"We are LGBTQ+ Labor!" This poster "Pride At Work" was made for the convention of a group with the same name. The historical figures and signs show that queer and trans folks have always been part of labor and justice movements - even when those movements haven't always loved us back.
Started a rainbow cowl knitting project in honor of pride month. I'm a pretty terrible knitter, so we'll see how far I get by the end of the month, lol. #pride#knitting
#pridemonth is an interesting time in the American South. While ya’ll are enjoying your deluge of rainbow themed merchandise from companies who don’t really give a damn about the #queer community, here it’s a scavenger hunt to see which companies have the guts to show any support for the #lgbtq people.
The place I work has our break room all decked out for pride, yet we don’t dare stock or put out any of the pride themed goods our northern counterparts do.
Our local #target never kept their #pride stuff visible, even before it became official policy to hide it. There are no book displays for queer books or authors at my #barnesandnoble , and many of the rainbow logos you see on various goods at Walmart during this month are not present here.
The presence of pride in this part of the states is even scarcer this year. The areas where we need the most signs of support are the places most corporations are too chicken shit to do so.
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"A Wider Bridge has called upon #Pride organizers across the country to ensure #Jewish people can safely participate in their events.
The group, which “advocates for justice, counters LGBTQphobia, and fights #antisemitism and other forms of hatred,” sent a letter to the Capital Pride Alliance and more than 60 other Pride organizers."
My presumption here is that in blue enclaves within red states, those showing up for pride know they need as many people as they can for safety and for purpose (a very visible show of acceptance and courage) and so it wouldn't occur to most to gatekeep.
OTOH, deep blue spaces operate on the presumption of near-unanimous support, and so feel comfortable taking measures to ensure the "wrong people" aren't present.
Hence things like red state pride parades depending on support from local police to keep them safe and blue state parades implementing policies to rid themselves of police guards/presence as an extension of first principles.
In honor of #pride, here's a collection devoted to LGBTQIA+ photographers and photography, from radical early projects (like the secret studio run by Norwegian photographers Bolette Berg and Marie Høeg) to the "queer new wave" rising today.
"For many LGBTQ, non-binary and gender-fluid artists, photography remains a charged cultural and political tool, a way to document a past and present, while guaranteeing a future." — Ananda Pellerin, @CNN
Our work Pride team had a desk near the canteen with people sitting there. I awkwardly walked by and when one guy saw my lanyard he waved at me so I went over.
We talked Star Wars for about 15mins (got my SW hoody on).
For someone to beckon me over and then have a super positive interaction based on nothing but joy... That was pretty ace.
In 1945, a woman named Lucy Hicks Anderson was arrested for the crime of marrying her husband, Reuben Anderson, a soldier in the US Army.
Lucy Lawson seemingly always knew exactly who she was. In 1886, a beautiful black baby was born to Bill and Nancy Lawson of Waddy, KY. While this child was identified as male, she insisted that she was a girl. She chose the name Lucy and informed her parents that she would be wearing dresses to school.
At this point in history, the term 'transgender' had not yet been coined, and public knowledge about trans people was sadly lacking. Confounded, her mother and father took her to see the local doctor who advised them to raise her as they would any other little girl. Bill and Nancy did just that. And by all accounts, Lucy's childhood and school years were uneventful and happy.
At age 15, Lucy left home, taking domestic work to support herself, then moved west, first to Texas then to New Mexico where she married her first husband, a man named Clarence Hicks, in Silver City, NM. The couple settled in Oxnard, CA, a wealthy community about an hour up the coast from Los Angeles. There, Lucy's culinary skills opened doors for her, and she began to cater elaborate parties for Oxnard's rich and elite. Her rolls and fruitcakes reportedly won many local contests and awards. Lucy worked diligently and tirelessly, and saved nearly every penny she earned from her employment as a domestic worker, a nanny, and a cook. And in 1920, at the age of 34, Lucy managed to save enough to purchase business property — a local brothel.
