Happy Pride Month, y’all! Some of you celebrated last weekend and some of you have more time to celebrate, but regardless — we’re very excited, and here’s why:
We are doing an ALL CALL FOR YOUR PRIDE PICTURES.
All you have to do is wear your Autostraddle gear and have your friend/girlfriend/favorite drag queen take a picture of you. You guys, everyone looks cute in AS. The world needs to see this phenomenon immortalized in a gallery. Fame and fortune but mostly fame await you!
Cut up your classic t-shirt just like we showed you. Wear your sticker on your bag/laptop/face. Make an entre outfit out of outdated pages from your AS calendar. Make Autostraddle signs and dress up as Riese and/or Tinkerbell. Do it.
If you want to be famous and have thousands of queer women fawning over you, send a HIGH-ish RESOLUTION picture of your Autostraddle-clad self to Grace [at] autostraddle [dot] com with the subject line “Pride Pictures.” Be sure to include the first names of the people in the photos as well as which pride you’re attending. As usual, bonus points for creative file names, and also, NO TIFFs, please.
Here Are Some Pride Festivals You Could Attend, Possibly!
This weekend was a big weekend for Pride for many of you from Boston, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Iowa, Lansing, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Washington DC and so many more. But Pride remains a glorious prospect on the horizon in many other cities!
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Baltimore, Maryland: June 17th – June 19th.
Featuring Deborah Cox.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Washington D.C/Baltimore
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Chicago, Illinois: June 24th-26th
+ Dyke March: June 25.
+ There is a lot happening at this one — Fernanda Rocha will be the Grand Marshall of the Pride Parade and Pride Fest performers include Deborah Cox, Crystal Waters and MYA.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Chicagostraddlers
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Columbus, Ohio: June 17th-19th
+ Entertainment includes Chely Wright, Bitch, and Namoli Brennet. Also, Intern Grace will probably be there, so.
Meet up With Autostraddlers: Ohio is For Autostraddlers
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Denver, Colorado: June 18th-19th
+ With CAZWELL, Carmen Carerra from RuPaul’s Drag Race and Lori Michaels.
Meet up With Autostraddlers: Denver Area Autostraddlers
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Houston, Texas: June 18-25th
+ Pride Parade June 25.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Texastraddle
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Montreal, Canada: August 9th-14th
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Montrealers
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London, England: June 24-July 3
+ Featuring Guilty Pleasures with Dreambears and Hot Gusset, something about a flash mob, and more acts to be announced. Also, they use the word “fortnight” a lot.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: UK & Ireland
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Nashville, TN: June 18th
+ The Nashville Pride Festival will feature Jonny McGovern, Kimberly Caldwell, and God-Des and SHe.
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New York, New York: June 15th – 26th
+ June 15th – Kick off Pride with GO! Magazine’s shin dig with the cast of The Real L Word (Bring your AS gear to that one for a number of reasons).
+ June 25th – Dyke March!
+ June 25th (3pm-11pm) – Rapture on the River: A Woman’s Dance (buy tickets here) this year will include a Wet T-Shirt Contest.
+ June 26th (12 noon step-off) – Pride Parade with Grand Marshalls Dan Savage & Terry Miller and Reverand Pat Bumgardner
Meet up with Autostraddlers: NYC Straddlers
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New Orleans, Louisiana: June 24th-26th
+ Parade starts at noon on Sunday.
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Portland, Oregon: June 17th – 19th
+With Deborah Cox and the two hot lesbians who make Kiss Kill happen.
+ Dyke March – June 18th, 5pm, North Park Blocks
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Pdx Autostraddlers
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San Diego, California: July 15-17th
+ Parade July 16. Featuring Margaret Cho, Salt-N-Pepa, God-des and She, among a bunch of others.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: San Diego Straddlers
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San Francisco, California: June 25th-26th
+ Pride Parade: June 26th — Grand marshall Chaz Bono. Also riding will be Yigit Pura, Olympia Dukakis and Armistead Maupin
+ Dyke March: June 25th, Rally in Dolores Park 3-7 pm.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Straddling by the Bay
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Seattle, Washington: June 25th-26th
+ “An Evening with Jennifer Knapp” on June 21st.
+ June 25th Pride Fest will feature Crystal Bowersox, Thelma Houston and YOUR FAVORITE BAND BETTY.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Seattlestraddle
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Minneapolis/St.Paul Pride: June 25th-26th
+ With DEBBIE FUCKING GIBSON.
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Twin Cities Straddlers
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Toronto, Canada: June 24th – July 3rd
+ Featuring “entertainment on eight stages” and performances of the play “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.”
