Two women ruined a San Diego public library’s Pride display by checking out nearly all of its LGBTQ+ books in protest.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Rancho Peñasquitos residents Amy Vance and Martha Martin checked out 14 books included in the display at Rancho Peñasquitos Library in Inland San Diego County because they objected to material that deals with sexual orientation and gender identity being available to children.
“Minor children have the right to belong to a community that respects their innocence and allows families to have conversations about sex and sexual attraction privately, and only when parents deem it appropriate,” the women wrote in a June 15 email to head librarian Misty Jones after checking out the books. “It’s time for the American public libraries to once again be a respectful space for young children to freely explore great ideas that unite and inspire us all, rather than places where controversial and divisive new ideological movements are given free rein to promote their theories and policy positions about sexuality to children without the consent or notification of parents.”
In her response to Vance and Martha, Jones defended the display, which she said was not in or near the library’s children’s section.
“Displays such as the one at Rancho Peñasquitos send a powerful message that LGBTQ+ patrons and their allies are respected members of our community,” Jones wrote. “They also serve to encourage conversations and dispel misconceptions and stereotypes that often surround the LGBTQ+ community.”
“Pride displays are much like other displays that recognize other cultures, holidays or causes so that we can recognize the experiences of others and have a more inclusive and equitable society,” she continued. “We are proud of our position in encouraging members of our community to learn, grow and celebrate our differences.”
“It seems like these two women were trying to hide LGBT people away,” Jen Labarbera, director of education and outreach for San Diego Pride, said. “We’ve fought many years to prevent that. There’s nothing wrong with being LGBT.”
San Diego city councilmember Marni von Wilpert, whose district includes Rancho Peñasquitos, said that she was shocked to see this kind of protest against LGBTQ+ books in San Diego. “Denying others the right to read LGBTQ-affirming books is just another way of telling LGBTQ people they don’t belong — and that’s dead wrong,” she said. “Everyone has the right to read what they want, but absolutely no one has the right to keep others from reading books that reflect their experiences and backgrounds.”
But Jones said that protests in the area against Pride displays and drag queen story time events have gotten progressively worse over the last five years.
Across the country, school and public libraries have increasingly become the focus of conservatives attempting to ban books dealing with the LGBTQ+ experience, while in some states armed members of far-right hate groups have shown up at local libraries to intimidate patrons attending drag queen story time events.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the library gives patrons five automatic renewals unless another patron requests a book they’ve checked out, so no action will be taken until the books are due back at the branch. If Vance and Martha do not return the books on time, the matter will be taken up by the library’s collections division.
In the meantime, city councilmember Wilpert told the paper she is working with nonprofit groups to raise money to replace the books, which reportedly cost around $235 in total.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of an evangelical Christian web designer from Colorado who refuses to work on same-sex weddings in a decision that deals a setback to LGBTQ rights.
The justices, divided6-3on ideological lines, said that Lorie Smith, as a creative professional, has a free speech right under the Constitution’s First Amendment to refuse to endorse messages she disagrees with. As a result, she cannot be punished under Colorado’s antidiscrimination law for refusing to design websites for gay couples, the court said.
The ruling could allow other similar business owners to evade punishment under laws in 29 states that protect LGBTQ rights in public accommodations in some form. The remaining 21 states do not have laws explicitly protecting LGBTQ rights in public accommodations, although some local municipalities do.
Christian graphic artist and website designer Lorie Smith speaks to supporters outside the Supreme Court, on Dec. 5, 2022.Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
“The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place, where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court.
Gorsuch, who wrote a 2020 ruling that expanded LGBTQ rights in the employment context, said that public accommodation laws play a vital role in protecting individual civil rights.
“At the same time, this court has also recognized that no public accommodation law is immune from the demands of the Constitution. In particular, this court has held, public accommodations statutes can sweep too broadly when deployed to compel speech,” he added.
Smith, who opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds and runs a business designing websites, sued the state in 2016 because she said she would like to accept customers planning opposite-sex weddings but reject requests made by same-sex couples wanting the same service. She was never penalized for rejecting a same-sex couple — and it’s unclear if she ever did — but sued on hypothetical grounds.
Smith argued that as a creative professional she has a free speech right to refuse to undertake work that conflicts with her views.
