, because the root people that led the riots and the march were Black and trans sex workers.

What are your hopes for the future?

Samy: Well, I really hope that we don’t have to fight against the state and discrimination, that we live in the society that honestly honors our lives, that we have full respect and we have full equality and justice. And that starts with the Equality Act, but we need so much more.

Legal marriage equality [happened], but that just got us the right to love. Now we need the right so we can walk in the streets without violence and being murdered, so the moment that no Black trans women are being killed in the streets, when people are not discriminated at work, when all the eradication of discrimination happens. That’s why we are truly here; that’s why we are marching. We are not only celebrating that we could march because of the history of our movement, but because there is so much work to be done.

Luis: And of course we hope that the city council of New York defunds the NYPD, defunds the military state in our city and starts funding the real needs of our communities, starts funding education, starts funding housing, starts funding healthcare for people in our community. Because that’s where we really want our tax dollars to be devoted to and not to police violence, not to state violence. I really hope that our state officials, our city and our local elected officials react and respond to the clamor that we are all expressing today.

Terence: My hope for the future is that I won’t have to be out on the streets saying “Trans Lives Matter”; I won’t have to be out on the streets saying “Black Lives Matter”; I won’t have to be on the streets saying “Black Trans Lives Matter.” It’s beautiful that we are saying those, but the reason that we are out here saying those is because we are continuously killed and there is no justice and we have to keep fighting and protesting. I’m hoping for the future that we no longer have to be out on the streets fighting against the state and state will side with us, and they will give us protection. So that Black trans girls will have protection, Black people will have protection, we want to fight against people that are killing us.

Samy: This is just the city’s Pride as Black Lives Matter rally, because the most important, impacted members of our LGBTQ community are the LGBTQ people of color: Black trans women, Latinx, undocumented queer immigrants. And it is a movement of solidarity. Fighting for racial justice is to fight for queer rights; fighting for queer rights is fighting for racial justice. So we are not only standing in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, we also have Black queer lives, we also have immigrant Latinx queer lives and people of color. So this is a movement of solidarity, but we are both because our struggles are very interconnected. That’s why this Pride, this Queer March is so powerful, because it combines the intersectional lives and identities that we all live and they have been oppressed for so long and this is the moment for liberation.

Luis: And at the end, us browns and Black people, we are also protesting against the mainstream LGBTQ community who has for so long discriminated against us, discriminated against our most vulnerable members. And we are saying today: This is the Pride that we want; this is the Pride that we celebrate and nothing from now on in the future will be less.

Terence: No more.

@imanlecaire

Iman Le Caire

What brings you out here today?

My hope for the future for the Black trans sisters and Black trans brothers, for all brown people and refugees to have jobs and to be walking the streets without getting hurt and killed. I’m tired of it. I’ve been harassed since being 8 years old and I’m sick of it.

What are your hopes for the future?

So I just want to be safe and have opportunities like everybody else. Is that too much to ask? No I don’t think so, so I hope for the future and especially for trans youth to have a better future than I ever had. Hopefully that’s going to happen. I feel optimistic for the future, especially now that we all came together. Hopefully something is going to happen.

And I feel Trump is going to go away.

@corywalkers

Cory Walker

What brings you out here today?

I am out here celebrating Black and brown trans lives and just witnessing a revolution.

It’s been a beautiful way to emerge back into the new world and to be in New York City is such a blessing. Because this is kind of where that kind of liberation began: going to Stonewall and just feeling that energy. I feel like the ancestors are really here. I’m taking it moment by moment; it’s really a lot to digest, but it’s everything we’ve been asking for, so. I think this is our time.

What are your hopes for the future?

Oh, so many. I would say for everyone, every being who enters this plane, this earth, this physical experience, to know that there is so much worthiness and rightness in their existence.

I would love for kids to be born knowing that there is a reason that they are here and that they have the power, that their evolution and their natural flow is going to look so specific for them and that’s beautiful. And I want the people who maybe didn’t have that, who are kind of learning that about themselves now, I want them to heal and be graceful knowing that they always did and survived the best way they knew how.

And for people to just have more empathy and compassion and to really see each other again more, maybe for the first time. We are all kind of seeing ourselves for the first time. I think we are all being initiated into ourselves. So, my hope for the future, my hope for now really, just to continue celebration.