+ Dyke March – July 2nd at 2pm
Meet up with Autostraddlers: Ohhh! Canada
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Vancouver, Canada: July 30th-31st
+ Parade July 31.
Dublin, Ireland starting this weekend, parade on June 25th :)
is this so you know that we are real lesbians/queer people/not middle-aged white men posers?
i need to know whether to include my junk.
++coffeespit++
I don’t mean to call you, personally, transphobic, but please let’s think before we speak and quit it with the ‘genital inspection’ jokes already!
definitely not transphobic. definitely didn’t say vagina-junk. and i did not say vagina on purpose so that there would be no exclusion. :)
:( pride is for all #lgbtq .
no one said anything about dropping drawers for inspection in this post, moose. i’m twitchy about peeps that exclude anyone as well, but this was harsh. peace.
i personally thought moose’s joke was funny. the straight man (mentioned in numerous blogs yesterday) was completely out of line by stealing a lesbian’s identity in order to obtain the privilege of posting online to a place many lesbians consider to be a safe haven. since when is identity theft okay?? especially when it involves a straight white male who already reaps the benefits of society that the lgbt community as a whole is denied. not to mention, transphobia would involve hatred towards someone who is transitioning…and as a member of the lgbt community herself, i doubt moose has any animosity towards those amazing individuals who put the t in lgbt.
I’ve heard some amazingly transphobic shit from the LGB side of things, unfortunately.
thanks natalina. i definitely don’t and while i don’t think my comment excluded anyone, as in previous post we established that our “junk” varies and the idea was ludicrous. i just saw humor in a post asking for our pictures during a week where this idea has been heavily discussed.
Ahh, to live again in a city where I don’t know every single gay person and can can count them on both hands.
Perhaps We will have a BBQ in a backyard and call it “South Texas Pride,” and all 7 of us gays will be there and complain together how much we wish there were an actual gay bar in our city.
I am bitter.
i really hate that phx pride is in like, april. I FEEL SO LEFT OUT OF THE COLLECTIVE EXCITEMENT AND PROUDNESS.
Ottawa’s isn’t until August…
Our local pride is put on by the campus Queers & Allies. It’s usually in April and about a week. This year they decided they had too many amazing things planned for it to take place in just a week so they declared it the month of GAYpril.
I do wish there were some summer queer happenings, though. :\
It’s in April in my town too. That’s what I get for living in a college town where half the population leaves every summer.
My local town waits til October to have it when the students are back from summer break.
Laneia, we can be proud again in October at the Rainbows Festival.
Sydney’s is in March. But, I mean, it’s FREAKING MARDI GRAS so whatev.
can’t wait for pride sf!!! :D
Anybody on Canada’s East Coast (Or close enough to get to Canada’s East Coast) Halifax Pride Week starts on July 17th, with the ever famous, dragtastic Dykes vs. Diva’s Softball game (Seriously, this is not to be missed!) and ends on July 24th with a family picnic, and Pride Drag show. The parade is on July 23, and is followed by a concert and festival. As a Halifax native living in another province, and a regular customer at more than one of the major sponsors, I always make it a point to go home for pride.
And no, I’m not affiliate with Halifax Pride, I’m just very passionate about it!
More details can be found at HalifaxPride.org (including pride vacation packages!)
I’ve never been to Halifax Pride before (or any pride, for that matter). It’s always the same week as my birthday. I’m back living in Halifax now, so hopefully I’ll make it there this year!
First Halifax pride this year! Last year I was gone for that week. Pretty stoked.
Orange County, CA Pride!
August 13th
prideoc.com
Yeah! Only, I’m wondering why OC is so late.
I’m guessing it’s because they needed all the time they could get three years ago when they decided to bring it back. Something to look forward to after all the other Prides.
Hopefully the extended period of planning means it’ll be a success! Also: hopefully, I can go! It’ll be my first pride festival, although at AIDS Walk, there were a ton of really awesome/rad people.
I think it’s going to be great, the people planning it are amazing and last year they did a great job.
I’m guessing it’s because they needed all the time they could get three years ago when they decided to bring it back. Something to look forward to after all the other Prides.
I am so disappointed that Autostraddle didn’t even think of mentioning the 2011 Europride that took place in Rome… It was a pretty big fucking deal and even Lady Gaga attended and performed! Does you inclusiveness of European queers begin and end with England and Ireland?
I’m not positive, but I don’t believe there are many (any?) European AS contributors. You can always shoot them an email.
lady gaga and all her acoustic glory in Roma are mentioned here, even if briefly: http://www.autostraddle.com/hhs-wants-you-to-have-equal-medicaid-benefits-happy-pride-93094/
As Mari pointed out, Pride in Rome is actually the only pride celebration that’s been mentioned in its own post, and since, as you’re aware, it has already happened, it didn’t seem like it would be helpful to include in a list of upcoming Prides. Thanks for pointing it out, though!