Civil rights groups said Smith was asking the conservative-majority court for a “license to discriminate” that would gut public accommodation laws that require businesses to serve all customers.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing the dissent, said the court’s ruling was part of “a backlash to the movement for liberty and equality for gender and sexual minorities” and a type of “reactionary exclusion,” calling it “heartbreaking.”
In a stern voice, she read a summary of her dissent from the bench, saying in court that the decision allowing Smith to sell her product only to opposite-sex couples “makes a mockery of the law.”
She compared Smith’s situation to historic cases of racial discrimination in which restaurants would refuse to serve Black people inside but would allow them to collect pick-up orders from a side counter, effectively treating them like second-class citizens.
Sotomayor noted that Smith will still sell her services to LGBTQ people only if it is for an opposite-sex wedding. For LGBTQ customers, Sotomayor said, “she will sell at a side counter.”
The court’s two other liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, both joined Sotomayor’s dissent.
Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said the court had simply reaffirmed that Americans cannot be forced to say things they do not believe.
“This is a win for all Americans. The government should no more censor Lorie for speaking consistent with her beliefs about marriage than it should punish an LGBT graphic designer for declining to criticize same-sex marriage,” she added.
Civil rights groups viewed the ruling very differently, with David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, saying the court had for the first time found that some people have a green light to violate antidiscrimination laws.
“The court’s decision opens the door to any business that claims to provide customized services to discriminate against historically-marginalized groups,” he added.
December’s oral argument featured a colorful array of hypothetical questions as the justices wrestled with the potentially broad implications of the case. At one point, conservative Justice Samuel Alito questioned whether a “Black Santa“ at a shopping mall would be obliged to take a picture with a child dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
The case was the latest example of the conflict over the Supreme Court’s own 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, which conservative Christians oppose even as Congress has moved to enact a law with bipartisan support that bolsters protections for married same-sex couples.
Smith, whose business is called 303 Creative, told NBC News she has always been drawn to creative projects but also has strongly held beliefs that “marriage is between one man and one woman — and that union is significant.”
Smith sued the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and other state officials out of concern that she could be sanctioned under its antidiscrimination law that bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in public accommodations, although she has not been sanctioned yet. Lower courts ruled against Smith, prompting her to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The case gave the court a second bite at a legal question it considered but never resolved when it ruled in a similar case in 2018 in favor of a Christian baker, also from Colorado, who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. The court ruled then that the baker, Jack Phillips, did not receive a fair hearing before the state Civil Rights Commission because there was evidence of anti-religious bias.
State officials said in court papers that they had never investigated Smith and had no evidence that anyone had ever asked her to create a website for a same-sex wedding. Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson wrote that there is a long tradition of public accommodations laws protecting the ability of all people to obtain goods and services.
Smith, like Phillips before her, is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, which has had success arguing religious rights cases at the Supreme Court in recent years.
The Supreme Court ruled on the baker case before the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted in favor of LGBTQ rights in key cases. Now, following three appointments made by then-President Donald Trump, the court has six conservative and three liberal justices.
The highest-ranking transgender elected official in the United States, Sarah McBride, has launched a bid to become Delaware’s sole member of the US House of Representatives.
McBride is currently a senator in the Delaware state legislature and, if successful, would become the first trans person to be elected to federal office.
Lisa Blunt Rochester, the state’s current house representative, announced last week that she would be running at the next election to replace senator Tom Carper, who is retiring.
Speaking to Delaware Online, McBride said she was “certainly cognisant of the uniqueness of my candidacy, of the uniqueness that my voice would bring to the halls of Congress”.
But, she added, “Ultimately, I’m not running to be a trans member of Congress,“ instead she was “focused on making progress on all of the issues that matter to Delawareans of every background”.
Having diversity among elected officials was necessary for a health democracy, she said.
The approach is reminiscent of McBride’s campaign for the state senate, where she ran on the notion of serving as a “senator who happens to be transgender”.
McBride’s campaign video highlights her message of making “government work better for people”.
She also took aim at politicians who she said want to “divide” society, showing footage of controversial figures Florida governor Ron DeSantis and US house representative Majorie Taylor Greene.
“Blocking out the noise and focusing on what actually matters isn’t easy… it takes guts and a backbone,” McBride said.
The election is set to take place in November 2024.
Who is Sarah McBride?
