Pride

Photos by Sarah Schetter.

Event by Henrietta Hudson. Photos by Sarah Schetter.

Event by Danielle Presents and girlNATION. Photos by Sarah Schetter.

Event by @NYDREAMGYRLEVENTS @GIRLYTHECEO @LOVERGIRLNYC. Photos by Sarah Schetter.

Every June, GO Magazine compiles a select list of talented tastemakers, influencers, and all-around inspirational women who are making their mark on the LGBTQ+ community and on the world at large.

Anywhere is truly the happiest place on earth when it’s filled with happy Queers. 

Pride means that you can own who you are, all of you, and live your truth out loud. Proud of who you are, where you are now, where you’ve been, and where you hope to go. Proud of your body, however you were born into it. Proud of who you love, what you identify as, and how you live your life. I chose to leave my dream-stealth life behind because I knew the world needed people to help them see and treat trans people differently. That’s why I can feel comfortable saying I know what true pride is.

The thought of driving through the South on purpose, as a butch dyke, was a vision of my gay hell.  But for the first stop of our tiny Pride tour, Country Roads, Take Me Homo, a small town is exactly where we ended up.

Happy Pride!

The older I become, the more that Pride becomes a period of remembrance.

“Show up to the bars,” Street says. It’s not enough to lament the loss of the lesbian bars of old; we have to support those that are still here, “to show up to the brick and mortar. It’s a form of activism.” 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Pride month!

HAPPY PRIDE!

A tall drag queen with mascara running in a jagged line down her cheek sang in a rich baritone. I knew the song well, the same one I sang with a maverick group of angels, as we surrounded a pyre of burning draft files in 1969, gripping our fear, as the police sirens approached. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday.

The much anticipated official reopening of the completely reimagined, revamped, and stunningly renovated Henrietta Hudson will take place this Saturday, May 15 at 6pm. 

“I would lay on the bare floor of the cell, and there was no light in there. So the only light you’re seeing was a little bit of light from under your door. I would get on the floor and start singing that song. It gave me a little bit of hope again. It made me realize I could dream.”

You arrive in a new city, filled with new faces, tastes, sounds, and eventually, if you play your cards right, you’ll end up in a room of queers, sweaty and synchronized, the same baseline surging through your spines.

Equal Ground is Sri Lanka’s oldest non profit LGBTQ+ advocacy group, raising awareness of rights and visibility in a country that officially offers no protections for queer and gender non-conforming people.

“We want to make sure that this next stage of Madeline’s life is as free from fear and full of love as our whole lives have been because of her.”

As the world opens up, it’s time to turn all of your t-shirts into crop tops. 

Modern lovers pining for the one who got away, take heart: Even Hollywood’s greatest lesbian romantic was dealt an unrequited hand.

The middle school kids knew what it was like to avoid looking corny, but they also knew a lot about bravery.

Cue “You Should See Me In A Crown” by Billie Eilish.

Love is love, and us lesbians definitely have some of the biggest hearts out there.

“I was more afraid when I went out to clubs, dressed in drag, than I was when I was befriending a drug dealer or up in some apartment buying for the NYPD, with no gun or shield. I would’ve rather been found dead, in some dumpster, because a dealer found out I was a cop than been busted in drag.”

“The Fight Continues.”

According to a 2019 Social Perception Survey on LGBT+ Rights in Nigeria by TIERS, 60% of Nigerians will not accept a family member who is LGBT.

Being Asian, queer, and a woman meant there was a myriad of ways I could vanish, and I saw it each time I watched a movie. 

“F*ck my rainbow wristband. F*ck my tomboy underwear. I was a fraud. And surely these people could tell.”

100 lesbian, bi, queer, and just plain human moments that had extra special meaning for our entire community.

May we follow your lead in telling the world to “Love a Black woman from infinity to infinity.” May we always have something we keep for ourselves.

It’s up to a younger generation to figure out what the current iteration of a dyke bar should look like.

It’s just a quiet little thing, like a kitten wrapped up in a blanket. I expected fireworks, either the violent kind or the celebratory kind, but there is nothing but the quiet of the evening, heavy around our ears.

“One of the many times I realized I was a lesbian was when I was in the throes of a high school threesome.”

This Sunday, as we honor National Coming Out Day, LA Pride is asking you to do more than just celebrate being out. They also want you to run.

There’s explosive diversity in each of us.