@justinbshow @onikathatbitch @spencer_larue @countessluke @jordnalexander

Justin, Onika, Emilie, Spencer, Luke, Jordan

Please, tell us what brings you out here today.

Justin: Celebrating our Pride, celebrating identities and Black trans lives.

Spencer: Our identities, our brothers, our sisters, everybody in between who just wants to be themselves.

Justin: It’s been really cool. These last few weeks people have been really showing up for each other in a beautiful way, and I feel like I am responsible to be a part of that.

Jordan: Also standing up against police brutality that’s been going on in this country since literally we began and just saying enough is enough. We are done. It needs to be scrapped, and we need to rebuild.

Spencer: As much as COVID sucks, I feel like it’s been a wake-up call that America needs to motivate and take action against police brutality and everything that’s been happening negatively toward our country to move forward.

What are your hopes for the future?

Justin: That we can all just fucking love each other.

Jordan: Yeah, and be able to live without being afraid of literally being killed.

Spencer: Love each other.

Emilie: Respect each other too.

Spencer: Respect each other in a world that’s built out of love, respect and compassion, and not negativity.

@angel_ortizp

Angel Ortíz-Perreira

What brings you out here today?

I am out here today for Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is for us to understand one another even whether we don’t agree with one another or not. I think finding that common ground of understanding and having those dialogues — that’s the future that we get to have. It really feels like there is an awakening happening in New York, in the world, in every major city. And it’s lovely to be out, even though today is limited in scope.

Jonas Bardin

What brings you out here today?

I am here today in support of, particularly, Black trans community as they continue to be marginalized and oppressed throughout this country. And I am here to also remind fellow white people, that this is the work that we need to be focusing on specifically in this moment.

And when we think of Pride, we need to be focalizing Black trans women specifically in our politics and in our minds when we are protesting moving forward.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hopes for the future are dismantling white supremacy and ending capitalism in this country. My hopes are that right now people can find a moment of peace and joy with their friends, maybe even just alone if they are alone today.

These are tumultuous times, but change is never something that is slow and that feels comfortable, so I take it as a good sign.

@qween_jean

Qween Jean (left)

What brings you out here today?

I am here today for Black trans liberation, not only today, but each and every day. Moving forward, so that these folks, honey, [cops] are fucking abolished. Thank you. That’s why I’m here.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is that no more Black and brown trans people have to be subjected to violence, that they have to be killed and that they could actually be free, fully, beautifully. That is my dream.

Steven the Neptunite

What brings you out here today?

I am here in celebration of not only Pride, but I’m also here for Black Lives Matter, because we celebrate Pride, but too often so many people get left out of this movement.

I believe that by combining BLM with LGBTQ+ Pride we can actually bend together and learn intersectionality and learn that we have a common oppressor. This builds a lot of strength to see people of color and queer people of color here as well as white people.

What are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is that we get to dress and look however we want and identify however we want and not have to deal with the threatening looks, not have to deal with the shit talk, not have to deal with the potential violence threats and the death threats. That is my hope for the future.

And my hope for the future is also, for us queer people of color to work within ourselves as well, because there is a lot of self-hate among our community; it’s not just our common oppressor. It’s gotten to the point where we teach this shit to ourselves and we need to fix that.

One of my hopes for the future is for us to stand in harmony and as one, like we should have a long time ago.

@sugarb.icny @jencinclair

Sugar B. & Jen Cinclair

What brings you out here today?

Jen: I am here with one of my besties whom I met at the Imperial Court of New York. She happens to be the first Black biological woman empress of the Imperial Court of New York. She’s fucking amazing, and we marched with our court friends today.

Sugar: I am, like Jen said, one of the first biological women of color, for a cis woman to reign with the Imperial Court of New York. We are a fundraising organization that mostly comprised drag queens, drag kings. We cater to the LGBTQ+ community. We raise money for a lot of organizations. My emperor was actually working at Stonewall when the riots happened. So we are considered the Stonewall monarchs of the Imperial Court of New York.

What are your hopes for the future?

Jen: No regressions. At least keep the rights that we have right now and move forward. No regressions at least step 1, and steps 2 through 50…so many fucking things.

