LIVE! LIVE! Life is a banquet, and some sorry sons of bitches are starving!
What... with it being Pride Month what would it be without letting ourselves go and dancing our asses off! In the tradition of our good friend and great ally, Anne Marie... and I being a creature of the night...it's time for Saturday Night Pride Dances! Listen or hit play while you're doing whatever it is your doing around the house....and just move children!
In this feature, I'll share with you a guest each week,
and you tell me in only three words what come to mind.
In Three Words...
Frank Kameny
Corporate sponsored Prides!!! It drives me nuts every year, they see the LBGT as a meal ticket to make some extra doe from us during Pride months and sell some Pride themed items, and every year it pisses me off when I hear some friends in the LGBT falling for it and buying from these big corporations, big box, and chains from their offerings. Where are they the rest of the year, and where were they when the dump and his administration was cracking down and gutting inclusion programs and dismantling diversity programs??? Most of these companies were excuse my French...pussies. I say investigate before you buy, and better still keep into gay owned companies to get Pride apparel and such. I'm very firm on that.
But the good news is, the corporation and big boxes are leaving but the community is not. I just read a report last week about companies are starting to quietly walk away from Pride. I say good! Brands like Starbucks, Mastercard, Nissan, Target and Comcast have either pulled their sponsorships entirely or have significantly reduced their commitments to Pride organization across the US and Canda. The reasons range from backlash, economic uncertainty to the Dump administrations crackdown on DEI programs. Gay Apparel a gay owned company even saw their stock cut by 80% to Walmart last year, and this year, complete silence. I say I love it!!!!!Now local gay owned stores, companies, and businesses once overlooked by Pride organizations, who wanted Fortune 500 funds are now accepting gay owned small business in that were once simply overlooked. But if you ask me 50 small and gay owned businesses showing up consistently beats one corporation that disappears the moment things get politically inconvenient. This year Philly's Pride and Parade was funded almost 70% by local and gay owned places and donations and I heard only two corps sponsored floats!!!
Also, kudos to Kathy Hilton no longer being the grand marshal of WeHo Pride this year!!!!!!They won't have any grand marshal this year. But might I suggest to WeHo Pride actually take Pride in their community and choose a local volunteer or someone in the LGBTQ who's toiled for years donating their time and money to a beloved charity or community outreach? And to those who say "But they're not a celebrity or No one knows them!" maybe our community SHOULD know them. We should uplift our own and reward them for doing an often-thankless job for free. Kathy is not gay or a gay icon. This was a stupid branding exercise to benefit Kathy Hilton. Cali-Boi told me that in 2005, Paris Hilton was the grand marshal and she brough her mom Kathy along. He went on to say his friend who was on the float with them heard Kathy ask her husband "Do you feel pride?" He said, "Not at all", and they left shortly after and haven't been back since, till the last few years for Kathy anyway. Why would the very gay area of LA be alienating gays with their clueless picks for a grand marshall???
Maybe it's time Pride and parades started investing in our own community that actually never left?