McBride, 32, was elected to the Delaware State Senate in November 2020. It made her the first openly trans state senator in the US, as well as the highest-ranking trans elected official in the country.
Prior to her election, she had worked for LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
In 2014, she was thanked by Delaware’s then-governor Jack Markell, for her work in helping introduce legislation to ban gender-identity discrimination in areas such as housing and employment.
As a state senator, McBride sponsored a bill that gives eligible workers up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. It was passed in early 2022 and will come into effect from the start of 2025.
According to Delaware Online, she has long been viewed as the front runner to succeed Rochester.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs issued two pro-LGBTQ executive orders on Tuesday, banning state support of so-called conversion therapy and allowing transgender state employees to receive gender-affirming health care under their insurance plan.
Hobbs made the announcement from the offices of a central Phoenix nonprofit that focuses on helping LGBTQ youth.
Under the executive actions, state agencies will be prohibited from using funds to promote or facilitate so-called conversion therapy, the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.
Also, state employee health insurance plans can no longer list gender-affirming surgery as ineligible for coverage. A ban on such coverage was enacted in 2017.
The change will impact former and current state employees and public university workers.
That order effectively resolves an ongoing lawsuit brought in 2019 by Dr. Russell Toomey, a University of Arizona professor who is transgender and sought coverage for a “medically necessary” surgery. ACLU attorneys representing Toomey said Tuesday they will file a motion to settle the case.
A UK-based charity dedicated to LGBTQ+ people over 50 has revealed that many feel “excluded and isolated” in a community “geared towards younger people”.
Research by Opening Doors found people over the age of 50 “especially within the gay community” feel less visible due to being less likely to have “familial networks”.
Due to “distrust in the system”, the charity also found that older people often go without help from external support networks.
John Campbell, who identifies as androsexual, said his experience as an older LGBTQ+ person has been “trying at times, owing to the amount of emotional trauma”.
‘I feel excluded’
Campbell, 64, told Metro: “At times I feel excluded from the community as it is mainly geared towards younger people.
“A lot of this is due to the fact many people from older generations were lost to the AIDs pandemic. It wiped out a generation of movers and shakers, and has left trauma for so many.”
The term ‘androsexual’ refers to people who, regardless of their gender identity, are sexually or romantically attracted to masculinity.
Angela, who didn’t provide her last name and is trans, echoed Campbell’s thoughts regarding a shared trauma within the community.
The 59-year-old said: “The majority of people my age or older have lived through different times and share a common set of experiences and emotions associated with a far less accepting society.
“It is a less frightening place to be known as LGBTQ+ than it ever was when I growing up in the 1970s, 80s and even the 90s.”
‘It can be quite a scary and unsettling experience’
Head of fundraising and communications at Opening Doors, Jonathan Buckerfield, said the findings show the need for support systems suited for LGBTQ+ people as “everything is set up for straight people”.
“As we age, we become less visible in wider society, and this is especially true in the LGBTQ+ community,” Buckerfield said.
“We don’t have the same familial networks and we can find ourselves increasingly cut off from social networks and services. It can be quite a scary and unsettling experience.”
Buckerfield noted that past traumas linked to a time when being LGBTQ+ was less tolerated mean activities that focus on reminiscing are not as suited to older LGBTQ+ people.
“LGBTQ+ people also experience health inequalities, as they are more likely to struggle with alcohol and addiction – but they are also less likely to trust the NHS as straight people do, as they can remember a time when conversion therapies were offered,” he continued.
In March, older LGBTQ+ people spoke to PinkNews about the struggle they faced hiding their true selves from prejudiced eyes and fighting for their right to grow old.
According to GLAAD, the average life expectancy of trans women of colour is 35. For a cis woman, it is 78.
Despite the struggles faced by the ageing LGBTQ+ community, 92-year-old Betty proved that age doesn’t have to result in being cut off from the world as she had her lifelong wish to watch a male strip show granted by her care home in Hampshire.
Join Positive Images LGBTQIA+ Center, LandPaths and North Bay LGBTQI Families for a Social Saturday: Intergenerational Gathering on July 8th from 10am-3pm at ! (Grove of Old Trees is on Google Maps but if you’d like to Caravan at 10, please meet at the Occidental Community Center)
All LGBTQIA+ youth, families, adults, and elders are welcome at Social Saturdays, which are a recurring series of monthly events taking place throughout Sonoma County where we are seeking to bring together members of our community across generations, particularly gender expansive youth, teens, and adults.