Sugar: I have a basic theory: If you take care of yourself, in turn you take care of other people. Wear your masks; stay inside; don’t believe that you are better than anyone; don’t believe that you are not immune to what’s going on. There is a lot of people out here today, but you cannot cancel Pride. Pride is something that we do. But in the same spirit, stay safe. And if you can and when you can stay home… And I hope to hug someone very shortly. Oh my god I miss it. I miss hugging and kissing and loving people — it’s the most amazing thing.

Graham D’Craquer & Madelyn Keith

What brings you out here today?

Madelyn: My name is Madelyn Keith. I am empress 34 of the Imperial Court of New York.

Graham: And I am Graham D’Craquer, and I am member 29 of the Imperial Court of New York. And we are husbands in real life. So the Imperial Court of New York is a 501c3 charity organization that raises money for LGBTQ+ organizations, and we do it through events. And we figured since there is no Pride parade today, we’d just walk around, spread a little joy, spread a little cheer.

Madelyn: Imperial Court is 35 years old, and we are the producers of Night of the 1000 Gowns, which takes place in the spring. This year, our coronation was canceled due to the coronavirus, but we wanted to come out; we wanted to say hello; we wanted to show people we are here, we are proud, and that we love everybody.

Graham: Absolutely.

What are your hopes for the future?

Madelyn: First, I’d love to see everybody get through this, so we could get back to doing what we do: fundraising and charity, visiting people in hospice, and just bringing a little light to people.

Xander Gaines

What brings you out here today?

It’s Pride. It’s New York. I wanna see my family, my friends, my sisters, and although I can’t be with them the way I normally am, I could be among them so I’m out.

What are your hopes for the future?

A future. That’s my hope. Just having a future.

@missabolition

Joela-Abiona Rivera

What brings you out here today?

I’m 19 now, and I still got a high school education. I’m in college right now, and I’ve been an active member of the Black Lives movement since the day I was born and now I’m here.

I do a protest at Stonewall every Thursday. [And] now what I’m currently doing is stopping traffic, because I know when the Pride parades that are led by white people, when they organize they stop the streets. But when it’s for Black people, they let the traffic go. They try to dismantle us. So that’s why I’m here; it only takes one person.

I feel like the people here — they don’t want to join in, that’s fine. A lot of people are pussies, I can’t help that. So I’m here just doing that, doing my part, causing chaos, because like I said, I’m not peaceful; I’m not violent. I say I’m not peaceful, because I am here to cause noise, to cause chaos. I’m here to wake people up.

But I’m not violent, because the police are violent. People that hate in their hearts are violent. I don’t have hate in my heart, so I’m not violent.

What are your hopes for the future?

I guess it’s kind of cliché: I hope for equality. I hope that if I was to go on a train just like this, I wouldn’t face any harassment. I hope that there is a new system that doesn’t see the color of your skin but sees the content of your character. That’s what Martin Luther King said.

I hope that every single person in the world, now that’s crazy, but I hope that every single person in the world finds love in their heart. If you have love, it doesn’t matter your sexuality, your gender identity, your skin color, because you will just love everybody. And honestly, I take it back when I said it was a stretch. It should not be a stretch to be able to love everyone, but some people just make it so difficult.

Alexey Kim

Founder

Activisim Events Pride Timeline

Bushwig Celebrates Pride & Rides In Solidarity With BLM

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date June 29, 2020

Bushwig Pride x BLM

EVENTS | PRIDE | ACTIVISM

06-26-20

It seems that the only acceptable way of celebrating Pride in 2020 is if you are doing it in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Bushwig drag festival organizers did just that on Friday, June 26. The event started off with a three-mile bike ride from Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick and ended at McCarren Park in Williamsburg. In Buswhig’s style, attendees were encouraged to wear wigs. Drag performer Merrie Cherry led the horde of colorful bikers in a red convertible. A few hundred people ended up gathering on the lawns of McCarren Park, listening to the evening’s speakers, watching performances by The Dragon Sisters, Magenta, Jette Grey, C’etait BonTemps, and more. The donations provided during the event were to be split between the performers and a grassroots non-profit organization, G.L.I.T.S. (Gays and Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society), that houses homeless Black trans people. Amongst the highlights of the evening was the event’s speaker and performer Jette Grey, a Black trans sex worker, asking people to donate money to her Venmo account, so that she could help other trans people in need. In just a couple of hours she announced that she has collected over $7,000, with the donations going over $10K by the next day. The event finished off with a fiery speech by Samuel Nemir Olivares – a progressive Latinx, queer state committee candidate – and a dance party that was eventually ended by police intervention.

