LGBTQ+ Pride revelers flash feathers and flags in the streets from New
York to San Francisco
When do we celebrate Straight Pride month?
... Gene
Pride weekend kicks off in New York City
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NEW YORK (AP) — Celebrations mingled
with displays of resistance Sunday as LGBTQ+ pride parades filled streets in
some of the country’s largest cities in annual events that have become part
party, part protest.
In New York, thousands marched down
Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village, cheering and waving rainbow
flags to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising, where a police raid
on a gay bar triggered days of protests and launched a movement for LGBTQ+
rights.
While some people whooped it up in
celebration, many were mindful of the growing conservative
countermovement to limit rights, including by banning
gender-affirming care for transgender children.
“I’m not trying not to be very heavily
political, but when it does target my community, I get very, very annoyed and
very hurt,” said Ve Cinder, a 22-year-old transgender woman who traveled from
Pennsylvania to take part in the country’s largest pride event.
“I’m just, like, scared for my future
and for my trans siblings. I’m frightened of how this country has looked at
human rights, basic human rights,” she said. “It’s crazy.”
Parades in New York, Chicago and San
Francisco are among events that roughly 400 Pride organizations across the U.S.
are holding this year, with many focused specifically on the rights of
transgender people.
In Chicago, 16-year-old Maisy
McDonough painted rainbow colors over her eyes and on her face for her first
Pride Parade.
She told the Chicago Tribune she’s
excited to “be united” after a tough year for the community.”We really need the
love of this parade,” she said.
Entertainers and activists, drag
performers and transgender advocates are among the parade grand marshals
embracing a unity message as new laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community take
effect in several U.S. states.
“The platform will be elevated, and
we’ll see communities across the country show their unity and solidarity
through these events,” said Ron deHarte, co-president for the U.S. Association
of Prides.
Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and
Seattle are scheduled to hold pride parades Sunday. At the parade in Toronto,
Canada, more than 100 groups are expected to march. In New York City,
seven-time Grammy winner Christina Aguilera will headline a post-march concert
in Brooklyn.
Annual observations have spread to
other cities and grown to welcome bisexual, transgender and queer people, as
well as other groups.
About a decade ago, when her
13-year-old child first wanted to be called a boy, Roz Gould Keith sought help.
She found little to assist her family in navigating the transition. They
attended a Pride parade in the Detroit area, but saw little transgender representation.
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This year, she is heartened by the
increased visibility of transgender people at marches and celebrations across
the country this month.
“Ten years ago, when my son asked to
go to Motor City Pride, there was nothing for the trans community,” said Keith,
founder and executive director of Stand with Trans, a group formed to support
and empower young transgender people and their families.
This year, she said, the event was
“jam-packed” with transgender people.
One of the grand marshals of New York
City’s parade is nonbinary activist AC Dumlao, chief of staff for Athlete Ally,
a group that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ+ athletes.
“Uplifting the trans community has
always been at the core of our events and programming,” said Dan Dimant, a
spokesperson for NYC Pride.
Many of this year’s parades called
for LGBTQ+ communities to unite against dozens, if not hundreds, of legislative
bills now under consideration in statehouses across the country.
Lawmakers in 20 states have moved to
ban gender-affirming care for children, and at least seven more are considering
doing the same, adding increased urgency for the transgender community, its
advocates say.
“We are under threat,” Pride event
organizers in New York, San Francisco and San Diego said in a statement joined
by about 50 other Pride organizations nationwide. “The diverse dangers we are
facing as an LGBTQ community and Pride organizers, while differing in nature
and intensity, share a common trait: they seek to undermine our love, our
identity, our freedom, our safety, and our lives.”
AP PHOTOS: Rainbows around the world as LGBTQ+ Pride is
celebrated throughout June
Librarians train to defend intellectual freedom and fight
book bans at Chicago conference
Long heritage of Native Hawaiian gender-fluidity showcased
in Las Vegas drag show
Drag queens showcase Hawaiian gender-fluid heritage
Some parades, including the event in
Chicago, planned beefed up security amid the upheaval.
The Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD,
a national LGBTQ+ organization, found 101 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the first
three weeks of this month, about twice as many as in the full month of June
last year.
Sarah Moore, who analyzes extremism
for the two civil rights groups, said many of the June incidents coincide with
Pride events.
LOOK AT THIS RIDICULOUS POST FROM MARCH 2013!!
ReplyDelete"Gene's new novel ... opening section finished
Granny Barkes fell in Woolworths ... she'll get a free ride in the ambulance. Ha! Ha! Ha! The just man falls seven times. I heard a roar between two hills. L to the water Jimmy Harte. Edward's Day Out. I wish that day would come back again. What happened to your lorry Jim? I think they did. Dr Whitehead. Piss, piss Iceland dog! Tickets are sixpence each and I hope you all win. Hi for a toffer and hi for it still; and hi for the wee lad lies over the hill. Hollyhocks! Hollyhocks! Over Bobby Lyttle's garden wall. The river eddy whirls. Rushe came down last night. I know my nick name. Apostrophe at the Post Office today. Let the reindeers go. Let them go! Good morrow Mick. No-one will read your papers. The image of a girl. Deeper than the wishing well. Carolina moon. What a beautiful day! What must heaven be like? Do you know our d'Brian? You're nice Miss Rice. I see said the blind man. The fish in the pond are seeing red as Bobby is fishing with Coates strong thread. And those who come from distance far are always late for tea. Oh! to be in Dunaree. All day all night Marianne; down by the seaside sifting sand. Look at the way he's twisting that stick. He won't know himself in this lovely place. There was a wild colonial boy Jack Saltey was his name. Geoff Duke. I win a pound.