At our July gathering, our guest facilitator Miranda (she/they) will lead us on a guided hike and then guide us through activities based on the nature that surrounds us!
Please bring with you a packed lunch, a blanket (or something else to sit on), and some water to hydrate yourself. There is no bathroom on site so plan to use the bathroom at the Occidental Community Center or somewhere in town.
For this event please RSVP by filling out this form 🙂 We’re excited to see you then!
We’re excited to see you then!
Image Description: An image graphic with “Social Saturday” with various trees in the center. The logos of the sponsoring organizations appear at the top of the graphic. Image 1 is in English, Image 2 is in Spanish.
********** Acompañe a Positive Images LGBTQIA + Center y North Bay LGBTQI Families para un sábado social: ¡Reunión intergeneracional el 8 de Julio de 10a-3p en Grove of Old Trees! Las direcciones de llegar al parque están en Google Maps. Si les gustaría llegar juntos con nosotros, por favor lleguen al Centro Comunal de Occidental a las 10a.
Todes les jóvenes, familias, adultes y ancianes LGBTQIA + son bienvenides en esta reunión, que es parte de una serie recurrente de eventos mensuales que se llevan a cabo en todo el condado de Sonoma, donde buscamos reunir a miembros de nuestra comunidad a través de generaciones, particularmente jóvenes, adolescentes y adultes con género expansivo.
En nuestra reunión de Julio, nuestre facilitador invitade será Miranda (Ella/Elle). Elle nos va guiar en una caminata y después nos enseñara unas actividades sobre la naturaleza que vemos.
Por favor traigan su comida empacada, una cobija (o algo para sentarse), y agua para mantenerse hidratado. No hay baño en el parque sino que lo usan en el centro comunal de Occidental o en el pueblo Occidental antes de llegar.
Para esta reunión por favor rellene la forma aqui! Estamos emocionades de verles ahí!
[Descripción de la imagen: Un gráfico de imagen con “Sábado Social” Descripción de la imagen: Un gráfico de imagen con “Sábado Social” y varios árboles en el centro de la imagen. Los logotipos de las organizaciones patrocinadoras aparecen en la parte superior del gráfico. [La imagen 1 está en inglés, la imagen 2 está en español.]
Some corporate sponsors have kept lower profiles at Pride celebrations this year, but most have not tightened their purse strings or ditched LGBTQ causes in the face of conservative blowback, event organizers and advocates say.
Nearly 78% of U.S. Pride organizers surveyed this year by InterPride, a network of Pride events around the world, said their corporate sponsorships either rose or held steady since last year — higher than the 62% global figure — while 22% reported declines.
Indy Pride, which organizes official celebrations in Indianapolis, faced new difficulties in the run-up to this year’s festivities. One corporate sponsor pulled its logo from an event, and another raised questions about a youth Pride carnival it had agreed to sponsor after getting “blasted” on social media, said executive director Shelly Snider.
Most of the Pride organizers NBC News spoke with, including Snider, declined to identify corporate sponsors that shrunk their involvement or visibility, concerned about alienating important financial backers. Like Indy Pride, Pride organizations are typically nonprofit organizations that also offer year-round services to the LGBTQ community, such as grants, educational events and support for political activism.
“We’ve hired extra security, gone through ‘stop the bleed’ training in case there is an active shooter,” she said. “This is new to this year. I didn’t think when I took this job that we would have to [learn how to] use a tourniquet, but here we are.”
Even so, Indy Pride raised a record $641,000 and saw crowds swell to an estimated 60,000 at its festival and parade last weekend, putting the event at full capacity.
Indy Pride-goers shared a kiss on June 10 in Indianapolis, where organizers said festivities this year hit maximum capacity.Clare Grant / IndyStar / USA TODAY
The mix of changes Snider and other organizers described paint a more complicated picture than recent headlines around brands’ scrambles to respond to anti-LGBTQ backlash — like that faced by Bud Light and Target — may suggest. While some businesses have walked back their ties to LGBTQ events and causes, including Pride-related marketing, many more have maintained or increased their support.