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Alexey Kim

Founder

For image use or to request to see the full album of the event e-mail

[email protected]

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Events Pride Timeline

Looking Back At Miami’s First Controversial Wynwood Pride

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date June 24, 2020

EVENTS | PRIDE

Looking Back At Miami’s First Controversial Wynwood Pride

In 2019, Miami’s first Wynwood Pride split local talent into two opposing camps. In 2020, the festival is back in digital form.

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In 2020 Miami-based Wynwood Pride came back for its second year, but this time, virtually. While local artists comprised the bulk of last year’s 3-day lineup, heavyweights such as Pabllo Vittar, Ivy Queen, and Poppy were each day’s respective headliners. The festival split the local talent into different camps: local drag artists Yoko Oso and Kunst called on people to boycott the festival organized by local for-profit company SWARM, criticizing them for using the Pride label for “what essentially is, a Gay Pop Music Festival,” while also enlisting AT&T as one of the event’s biggest sponsors – AT&T reportedly donated $2.7 million to 193 anti-gay politicians in 2017 and 2018.

Queef Latina, the organizer of South Florida’s biggest queer performance festival Wigwood, found herself caught in the middle. In one of her Instagram posts she called for peace:

“At times we get so caught up in the politics and drama that we forget that we should not be fighting fellow queers, but should be channelling those efforts to fight the real oppressors.”

Karla Croqueta (right) with their partner Jonny

Karla Croqueta, another drag staple of Miami who doubled as an MC during the second day of the festival, said she was grateful that she was able to participate and pay her bills,

“You should care about it [representation of the LGBTQIA+ community], but be wise about how you represent it… I had 4 cameras and a drone floating in front of me, with two giant screens the size of buildings bigger than I’ve lived in, with my face planted on them, with my message about queer representation and trans representation being spewed out to 5,000 people that were in front of me. I just feel like, get on a bigger soap box.”

This year, on June 13, Wynwood collaborated with a nonprofit, PLUS1, to benefit The Bail Project, Impact Justice, Black Trans Femmes in the Arts, Contigo Fund, and Equal Justice Initiative, raising $18,796 in total.

Wynwood Pride is back this coming weekend (June 26 – 27) to their Twitch channel in hopes of raising more funds for the above mentioned organizations. This is a chance to get familiar with local superstars like Kat Wilderness, Morphine Love, Sensitive Black Hottie, Vex The Thing, Opal Am Rah, Mami Issues, Aeon Hues and FKA Twink. Big Freedia and Orville Peck are still listed as headliners, while Kali Uchis, and Sofi Tukker will be missed this time around. Check out the event’s set list HERE.

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Alexey Kim

Founder

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[email protected]

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Events Pride Timeline

Taipei’s First Pride After Same-Sex Marriage Legalization

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date October 28, 2019

EVENTS | PRIDE

Taipei’s

First Pride

After

Same-Sex Marriage Legalization

Around 200K people attended Taipei in October 2019, to celebrate same year’s major win for the island as the 1st country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

Due to Taiwan passing same-sex marriage legislation on May 24 of 2019, Taipei Pride was slated to be the biggest one yet. The tumultuous history of getting marriage between same-sex couples legalized spanned almost two decades, culminating in the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the Civil Code’s clauses relating to marriage were unconstitutional. The person responsible for setting the landmark precedent in Asia, by applying for a marriage license back in 2013, is a 61-year-old gay / AIDS pioneer / activist Chi Chia-wei. Chi Chia-wei has been an activist for over 30 years, and was the first person in Taiwan to come out as gay on television, during a self-organized press conference back in 1986.

The theme for this year’s parade was “Together, Make Taiwan Better,” marking the 17th year of its observance. Nearly 200,000 people attended this year’s march according to parade organizers Taiwan LGBT Pride. The 3.4-mile-long parade route began at Taipei City Hall and ended at the Presidential Palace, where a performance stage greeted everyone who managed to finish the long march that went on for about 7 hours.

Artist Deng Yunxiang and a friend hold a perforamnce-art protest. Deng’s sign reads “Today’s Honk Kong can be tomorrow’s Taiwan.”

