Gay Pri Month fuels a rporate backlash that hurts gay rights

Contents:

• ‘WE SAY GAY’: FLORIDA’S LARGT PRI PARA DRAWS HUNDREDS OF THOANDS
• GAY PRI
• US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT
• ANTWERP GAY PRI

‘WE SAY GAY’: FLORIDA’S LARGT PRI PARA DRAWS HUNDREDS OF THOANDS

“There’s no greater reward than dog for the ltle Black gay boy who has someone to look up to now bee we didn’t have those people to look up to, ” says Phipps, reuntg a movg past experience where a preteen boy lled the duo his hero after seeg them perform. (Jason Armond / Los Angel Tim) (Jason Armond / Los Angel Tim) Through the Freaky Boiz’s high-energy live performanc and slick raps over stmentals sure to make you dance, they’re rvg their own lane hip-hop and treatg dienc to mic that highlights Black gay joy, datg adventur and wo and empowerg antiexploatn bops tailor-ma for the digal age like “Cash App.

”“They’re tryg to teach kids that beg gay is wrong and that’s phg 50 years backwards om the work of people who started the Pri para like Marsha P. Tretter: Jack Baker had been elected as stunt body print at the Universy of Mnota — the first openly gay stunt body print the Uned Stat. We didn’t know what would happen, so we divid the 50 people to two parts: Twenty-five stayed the park wh all the money so they uld get out of jail if we were arrted for beg gay.

I got volved bee my old boyiend Bob Bne beme the treasurer of Target Cy Coaln, a 1970s activist group formed to bat antigay csar and orange juice spokter Ana Bryant. Marchers the 1986 Pri para rried a banner for the Mnota AIDS Project, a grassroots effort found by gay volunteers that galvanized the state’s public-health rponse to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

GAY PRI

Xochi la Luna: Before I dug to the history, seemed like this big rporate ftival for gay whe men and, yeah, sure, lbians, but seemed overwhelmgly whe, and always the p prence turned me off. Tom Burke, 75 (he/him), is a longtime gay rights activist and attorney who helped create many of the events still celebrated as part of Tw Ci Pri.

Jean-Nickols Tretter, 75 (he/him), tablished the Tretter Collectn Gay, Lbian, Bisexual and Transgenr Studi at the Universy of Mnota, the largt LGBTQ+ llectn of s kd the Upper Midwt. A small group of 200 people marked the Rose Cy’s first public and outdoor Gay Pri celebratn, the South Park Blocks near Portland State Universy.

It was renamed 1982 Lbian and Gay Pri Week, wh more than 2, 000 men and women takg to the streets of downtown 1991 para was the largt history at that pot, wh more than 6, 000 marchers, cludg supporters om small Oregon towns. The highlight of the celebratns is arguably the Portland Gay Pri Para, which will this year kick off on Saturday, June 15 at 11:30am. Petersburg’s first LGBTQ Pri march sce the onslght of the Covid-19 panmic, and jt three months after Florida’s ernor signed what crics ll the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

US WHE SUPREMACISTS FOUND GUILTY OF GAY PRI RT PLOT

Along wh rabow hats, eye makp, clothg and flags, there were prott signs the sea of Pri revelers, cludg those that said “We say gay” and "Bans off our bodi. The measure, which crics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, prohibs classroom stctn on genr inty and sexual orientatn Florida classrooms for stunts “ krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards. In the week until the “Don’t Say Gay” law tak effect — and a moment time that for many queer people has brought a sense of unease about their future — the ever-faiar “pri as prott” rea lored how many celebrated the largt event of s kd Florida, a state that has propelled self to the center of the latt culture war.

Dpe the 90-gree heat and humidy that ntued to the early eveng hours and a smatterg of anti-gay protters holdg signs that said “J Lov You” and “How Can I Pray for You, ” patrons stayed for hours after the para, visg vendors and lol bs, and dancg North Strb Park.

Gay Pri, also lled LGBT Pri or LGBTQ Pri, byname Pri, annual celebratn, ually June the Uned Stat and sometim at other tim other untri, of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) inty. Gay Pri memorat the Stonewall rts, which began the early hours of June 28, 1969, after police raid the Stonewall Inn bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighbourhood.

ANTWERP GAY PRI

Gay Pri typilly volv a seri of events and is often pped by a para volvg marchers and lourful floats om the LGBTQ muny and s the Stonewall rts, LGBTQ dividuals had generally not broadst their sexual orientatn or inty, but the event galvanized the gay muny and sparked greater polil activism (see gay rights movement).

In 1970, on the first anniversary of the rts, several hundred monstrators marched along Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street, which ns past the Stonewall, what many nsir the first Gay Pri march (though other memoratns were also held that year). Early Gay Pri events (often lled Freedom Day or Gay Liberatn Day) were often sparsely attend and enuntered protts, particularly bee of the outlandish stum that some marchers wore. As acceptance of the LGBTQ muny creased among the straight muny, policians sympathetic to the views of the LGBTQ muny and gay-iendly bs and rporatns began participatg the march.

The total number of people participatg—both gay and straight—mhroomed, and Pri events were held many part of the globe, cludg ci where they sometim enuntered stiff ristance (e. More than 50 years after the famo Stonewall rts, the only Pri Month tradn more predictable than big cy paras June are the perennial plats about the “modifitn” of the gay rights movement. The days, the month often featur rporatns and nsumer brands participatg the celebratns, wh bright rabow packagg and gay-themed ems for sale.