Posted on Jun 1, 2022
Philly's Pride March returns this week with new organizers and focus
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https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/ [login to see] /phillys-pride-march-returns-this-week-with-new-organizers-and-focus
If anyone knows Pride at its best, it's Elicia Gonzales.
The 46-year-old queer, Latina activist experienced one of her biggest milestones there. She proposed to her wife, Megan Hannah, in the middle of the Philly Pride Parade in 2014.
"I wanted it to be really over the top," said Gonzales, who's now the executive director of the Abortion Liberation Fund of Pennsylvania. "And it was like our biggest Pride ever. When I look back over the video, it's just filled with queerness and Latinidad. It was cool."
But even Gonzales can understand why some people don't feel welcome at Pride, especially LGBTQ people of color. In Philadelphia, she has joined a new group of queer and trans activists who are trying to rebuild Pride into something more welcoming — and more revolutionary.
2022 has been a record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation, according to the LGBTQ rights group Freedom For All Americans. Hundreds of bills have been introduced around the country attempting to ban gender-affirming healthcare for LGBTQ youth, and keep trans kids out of school sports. That, stacked on top of a nationwide reckoning over racism in policing, has inspired many cities to change how they celebrate LGBTQ people.
If anyone knows Pride at its best, it's Elicia Gonzales.
The 46-year-old queer, Latina activist experienced one of her biggest milestones there. She proposed to her wife, Megan Hannah, in the middle of the Philly Pride Parade in 2014.
"I wanted it to be really over the top," said Gonzales, who's now the executive director of the Abortion Liberation Fund of Pennsylvania. "And it was like our biggest Pride ever. When I look back over the video, it's just filled with queerness and Latinidad. It was cool."
But even Gonzales can understand why some people don't feel welcome at Pride, especially LGBTQ people of color. In Philadelphia, she has joined a new group of queer and trans activists who are trying to rebuild Pride into something more welcoming — and more revolutionary.
2022 has been a record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation, according to the LGBTQ rights group Freedom For All Americans. Hundreds of bills have been introduced around the country attempting to ban gender-affirming healthcare for LGBTQ youth, and keep trans kids out of school sports. That, stacked on top of a nationwide reckoning over racism in policing, has inspired many cities to change how they celebrate LGBTQ people.
Philly's Pride March returns this week with new organizers and focus
Posted from npr.orgPosted in these groups: 
Philadelphia
LGBTQ+
Philadelphia LGBTQ+
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Philly isn't the only place where Pride is changing. A new coalition of LGBTQ groups has taken over Pittsburgh Pride, after the nonprofit that used to run the event disbanded in the summer of 2020.
Boston's long-running Pride organization also disbanded over concerns about inclusivity in the summer of 2021. A new Pride group has not yet formed publicly.
In San Francisco, Pride organizers aren't allowing police to march in uniform this year. So they're boycotting Pride, along with the San Francisco sheriff's department and fire department. The whole ordeal has led San Francisco Mayor London Breed to declare she's not going to Pride this year.
With hundreds of anti-trans bills sweeping the nation, some say Pride should return to a protest, like its Stonewall roots.
Ciora Thomas, a Black trans woman from Pittsburgh, organizes an event called the People's Pride.
"As an LGBTQ community, we need to be centering Black and brown trans people," Thomas said. "Because our ancestors, our trans-cestors, they fought so hard, but for the gay rights movement. But the main folks who are being targeted now are trans folks."
..."Philly isn't the only place where Pride is changing. A new coalition of LGBTQ groups has taken over Pittsburgh Pride, after the nonprofit that used to run the event disbanded in the summer of 2020.
Boston's long-running Pride organization also disbanded over concerns about inclusivity in the summer of 2021. A new Pride group has not yet formed publicly.
In San Francisco, Pride organizers aren't allowing police to march in uniform this year. So they're boycotting Pride, along with the San Francisco sheriff's department and fire department. The whole ordeal has led San Francisco Mayor London Breed to declare she's not going to Pride this year.
With hundreds of anti-trans bills sweeping the nation, some say Pride should return to a protest, like its Stonewall roots.
Ciora Thomas, a Black trans woman from Pittsburgh, organizes an event called the People's Pride.
"As an LGBTQ community, we need to be centering Black and brown trans people," Thomas said. "Because our ancestors, our trans-cestors, they fought so hard, but for the gay rights movement. But the main folks who are being targeted now are trans folks."
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