The first time I heard about the budding Taipei queer scene was at this year’s Wigwood Miami festival, from Jacksonville drag queen Didi. She told me that I should get in contact with a drag queen named Popcorn who resides in Taipei by way of New Zealand. I reached out to Popcorn a few months back and asked if it would be worth checking out Taipei’s pride parade this year, to which she replied “With the legalization of same-sex marriage earlier this year, it should be much larger than previous years (already being the largest in Asia).” She also mentioned that she would invite me to the techno / art / queer Spectrum Formosus festival held at a tea farm the weekend following Pride, and that was enough for me to get wet and book my trip ASAP.

The parade was scheduled to take off at 1:30 pm, with thousands of people accumulating at Taipei City Hall’s plaza. Hordes of people were getting ready to march, half of them crammed into the narrow street of the vendor-lined Rainbow Market. The parade was divided into six sections, each one representing a different color of the rainbow, with five flags representing bisexual, trans, pansexual, asexual, and intersex groups leading the six sections along the route. Thirty companies registered this year to sponsor and participate in the parade – a record number for Taiwan. In contrast, this year’s NYC’s WorldPride included over 100 sponsor companies.

A newlywed same-sex couple poses with their pet

Along the Rainbow Market people were getting ready to step off: several muscular Taiwanese guys were putting on their golden wings before boarding the Grindr float; drag queens were finishing up their final make-up touches; people were taking a dip in a bathtub filled with plastic bubbles created by MAC cosmetics; and local artist Deng Yunxiang was holding a performance-art demonstration warning everyone that “Today’s Hong Kong can be tomorrow’s Taiwan.”

A very skinny older gentleman dressed in everything rainbow caught my attention. He was standing to the side, all by himself – a huge rainbow flag on a metallic pole sticking out of his backpack with two teddy bears attached to either side. I recognized him instantly – it was Chi Chia-wei himself! Along the parade route I ran into him two more times: once on the balcony of a shopping plaza, where news media outlets swarmed around him; and on a building’s rooftop, where he swayed his flag incessantly. During one of the interviews I overheard a Taiwanese interpreter, translating for an American white male journalist, saying that even though Chi Chia-wei is joyous over the recent turn of events, there is more work that needs to be done.

Chi Chia-wei

Indeed, even though the same-sex marriage bill was recently introduced and over a thousand couples have gotten married so far this year, they still cannot exercise all of the same rights that heterosexual couples are able to enjoy. Same-sex couples can currently only “adopt their partners’ biological children and … only marry foreigners from countries where gay marriage is also recognized.” Some of the local LGBTQ people have expressed that even though it seems that Taiwan is open and accepting of the new law, there is still a big chunk of conservative opposition, especially outside of Taipei. Nonetheless, the future seems hopeful for Taiwan’s LGBTQ community, as Chi Chia-wei stated to Thomson Reuters Foundation: “Taiwan has taken a big step, other countries will not need another 30 years to get there.”

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Alexey Kim

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Tags Alexey Kim, chi chia-wei, pride, taipei

Activisim Events Pride

“You Are Loved” at The Annual Trans March in Atlanta, GA

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date October 12, 2019
Sticky post

EVENTS | PRIDE

10-12-19

TRANS MARCH IN ATLANTA

The Annual Trans March in Atlanta celebrates the visibility of the trans and non-binary community, while remembering lives lost due to violence.

sidewalkkilla

Trans rights and issues have always been close to home, as for most of my life I have struggled with my own identity. When I was a child, I loved playing dress-up in my mom’s closet. When I got into my teenage years, I still loved doing it, only now her heels fit me just right. When I was home alone, I would carefully pick out my favorite items from her wardrobe, put them on, and prance around the house, imagining I was a girl. Up until my early 30s, I was still pondering if it would be sensible for me to transition, but last year I made a conscious decision to stay with the gender I was assigned at birth. When I got to Atlanta for their 49th Annual Pride celebrations, I looked up the events that were going to take place over the weekend, and I saw that a Trans March was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. It was a no-brainer that I would put it on my list of the events to attend.