We’ve seen an uptick in support throughout the year. More people are showing up and out, including allies.
JOSH COLEMAN, PRESIDENT OF CENTRAL ALABAMA PRIDE
Josh Coleman, president of Central Alabama Pride in Birmingham, said some longtime corporate sponsors dropped out this year, including Wells Fargo. Others have demanded more input on where their branding appears. But donations have held steady this month, he said, in part because more local and regional sponsors have filled the gaps left by larger companies’ retreats.
“It’s been a little frustrating,” Coleman admitted. “Some folks use allyship when they want to.”
Overall, though, “we’ve seen an uptick in support throughout the year,” he said. “More people are showing up and out, including allies.”
In Tennessee, where a federal judge recently rejected a drag ban that state Republicans enacted earlier this year, corporate backing for Memphis’s Mid-South Pride hasn’t suffered.
People at a Pride event in Franklin, Tenn., on June 3, the day a court overturned new limits on drag shows enacted by state Republicans. George Walker IV / AP
“We had issues,” festival director Vanessa Rodley said in an email, but after the judge temporarily blocked the measure from taking effect in late March, “we saw a wave of new sponsors that wanted to show support. There are a few we never got back, but thanks to our community stepping up and new sponsors, we were able to make it.”
A handful of major brands, including Kroger and Terminix, didn’t return as Mid-South Pride sponsors after making $7,500 and $3,500 contributions, respectively, in 2022, the group’s public sponsor listsin recent years show.
But others, such as Nike, Ford, Charles Schwab and Tito’s Vodka, either matched or upped their previous-year investments, which ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 apiece. And regional businesses, including a mortgage brokerage and a dentistry practice, jumped in this year with $5,000 sponsorships.
A Wells Fargo spokesperson said the bank “is a longstanding supporter of the LGBTQ+ community” and still “sponsoring parades in cities across the country.”
After being contacted, a Kroger spokesperson said the grocery chain “discovered a recent retirement left the [Memphis] parade without a contact at the company” and reached out to Mid-South Pride organizers. “We provided a contact from which to request support for this year or a future event.”
Some advocates warn that any pullback in the visibility of corporate support during Pride Month — especially by the most well-known brands — risks signaling that LGTBQ consumers are expendable. Others have long called for fewer rainbow-slathered logos and more substantive, if quieter, support from private-sector allies.
“Visibility is the least important,” said Bruce Starr, CEO of the marketing agency BMF. “What are you actually donating and giving” to support LGBTQ causes year-round matters more, he said.
In Auburn, Alabama, Pride on the Plains President Seth McCollough said one of the group’s three corporate sponsors gave money this year but asked to not be thanked or recognized publicly.
“It was kind of surprising to me,” McCollough said, but added, “I guess I understand where they are coming from.”
Among them is Target, which drew national attention for pulling some Pride merchandise last month after store employees were threatened. The retailer continues to be a top sponsor and provides volunteers to Pride on the Plains, McCollough said. But while big businesses can often contribute larger sums, the group relies on smaller companies for most of its funding anyway.
Target has continued to provide financial support to Pride events following uproar and threats against store workers over some of its merchandise.Seth Wenig / AP file
Many Pride celebrations facing difficulties are in the Midwest and South, regions that have seen a wave of Republican-led anti-LGBTQ legislation this year. Organizers in bluer states haven’t experienced much difference.
Pride officials in New York City, home to the first Pride March, in June 1970, said this year would be on par with last in terms of arranging sponsors and security. But Pride organizers in Charleston, South Carolina, said they’ve seen a significant drop in funds and sponsorships post-pandemic, after setting records in 2019.
Kendra Johnson, executive director of Equality NC, said threats against the community and Pride events have risen dramatically throughout North Carolina.
“I’m 52 — I’ve never seen it like this,” Johnson said, citing threats of violence and cases in which she said organizers were doxed. Johnson’s LGBTQ advocacy group doesn’t plan Pride festivities, but she said some organizers in the state have told her of sponsors pulling out of local events.
Ron deHarte, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, an umbrella group representing nearly 100 organizers across the country, acknowledged that many groups face growing challenges.
“We’re hearing that there are a few organizations that have made their own decision to modify their programs or cancel based on legislation, out of fear of government action” by some state authorities, he said.