Will this one day rival the opening of Finnegans Wake
FINNEGANS WAKE
riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface. The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
lins first loved livvy.
Will this one day rival the opening of Finnegans Wake?
Only to the extent that they both mean fuck all.
Or Lucky's opening speech from Waiting for Godot?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely not - Becket was a master, whereas Gene couldn't write fuck on a toilet wall...
When do we celebrate Straight Pride Month?
ReplyDeletePitiful.
DeleteNow, where are those forged emails from the late Clive James?
Not mention the hilariously pretentious "Gene Vincent - close up on a phenomenon" - the "in depth interview" of Gene Vincent, "currently creating a stir in London literary circles" [sic].by "Libby Purvis" [sic}.
See you next Tuesday!
Gene has often compared himself as a writer to James Joyce and Samuel Becket, and once forged emails purporting to be from Clive James that praised Gene's writings as conveying wonderfully well "existential despair", whatever that is supposed to mean. If anyone is still reading this dreadful blog, then of course they must find it hard to judge the truth or otherwise of Gene's claims, given that he has never published a word in his life.
ReplyDeleteWell, no longer. From 2011, I am proud to present to you a cornucopia of pretentious claptrap entitled "Gene Vincent - close up on a phenomenon". This purports to be an "in-depth interview" of the novelist Gene Vincent by "Libby Purvis" [a thinly veiled allotrope of the real life journalist and all round good sort Libby Purves].
Of course, given that Gene Vincent has never published a word, let alone a line, let alone a reader's letter to the Uxbridge Chronicle in his life, Gene interviewed and wrote about himself, rather as the sexually inadequate and desperate resort to masturbation. However that may be, do read on The wearing of nappies by readers is strongly advised, as they are all too liable to piss themselves laughing.
[continued below].
"GENE VINCENT: close up on a phenomenon"
ReplyDeleteAn interview by Libby Purvis
Gene Vincent, a west London teacher, is the literary figure stirring unprecedented interest at the moment. Libby Purvis meets Gene in his Uxbridge home.
It is a glorious summer morning following weeks of downpour and the gardens of Uxbridge are lush and green. An unpretentious Nissan is parked in the driveway. Gene is standing in the doorway. He greets me warmly and it’s straight through to the kitchen where he has been busy with the coffee grinder. The strong aroma of freshly ground Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee fills the air.
Gene is dressed casually in a plain grey T-shirt, faded chinos and flip-flop sandals. His is alone at home – his wife (also a teacher) is out shopping at the Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherds Bush and his eighteen year-old son, Paul, is off on a soccer training course. “He should be at home helping me with the restoration I am carrying out on a 1960 Vauxhall Cresta. It's in the garage. I'll show you before you leave Libby,” mutters Gene, “but Paul's ambition in life is to play for Brentford FC - after university that is.”
With his lithe build, supple movements and shaven head Gene looks younger than his fifty-four years. He gets me seated quickly. The kitchen, with its tasteful modern furnishing and style, is large, spacious and immaculately clean. I comment on the tidiness and Gene replies, "Yes, my wife Marianne and I are absolutely fastidious about things being in order - clean, tidy and no clutter. You want to see my class room in school. It's always a model of order and neatness. In one school the Head brought the staff on a viewing. This is how it should be was the message loud and clear to any slob teacher. And are there slob teachers? Is the Pope a Catholic? The stories I could tell."
Gene pours the coffee and produces two chocolate eclairs and sits down opposite me. Despite my long experience of meeting the good and the great I feel nervous and overawed. Here, within arm's reach, is Gene the man, the myth the legend. I'm trembling a little and blushing. My palms are sweating. I feel like a schoolgirl out on her first date. But Gene is such a gentleman. He's obviously experienced in dealing with this sort of hero worship and puts me at ease with questions about my work as a journalist and anecdotes about his all time favourite columnist, the late Bernard Levin.
We finish our coffee and I take the initiative and ask if I can view Gene's study. I am keen to see the actual location from whence emanates such a torrent of creativity. Gene takes me upstairs and leads me into a smallish and somewhat unprepossessing room overlooking the front garden. "Libby, I shall leave you here. Feel free to browse. I shall be downstairs when you wish to talk." With that Gene was gone and I was alone in a hallowed space.
[to be continued....]
Hey! That's good.
ReplyDeleteMary Winterbourne
Ah, come on, Gene, you bloody fool. All five of your readers know that Mary Winterbourne is you.
Delete"I was alone in a hallowed space" - what pretentious bollocks. Oh, it will be fun...
Of course, given that Gene Vincent has never published a word, - let alone a line, let alone a reader's letter to the Uxbridge Chronicle - in his life, Gene interviewed and wrote about himself, rather as the sexually inadequate and desperate such as he resort to masturbation.
DeleteHowever that may be, do read on.
The wearing of nappies by readers is strongly advised, as they are all too liable to piss themselves laughing.
More from “Gene Vincent - close up on a pretentious wanker - sorry, on a phenomenon” today. And I also found those “emails” purportedly sent to Gene by Clive James. Actually I think the TLS or the LRB might be interested in those - the great literary figure taking time to encourage a hopeless nobody and at the same time revealing a glimpse of his unreconstructed Ocker persona. Prue and the girls would probably enjoy reading them as well. Using the screenshots would make them a nice picture spread too. H’m.
ReplyDelete