The Annual Trans March in Atlanta first began in 2009. The March celebrates and uplifts the visibility of the trans and non-binary community, while also addressing issues facing the trans community – from discrimination in the workplace, to the growing number of hate crimes and trans murders. This year, the Trans March honored trans lives lost in 2019. So far, at least 22 trans or gender non-conforming people, mostly Black trans women, were reported murdered this year, according to the HRC. A trans woman, Roxsana Hernández, died earlier this year in ICE custody due to AIDS complications while seeking asylum from trans prosecution in El Salvador, while another trans woman, Layleen Polanco, died in Rikers Island prison due to complications from epilepsy. Johana Medina Leon was one more victim that died due to health complications while in ICE custody shortly after her release.

By the time I got to the Charles Allen Gate of Piedmont Park, where the parade was supposed to take off, I saw no sign of the march. I was sort of caught off-guard, as I didn’t realize that other things would be happening at the park at the same time. Rainbow flags were everywhere and the queer people congregated as far as the eye could see. A huge stage was set up in the middle of a large field and I noticed a poster with the weekend’s lineup. Kesha, slated to perform later that evening, headined the festival.

I started making my way through the park, trying to find the missing Trans March. I made it all the way across the park with no luck in locating it, but I stopped in front of a field strewn with what looked like colorful blankets. Upon closer investigation I realized that they were all handmade memorial quilts for queer people who had passed away from AIDS. “Happy Pride!,” I heard a voice say. There were two men standing behind me. One was in his 20s, while the other one was a couple decades older. “My name is Ben,” the younger guy introduced himself. He told me that this was his first Pride. After a couple more minutes of conversation I excused myself, but not before Ben flirtatiously announced that I had kissable lips. Happy that I could land a Southern dick, I started walking along the field, looking through more of the memorial quilts.

A few moments later I noticed a commotion happening towards the right side of where I was walking, and I made my way over there. Pansy Patrol volunteers stood with huge styrofoam pansies and posters that said things like “God Adores You” and “You R Loved,” blocking out another dozen people who held up posters that said “Homo Sex Is Sin” and “Prepare To Meet Thy God.” Several other queer activists barricaded the homophobes with huge poster boards called The Hate Shield, designed by artist Matt Terrell. “The front is a rainbow design, which faces the Pride-goers. The back, which faced the protesters, is covered in mirrored panels, so the anti-LGBTQ protesters see themselves. This mobile soundproof wall also helped reduce protest noise such as megaphones by nearly 25%,” wabe stated.

A trans woman holding up a countdown clock and a sign urging people to donate to THAP said: “Every 15 minutes they protest we raise money for trans housing, to get homelessness off the streets of Atlanta. We’ve raised over $600 so far from pledges from people in the community. The longer they protest, the more money we raise. We are going to turn their hate to love.”

I came up to a woman who was holding up a sign “They Never Miss A Gay Party,” and I asked how did the Pansy Patrol know the religious anti-gay contingent would be there. She said “They are always here!” The only other time I’ve seen Bible-thumping protesters was at Brooklyn Pride earlier this year. But Atlanta’s Pansy Patrol, who came to shield the Pride attendees from the homophobic hatred, did a darn good job drowning them out with songs and chants of love and support.

It was almost time for me to head out to the first day of Afropunk and I started making my way back. A stage that was empty just an hour earlier now featured full-on performances. A local trans activist/performer of Mexican descent, Alissah Brooks, graced the stage and brought out several surprise guests, like Jazmin Balenciaga and Alissah’s best friend, actress, singer and gay rights activist Kat Graham. At the end of the performance, Alissah read the names of the 19 trans women killed before the date of the event: Dana Martin, Jazzaline Ware, Ashanti Carmon, Calire Legato, Muhlaysia Booker, Michelle “Tamika” Washington, Paris Cameron, Chynal Lindsey, Chanel Scurlock, Zoe Spears, Brooklyn Lindsey, Denali Berries Stuckey, Tracy Single, Bubba Walker, Kiki Fantroy, Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, Bailey Reeves, Bee Love Slayter, and Itali Marlowe. Sadly, the next day after Atlanta Pride, one more name of a Black trans woman would be added to the list of murdered trans women this year. Brianna “BB” Hill was fatally shot in Kansas City.

As I started getting closer to the exit gate of the park, I finally caught up with the tail end of the Trans March. It was coming to an end and the marchers were almost at the point where they started. Even though I missed the whole march, I was able to witness other incredible things, like the queer community coming together to protect each other from hate and bigotry and celebrity allies willing to stand in solidarity with members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Moments like these give you hope and show that even though our community can be divided at times, we are still not afraid to speak up, come together, and face our adversaries.