But many sponsors remain committed after years of support for the LGBTQ community, despite the criticism that often comes with it. Tense political climates, as well as presidential election years, tend to drive enthusiasm and attendance at Pride celebrations because many people become more engaged, deHarte said.
“This certainly isn’t the worst we’ve seen,” he said, “and we’ve continued to survive for decades.”
North America’s largest metropolis, Mexico City, also hosts the continent’s biggest Pride parade and festival. While the LGBTQ+ community is impossible to ignore in June, what about the other months of the year?
Visitors can see queer couples holding hands and kissing in shopping centers, streets, and parks. Another common site is murals and graffiti. But a closer look at the spray paint can reveal something about CDMX’strans community.
Te amo trans = I love trans people
Graffiti supporting women’s rights, specifically including trans women and lesbians, are common along Paseo de Reforma, one of the main avenues of the city. Over 90,000 women and girls marched down the street on International Women’s Day to the Zócalo, the capital’s central square.
The women demanded an end to violence against women – and trans women and lesbians were in the crowd. And as they marched, more graffiti appeared along the route.
Transfeminista = Trans feminists
While Mexico also has an issue with women who explicitly want to exclude trans women from the community, like in the United States, they’re a minority. Now and then, you can see “Rad Fem” graffiti, but you’re more likely to see a pro-trans statement or writing from a trans person about acceptance.
Las trans no borramos a nadie = Trans people don’t erase anyone
As you travel around the city, you’ll also see signs like the one from the boardgame Scrabble that cleverly uses the game’s tiles to make a statement: “Transgender. Cisgender. Same points. Same value.” But take a moment to stop and admire the graffiti too.
The National Hockey League (NHL), the highest level professional ice hockey league representing 32 North American teams, has banned teams from wearing Pride-themed warm-up jerseys during the teams’ LGBTQ+-inclusive Pride nights.
The NHL’s ban will also forbid teams from wearing jerseys commemorating military veterans, people with cancer, and others. The league’s decision comes during Pride Month and barely a week after Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a similar ban.
When a gay couple was shown kissing in the stadium, he said “That’s disgusting. Security, get rid of them.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recently talk to Sportsnet about the rainbow-colored jerseys and how some players have refused to wear them.
“It’s become a distraction,” Bettman said. “And taking away from the fact that all of our clubs host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we’d rather they continue to get the appropriate attention they deserve and not be a distraction.”
Bettman noted that NHL teams will still host Pride nights; players just won’t wear rainbow-colored jerseys during those nights.
Bettman’s “distraction” comment may reference instances like what happened last January when Philadelphia Flyers’ player Ivan Provorov refused to take part in his team’s Pride Night warm-up session because he didn’t want to wear a rainbow-colored jersey. He said the jersey violated his Russian Orthodox Christian beliefs.
In March, James Reimer, a goalie with the San Jose Sharks, declined to wear his team’s Pride jersey for the same reason. Players with the Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers have refused to wear the jerseys as well.
In a statement against the new policy, You Can Play, an organization opposing queerphobia in sports, said that they were “concerned and disappointed” by the new policy.
“Today’s decision means that the over 95% of players who chose to wear a Pride jersey to support the community will now not get an opportunity to do so. Pride nights will continue and we look forward to further enhancing the programming these opportunities bring to the mission of inclusion and belonging for the 2SLGBTQ+ community given this restriction,” the organization said.
Hockey commentator Gord Miller criticized the decision on Twitter, writing, “In addition to the LGBTQ+ community, people with cancer, members of the military and their families, black and indigenous people will be among those who will no longer be visibly recognized before games.”
In March, Luke Prokop, the only out gay athlete ever to play under an NHL contract, said“It’s disheartening to see some teams no longer wearing [Pride jerseys] or embracing their significance, while the focus of others has become about the players who aren’t participating rather than the meaning of the night itself.”
Prokop said that Pride Nights and Pride jerseys play an important part in “promoting and respecting inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community” and in “fostering greater acceptance and understanding” of queer people in his sport.
“Everyone is entitled to their own set of beliefs,” he said, adding, “I think it’s important to recognize the difference between endorsing a community and respecting individuals within it.”
Last week, MLB announced a similar ban on Pride-themed jerseys.
