PRIDE // JUNE 2012
WE ARE THE YOUTH IS HOSTING A GIVEAWAY CONTEST!!!
Share your PRIDE photos with us through Facebook and Twitter throughout the month of June.
When you do, you’ll be automatically entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card and other sweet prizes!
GET ON IT.
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June 26, 2012
Alex, (a Chicago-based writer and We Are the Youth guest blogger), attended Chicago Pride on June 24, 2012. Friend Alex on Facebook & Follow Alex on Twitter
Ana, Jackie & Keifer enjoy Chicago Pride!
Breana Gangi, 14 (and a half)
“I’d never been to Pride before, figured I’d change that.” -Mike, 21
With a record attendance of 850,000 people, a new and improved parade route, and a later start time, this year’s Chicago Pride Parade was a time for exploration and improvement. For the participants, this translated into having enough room to walk safely alongside the parade route and a more comfortable parade watching experience.
From me, this was my third Pride in Chicago, and I was marching near the beginning of the parade with Pride of Links, a youth group for queer teens in the Northern suburbs of Chicago run by a wonderful woman named Erchell.
I arrived early and spent a few hours talking to people, taking photos, and soaking up the wonderful Pride atmosphere.
Check out more of Alex’s photos here
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June 26, 2012
Dyke March, NYC Pride, June 25, 2012 New York, NY
by Sarah Nakano, Photo by Cara Howe
This weekend was a whirlwind! This was my first time in New York during Pride Month so there was a lot of new experiences for me– most notably the 20th Annual NYC Dyke March on Saturday, June 23rd. As a volunteer marshal, my job was to basically just to help block traffic, make sure the march went as planned, cheer people on, high-five people, etc. I had been going to planning meetings occasionally for the past couple months in preparation for Saturday. We marched from Bryant Park, near the New York Public Library to the fountain in Washington Square Park. Overall the march went really well with no obstacles, issues with the police, or fights. Technically the march is a protest without a permit, so it’s illegal and an arrestable action. However, the march has been happening for 20 years now so it’s really become a historic event. The police that I encountered were all pretty supportive and understanding.
At the core of the Dyke March mentality is the idea of protest – against discrimination, harassment, violence, and inequality in various settings: schools, workplaces, family, social, in the streets, etc. It is a declaration of our right to exist, to own the street, to feel liberated and to be oneself in an environment of inclusivity and community. It’s the day that the minority seizes the center. Gabrielle Korn, who is on the planning committee said to the Huffington Post, “It’s important for dykes to claim space and to take up as much space and be as loud and as visible as possible. I think you have to be as public about what you’re fighting for as you can be.” You can read more of what she said here.
My experience of marching was incredibly powerful and surprisingly emotional.This time last year I was living in the Midwest (where I grew up), and on Saturday I was surrounded by 20,000 women taking over Fifth Avenue– what? If you didn’t come march with // support from the side this year, be sure to come next year!
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June 21, 2012
The Annual Transatlantic Pride Art Exhibition
Clifford Chance, New York, NY
by Sarah Nakano
Last Thursday night, Clifford Chance, a law firm in midtown, had an opening reception for their in-office exhibit “Annual Pride Art Exhibition-New York,” featuring 5 portraits of We are the Youth participants. This opening reception gave me the opportunity to see lots of cool art (Cass Bird, Peter Hujar, Elizabeth Bethea, Tee A. Corinne, etc), drink Coca Cola out of a fancy glass, and also witness the wisdom of Jonathan D. Katz.
Before the reception, Katz spoke about specific “queer artworks” and explored the context and details of each piece. Katz was the first tenured faculty in gay and lesbian studies in the U.S, founder of the Harvey Milk Institute, chair of the Department of Lesbian and Gay studies at the City College of San Francisco, co-founder of Queer Nation SF, and is the co-curator of the exhibit ‘HIDE / SEEK’. Basically he’s a certified genius and he’s the king of the middle of
the venn diagram: QUEER and ART.
In my opinion the most interesting idea he talked about was the future of “Queer Art.” What is contemporary queer art, where is it headed, what will it look like in the future? From what I understood, he thinks that as LGBTQ issues + people become more widely accepted, queer art will start to focus more on universal themes like love, loss, etc. I was incredibly impressed with Katz’s insights and how incredibly informed he was. What a badass. You can check out his essays, writings, and resume here.
Overall it was a rewarding experience and it was so cool to see Magda, Trevor, Braxton, Isaac, and Patrick chillin on the wall alongside other queer art.
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June 20, 2012
Alex, (a Chicago-based writer and We Are the Youth guest blogger), attended the LGBTQ Pride Month Reception at the White House.
Friend Alex on Facebook & Follow Alex on Twitter
My name is Alex Sennello, and I’m from the Chicago area. That’s my mother and I on a couch in the White House with the presidential seal.
I was there last week for President Obama’s LGBTQ Pride Month Reception for my work with GLSEN, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, at the 2012 Safe Schools Advocacy Summit. While at the summit in Washington, often referred to as SASS by its attendees, I learned skills that I can use to be a political advocate for safe schools legislation like the Safe Schools Improvement Act, a bill that would work to address bullying from the federal level, or the Student Non Discrimination Act, which seeks to give the same protections that prevent discrimination based on sex and race in school to sexual orientation and gender identity.
My work isn’t limited to the national level; at home, I work as a community journalist reporting on queer youth issues, I’m leadership for my school’s QSA, and I work to help create safer schools in my state with the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance.