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Tags Alexey Kim, alissah brooks, atlanta, jazmin balenciaga, jeter gorgeous gucci, kat graham, pride, transgender

Events Pride Timeline

49th Annual Atlanta Pride Was a Family Affair

Post author By sidewalkkilla
Post date October 11, 2019

EVENTS | PRIDE

49th Atlanta Pride

Was a Family Affair

Atlanta Pride was first held in 1970, just a year after the Stonewall riots, which served as a catalyst to the Pride movement in Atlanta.

sidewalkkilla

Atlanta Pride is one of the oldest Pride festivals in the US, and the largest in the Southeast. It was first held in 1970, just a year after the Stonewall riots, which served as a catalyst to the Pride movement in Atlanta. In 1971, when homosexual sex was still illegal, hundreds of marchers wore paper bags over their heads to hide their identity, while also sending a message of how invisible they were as a community.

In recent years Atlanta Pride has become larger than ever, attracting upwards of 300,000 yearly attendees, while annually generating over $25 million for the city since 2010.

In 2019, Atlanta’s 49th Annual Pride Festival began on National Coming Out Day, on Friday, October 11, and culminated with the Parade on Sunday, October 13. The celebrations kicked off on Friday, with a party hosted at Georgia Aquarium by Shangela and Phoenix from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Other notable events that happened during that weekend at Piedmont Park were The Annual Trans, Dyke, Bi & Pan Marches and a free concert headlined by Kesha, and Starlight Cabaret Show, one of the largest drag cabarets in the Southeast.

The Atlanta Pride Committee chose politician Stacey Abrams, trans activist Feroza Syed, and teenage poet Royce Mann to be the parade’s grand marshals.

“One of the reasons we choose grand marshals is because we are actually shining a light on what issues and work we as an organization believe to be important,”

Jamie Fergerson, Atlanta Pride Committee’s Executive Director, stated to wabe.

Caged Jock

The morning my porn star friend Caged Jock and I set out to the parade was overcast, but by the time we got to the MARTA’s Civic Center station, where all the floats were waiting to take off, it was full-on pouring rain. The scene that presented itself reminded me of WorldPride celebrated in NYC earlier the same year, sans the rain: rows of cars and floats were lined up along the road, with go-go boys wearing nothing but a robe and underwear; leather pups having a small party of their own on a sidewalk; bears patiently waiting by a truck adorned with hundreds of their plush namesakes.

We slowly moved through the crowd and once we made our way to the end of the street, we realized that we were walking inside of an actual parade. Quickly scanning around for the best options for advancing through the whole route of the march, we thought it would be best to walk down the street with the floats. The further we walked, the more people were lining up on the sidewalks and the more it started raining.

At a certain point on the route barricades started to appear on the sidewalks, and we realized that the only way out would be to walk towards the final destination of the parade at Piedmont Park. The crowd grew larger the more we advanced through the route, and from hundreds of people lining up the sidelines, it turned into thousands. “We love you!” and “Happy Pride!” is all we could hear, walking along the route of the parade on Peachtree street.

One of the things that struck me the most was how many people came with their kids. A lot of people in the crowd came to support those who might not be close to their own family by wearing shirts that said “Dad Hugs” and “Mom Hugs.” I’ve gotten hugged by three moms simultaneously who all kissed me on my cheeks and told me that they loved me; a handsome dad with a brown-brimmed hat gave me a strong and warm hug that almost made me cry; a married couple coddled me in a three-way embrace.

All of the people that brought kids to the parade deserve separate recognition. It’s incredibly important to show future generations that love is the answer, no matter what skin you are in. It’s comforting to know that there are parents out there who not only support their own children, but show them that tolerance is the only way forward.

A large group of anti-LGBTQ protesters lined up along one of the streets, holding up hateful slogans and protected by the police, but no one seemed to care. A few people who were walking in the parade, slowed down to taunt the outsiders with their joy. Yes, it did rain on our parade, but the unconditional support that the marchers and onlookers exhibited for each other that day couldn’t be defeated – not by the weather nor by the people who have come to project hate during such an otherwise beautiful intergenerational exhibition of love and acceptance.

NOTE: Unfortunately, all official celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of Atlanta Pride were cancelled in 2020 due to coronavirus.

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