Today, the third annual Oakland Black Pride Festival kicks off with a fabulous benefit dinner spotlighting the culinary contributions of queer people of color. It’s the first in a five-day series of events — including workshops, a cookout, and a bar crawl—that Oakland Black Pride founder and CEO Olaywa K. Austin says are aimed at serving the particular needs of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Black queer community.
The festival has its roots in the summer of 2020, when Austin and friends began trying to figure out how to celebrate Pride amid the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“As we were quarantined and I was trying to figure out things to do and how to express my queerness, I was like, ‘How come all of these things can’t be done in festival style?’” Austin told LGBTQ Nation. “These were things I would love to see in a Pride celebration. I would love to see educational things; I would love to see the transgender community making friends with the unhoused community before you make them leave the streets because your parade is coming down the street.”
Austin began to envision a Pride celebration that was more community-focused, that centered the needs and contributions of Black and brown queer and trans people while bringing the community together both to celebrate and to develop solutions to the challenges facing them. Austin found themself drawing up bylaws for a nonprofit organization and in June 2021 launched the first Oakland Black Pride Festival.
The event has grown exponentially in just a few short years. As the festival enters its third year, LGBTQ Nation spoke to Austin about this unique and vital Pride celebration.
LGBTQ NATION: What sets Oakland Black Pride apart from other localized organizations and festivals?
OLAYWA K. AUSTIN: One of the biggest takeaways, obviously, is that it’s Black-led. But because it is a festival, we take five full days. We don’t just have a big weekend, we stretch it out over five days, and within those five days we throw a lot of educational stuff in there. We use Pride and the festival as our greatest opportunity to disseminate information to our community. So, we throw panels in there and we throw online workshops, therapy, mental wellness rooms, and things like that leading up to the big celebration. I’d like to say that we’re probably 70 percent educational, 30 percent party, which sets us apart from a lot of the Pride celebrations that I’ve seen of late—which is fine. Celebrate how we celebrate, I love that.
LGBTQ NATION:Was there a gap you were trying to fill or a need that other Pride celebrations weren’t meeting?
OA: Absolutely. The one thing that has always been my gripe, if you will, with Pride celebrations is that they don’t sort of acknowledge the roots of Pride, other than maybe saying Marsha P. Johnson’s name. But what she was about was so much more than a float, you know what I mean? So, I stopped going, because once you’ve been in a parade, you’ve been in a parade. It doesn’t really change.
There were so many things that just didn’t sit right with the way Pride [celebrations] were being run. And to be honest, I didn’t see a lot of myself in the celebrations. I didn’t see a lot of acknowledgment of the historians and the architects of Pride. I wanted to bring that back, the history and the contributions of African Americans, transgender and nonbinary Black people, their contribution to the gay Pride movement. I didn’t see enough of it. And we celebrate differently, especially Pride.
LGBTQ NATION:What do you mean by celebrate differently?
OA: We celebrate differently than being on a float because we’re celebrating something different. It’s an acknowledgment, the way we celebrate, and it’s a safe way we celebrate. We pull ourselves into spaces where we know we will be taken care of. A lot of times when we go into other Pride arenas, we don’t always feel safe. We want to be in a space where we don’t have to explain ourselves, you know? And we don’t sort of have to have one eye on the door, and those spaces are very, very few and far for us these days. As a community, we are under attack 365 days, so it is important that we do carve out safe spaces for ourselves so our celebrations can be as vast and as beautiful as we are as a community.
LGBTQ NATION:In the last few years, there seems to have been more pushback to the official Pride celebrations. New York has the Queer Liberation March in addition to NYC Pride’s parade. Is that something you’ve noticed as well beyond what you’ve done with Oakland Black Pride?
OA: Absolutely. I started noticing it in 2018 and 2019 when there was some disruption of the San Francisco Pride parade for the very reasons that we spoke of — the fact that they don’t make people of color feel safe, they don’t prioritize Black transgender safety, for the way they treat the unhoused leading up the parade, how they displace the unhoused and don’t really provide any solutions to that. New Orleans Black Pride has done something similar. I had folks from San Diego asking me questions about how to strategize and build on our model, and even in Phoenix, people reach out. So, there are more people looking to build more community-based, festival-style celebrations, things that make us feel more like a community and that speak to the marginalized within the community.