As queer youth, working for equality and fighting for the right to exist are things I have become quite accustomed to. These issues also hit home for my mother, both as a parent of queer daughter, but also as a physician who serves a community where three young people from the same school — two of whom identified within the queer community — took their own lives within a span of eight weeks.
The briefing I attended on LGBTQ youth health and safety was informative and, as you may imagine, the reception was magical. Each person you met seemed to have a cooler story than the last.
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June 13, 2012
Today the West Village Coalition called on New York City to make Christopher Street a gay rights landmark. We Are the Youth intern Sarah Nakano’s drawing below makes it pretty clear why Christopher Street is deserving of landmark status.
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Pride Month is Just Getting Started!!!
Here’s a list of some PRIDE events happening across the country (& Canada)!
(Compiled by the one and only, Intern Sarah)
Email hello@wearetheyouth.org to share any local listings! The More the Merrier!
june 8th- bklynboihood party @ public assembly, williamsburg, BK
june 8th- brightest young things at capital pride (featuring the badass JD samson!!), howard theater, 9pm, washington dc
june 8 to 10th- los angeles pride
june 8th- vancouver pride parade
june 8th- boston, ma dyke march
june 8th- washington dc: brightest young things, wild life with JD Samson and lots of other rad people, howard theatre, 9pm to 3:30am
june 8th- milwaukee pride parade
june 8th- los angeles west hollywood dyke march, 7:30pm
june 8th- los angeles: lil kim @ fantasy friday at robertson nightclub, 9pm – 2 am, free, 21+
june 9th- indianapolis’ cadillac barbie IN pride parade, 10am, at the public library (perhaps the strangest sounding event)
june 9th- boston ESME women’s block party, 2pm – 7pm
june 9th- boston: lush party at machine, 7pm – 2am, 21+, $15 in adv, $20 at door
june 9th- dyke day LA at barnsdall park, 18+
june 9th- washington dc’s fuse dance party at phase 1 dupont, 21+, 8pm – 3 am
june 9th- LA pride festival, noon to midnight, west hollywood park
june 9th- boston pride
june 9th- brooklyn pride, run, festival, barbeque, and night parade
june 9th- philadelphia dyke march
june 9th- capital pride parade, washington dc
june 9th- pittsburgh- pride in the street featuring melissa etheridge at liberty ave
june 10th- pittsburgh march and pride fest, noon at the coner of grant st and blvd of the allies
june 10th- philadelphia pride day parade, noon, 13th and locust to penn’s landing
june 10th- boston: JP block party, noon to 7pm, perkins st
june 10th- capital pride festival, washington dc
june 12- nyc dyke march retrospective, 7 to 10pm, lgbt center
june 14 to 24- san francisco international lgbt film festival
june 15- portland, maine dyke march
june 15-16, columbus pride and parade
june 16- nyc pride kick off rally. 3pm – 6 pm, east river bandshell
june 16- pride rally, syracuse, new york
june 16- pittsburgh dyke / trans march @ morrow triangle park, 1 pm
june 16- providence, RI’s illuminated night: time pride, 9:30pm, dorrance and fountain streets
june 16- nashville’s pride walk, 11am
june 16- portland, oregon’s dyke march, 6pm at the pride waterfront festival
june 16- baltimore pride parade, 4pm, charles st from mt vernon place to chase st
june 17th- portland pride parade, 11:30am from burnside and NW park ave
june 17th- denver parade
june 20- 7:30, NYC, pier 46 movie screening, charlie and the chocolate factory
june 23rd- party at stonewall, NYC 2pm – 10pm
june 23rd- rapture on the river: a women’s dance, 4 to 11pm, 13th street by the hudson river, in hudson river park, NYC
june 23rd- chicago dyke march
june 23rd- nyc dyke march
june 23rd- san francisco dyke march
june 23rd- seattle dyke march and rally
june 23rd- cleveland pride parade, rally, and festival
june 23rd- houston parade + festival, 1 – 7pm, montrose neihborhood, parade 8:15
june 23rd- seattle’s red women’s party @ baltic room, 10pm – 4am
june 23rd- chicago street fest
june 23rd and 24th, twin cities pride (*reppin ma home state!)
june 24th- NYC pridefest, LGBT street fair, 11am – 7pm, hudson st between abingdon sq and west 14th st
june 24th- PRIDE MARCH NYC, 11am gather, noon start. 36th st and 5th ave to christopher and greenwich streets
june 24th- chicago parade
june 24th- new orleans pride, 1 – 5pm, bourbon st @ st ann
june 24th- seattle pride parade, 11am at 4th avenue
june 24th- pride shabbat with cynthia nixon at CBST, NYC
june 25th- pride picnic at CBST, NYC
june 29th- omaha’s white party @ flixx
june 29th – toronto’s trans march
june 30th- toronto’s dyke march, rally 1pm, march at 2pm, picnic at 3pm
june 30th- cincinnati pride parade
june 30th- omaha pride parade
july 1st- omaha’s post pride drag show @ the max
july 1st- toronto pride parade, 2pm, bloor and church
july 7th- london pride parade
july 21st- bronx pride, crotona park, NYC
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It’s June 1, which is the start of Pride Month.
To celebrate in style, We Are the Youth needs your help!
In addition to youth write-ups, rad sketches by Intern Sarah, lists of PRIDE events across the US, and other fun PRIDE-related musings; spanning the month of June, We Are the Youth will be hosting a Postcard Campaign and we’d love to have your participation! We’re looking for people around the world to be on our “street team” and help spread the word about the project. We want people to share their PRIDE photos with us through Facebook and Twitter, and when they do they’ll be automatically entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card and other sweet prizes! To participate, email hello@wearetheyouth.org.