Lucy's brothel operated between 1920 and 1933, a period in American history known as Prohibition. During this time, selling alcohol was illegal. But as a brothel madam, Lucy had already skipped merrily over the lines of propriety, so she served her customers alcohol anyway.
In 1929, Lucy divorced Clarence Hicks. Not much is known about her marriage or divorce to Clarence, so we can infer that the separation was mutual and uncontested by either party. Lucy kept her business, and kept bootlegging alcohol.
She was busted a few times, but her numerous social connections with wealthy socialites allowed her to avoid any aggressive prosecution. Rumor has it that one wealthy banker even posted her bail so that she could cater his party that evening.
In 1944, Lucy fell in love a second time. At 58 years old, she met and married the love of her life, Reuben Anderson. Reuben was a soldier stationed in Long Island, NY. But their happiness was not to last.
Just one year after their marriage, a sailor claimed he had caught a venereal disease from one of the women at Lucy's brothel. At that time, the law required all sex workers to undergo a medical examination, and the Ventura County examiner insisted on including Lucy. It was at this time that her trans identity was revealed, and subsequently made public. He chose to put her on trial for perjury, arguing that she lied on her marriage licence, impersonated a woman, and stole VA benefits to which military spouses were entitled. After the story ran in a small Pacific coast newspaper, Time Magazine ran an article on Lucy, exposing her as a trans woman to the entire nation.
During her trial, Lucy stated in her defense, "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman. I have lived, dressed, acted just what I am, a woman". However, the court convicted both her and Reuben of perjury, and they were both sentenced to incarceration in a male prison. Lucy in particular was court ordered not to wear women's clothes.
Reuben and Lucy's relationship survived these indignities, somehow. After serving ten long years in a male penitentiary, Lucy and her beloved Reuben retired to Los Angeles, where they quietly lived out the remainder of their lives together. At age 68, Lucy Hicks Anderson died and was mourned by all who knew her.
Lucy Hicks Anderson was not an activist. She was not even known as a trans woman for the vast majority of her life. She simply wanted to live her life, love her loves, and pursue the projects and interests that made her happy. Lucy wanted only one thing out of life, and that was to be the woman she knew herself to be. And it turns out she was willing to fight for that.
"Does kink belong at #Pride " is trending again, no big surprise there.
I invite those seriously discussing this question to ask themselves whether there is any level of respectability to which we could possibly aspire, which the cishet conservative folks would possibly accept as publicly acceptable, and then consider why you're letting them define the limits.
These are, after all, people who would consider a "Let Trans Kids Grow Up" shirt as morally indefensible, who believe that a book about two male penguins raising a chick is a vile and outrageous piece of media.
To the amoral conservative guardians, throwing homeless people in jail and burning their belongings is perfectly defensible, but we, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, are in our very existence a kink, a moral aberration.
I'm not saying genitalia should be on full public display. I am saying that if we let the busybody crowd set the rules, before long there won't be any Pride celebrations anymore.
Kicked off Pride Month with the Petaluma Pride team at Sonoma County Pride over the weekend! It was a glorious day and we look forward to seeing folks at Petaluma Pride in October which is LGBT History Month ✨
"I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad."
Happy birthday to antifascist bisexual icon, entertainer, and truth teller, Josephine Baker, born June 3, 1906.
We get 2, count them TWO, whole months of Pride! North county and easy county do most of their events in June, while San Diego city itself does the pride march in July. One-sixth of our year is unbridled gayness!
If you are queer and you ask nicely, or naughtily, you can kiss me! 😘😘😘
I'll even throw in the gayest of hugs and snuggles as a freebie 🫂🌈✨️
...we are literally rated as the most unaffordable city in the US and every politician has been actively gaslighting us and exacerbating the homelessness crisis. So um....okay, that sucks... 🫤
También os comparto este nuevo #Bundle de juegos Stories of #Pride, donde podréis pillar los juegos: Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly, Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp + Camp Forever DLC, Lakeburg Legacies, Wylde Flowers...