Bryon Malik/courtesy of 25SecondPRAttendees dancing at an Oakland Black Pride Festival event.
LGBTQ NATION:You mentioned the workshops that have been a part of Oakland Black Pride since the beginning. Why have they been such a big part of your festival?
OA: Part of our mission is to look for nuanced solutions to service the needs of the people in our community, and so a lot of times, systems make it difficult for us to get what we need and we have to figure out for ourselves how to come up with ways to get what we need. That’s the inspiration behind it. There are things that, our community at this intersection of Blackness and queerness — and Brownness and queerness — in the Bay area, that don’t affect white queerness. So, we have to seek solutions that speak to that intersection, and that’s really why the workshops exist, that’s something that you don’t normally see, and the Pride celebrations that you normally see are not catering to my demographic. So, when I’m serving my community, I have to think of ways to reach them, and so I ask questions.
And I serve myself too, because I need to. I had a lot of loss in 2021 and 2022. So, when we aligned ourselves with GetSomeJoy, our creative wellness partner, without me mentioning the grief that I was going through, [founder] Alex Hardy said, “You know, we have this workshop, ‘How to Navigate Grief and Loss Through Joy.’” As soon as we started developing the program, the community was like, “Thank you for this!”
LGBTQ NATION:I’ve been asking a lot of people about this lately. Given what feels like this resurgence of anti-LGBTQ+ political animus in the U.S., does Pride hit differently for you this year?
OA: It’s hit different every year since the pandemic, since 2020. Every year there’s something different about the approach. There’s something different about the air. But it never dampens the community organization. The people show up, and when they show up there’s always something looming over our celebrations, whether it’s a George Floyd situation or LGBTQ rights being under attack. And I think that fuels us.
Last year, we had the Proud Boys threaten to show up at our bar crawl. We have a pub crawl where we go around to different LGBTQ and Black-owned bars, and they said they were going to show up and that they had every right to show up. So, we had to tell our community that that was happening. We had to tell the city and the police that this could potentially be a thing. The community of Oakland showed up to our bar crawl in support, just to walk with us. So, yes, there’s always something that feels different about Pride, but whatever that is it always sort of brings us together a little deeper, it brings us a little closer.
LGBTQ NATION:I hate that we even have to think about that kind of thing, but are you anticipating anything like that again this year?
OA: We don’t anticipate it, but we always anticipate it. We’re dealing with a targeted community as it is. We vet our venues very closely and we work very closely with the city of Oakland and that ensures our safety. Last year when we had a verbalized threat, we communicated with our community. We try not to live in the shadows, but at the same time, sh*t’s real. People are getting harmed out here. I think we do a really good job of taking care of each other here.
LGBTQ NATION:Talk to me about curating this year’s festival. Were there any particular issues or themes you had in mind and wanted to highlight with the 2023 lineup?
OA: So, this is our third year. Because I was grieving, I did feel a need to offer my community a safe space to feel the same way. Because I see it. I often go to Facebook and Instagram and check the temperature of the collective, and a lot of folks are grieving and mourning. Particularly in my community. So, I felt it was necessary to allow us a space to do so. It’s a necessary part of life, and that was the precipice of the conversation with Alex from GetSomeJoy.
And in my community, there’s a lot of talk about sex work and how it affects the queer Black community. I wanted to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work. Sex is just a taboo cross-culturally, but I think that gets us into trouble. You get shamed and so you hide, and when you hide, you’re not necessarily careful about what you’re doing. I feel like a lot of the health issues in our community, we can come to an understanding if we talk about some stuff that we wouldn’t normally be able to talk about. That’s why we have this educator-led kink workshop. We’re going to talk about interactive exploration. It offers us a safe space led by a person of color who’s educated in the sex world.
LGBTQ NATION: While there’s a growing call to bring Pride back to its roots as a protest, I think a lot of people still want it to be a time to celebrate the community. How do you balance those two impulses to make Pride both a protest and a party?
OA: Our slogan this year is, “Celebrating the Magic of We.” And we’re always reminded of how it started, and that’s a very simple thing to do within the Pride arena. Every Pride arena should start with how it started. That’s a great way to keep people grounded and aware of what we’re really out here for. Yes, we’re gonna have fun. It’s gonna be a blast. But let’s just be intentional about speaking to the very beginning, why we’re really here.