I was sad about missing Pride (weekend) festivities this year – the Dyke March falls on my tomboy’s birthday and there’s a lot going on with the kidlet that takes precedence – but now I see that we’ll be in London for their Gay Pride, and that just kind of takes the bloody cake! Whee!
i just wanna say, yay for kidlets #yay #munchkins
Welp, too late for me. Winnipeg Pride was 10 days ago and I did not know that it was SUPER IMPORTANT for me to take pics so I cannot contribute. Womp womp.
All this looks like loads of fun. Any straddlers or events in Charlotte, NC?
NC Pride is in September (’cause June is too damn hot in June)
September 24, with events in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham (main parade in Durham, come play)
http://www.ncpride.org/pride/pride.shtml
i went to it last year (my first time) and it was wonderful.
sorry, too many beers #cheers
Thanks for the info! It would be awesome to go to Durham, I’ll see if I can make the trip. Enjoy the beers :)
I guess the Chicago Dyke March will have to wait for next year– between Proud to Run and the parade, I think I’ve maxed out the number of events I can drag my straight friends to (although they’ve been great about it).
Yeah, must make more gay friends in Chicago before next year…
we should have a meet up during the chicago one. i bet ellib is already on that!
what if i can’t make it to pride but make a rainbow cake.
send the cake to me. i love cake.
I will make one too, and we can all share in the cakey goodness.
Despite my official stance as Team Pie, I make an exception for rainbow cake because I desperately want to try it. So much homogayness in one baked good!
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade:
August 6
yes that’s right we have gay boats
That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard of.
i can’t even… #gaygasm
This would be reason #1006 why I need to move to Holland.
AS meetup with/on a gay boat? Lol
August 6th will be epic!
AS-boat needs to happen!
Another Illinois festival:
Champaign-Urbana Pride Festival — August 20, 2011
http://pride.unitingpride.org/
There’s also one in Peoria, IL in September.
Are you from C-U!? That’s my hometown!
Actually I’m from a small town in the next county over (Vermilion) but it’s an accepted fact in my area that if you want to go anywhere or do anything fun, you have to go to C-U to do it. :D Danville may be closer, but it doesn’t really have much to recommend it anymore.
Which small town in Vermillion?
I didn’t even know we HAD a Pride in Chambana–have they been doing it for long, do you know?
It’s called Indianola. I don’t think it even qualifies as a town, maybe a village (pop 250 or thereabouts). Nearest towns are Georgetown, Ridge Farm and Catlin.
The first one was just last year, so it’s only a recent thing. I didn’t go last year, but I’m really excited to go this year. They’re having Amasong there, which is a women’s chorus that kicks all kinds of ass, and I really really really want to hear them perform.
Portland, ME is this Saturday, June 18!
Woo! Portland Maine Pride! Wish I could go this year but I have to work all weekend.. wahhh
Yes! I am totally going to be there. Here’s hoping the rain holds off.
I’m super excited for Columbus Pride. I’m walking in the parade with my place of employment/co-workers, then presumably taking off my official organization shirt in Goodale so I can be less Professional Queer and more Me Doing Me. My straight platonic life partner is coming with me, and while she’s not familiar with AS, we’re not too scary and are up for hanging out with willing straddlers.
Also (if I may be forgiven for making a plug), if anyone wants to go out Saturday night, a lovely friend will be running/DJing a charity dance party at Circus (around 5th and North High Street), with proceeds going to our local LGBTQ center.
Sorry, that should be local LGBTQ youth center (Kaleidoscope). The dance night is called Neverland, and the Facebook event page for it is: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=216188591744939
So excited for SF pride!! It’s going to be my first pride ever!
wh00t! it’s a very special thing. make sure to hydrate. :)
Chicago queers, represent!
This’ll be my third time going. My first time was as a volunteer, on the float of the Chicago 2016 Olympics (don’t shoot me!) and I went with my sibs the year after that. Hopefully I’ll go with friends this year, it’s so uncomfortable flirting in front of my sibs.
The Scottish Pride already happened :( But the Autoscots are meeting on the 25th, could we send in photos of the meet anyway?
Aw man I want to go to SF Pride soooooo bad. But it’s extremely unlikely. :\
I’ll just spend the weekend a mere 40 minutes away pining from inside my forced closet…But at least I got to go to the Pride events my university had in April. And I can’t wait to see pictures of my fellow straddlers priding it up across the world :D
*happy thoughts* sending you rainbows, unicorns, and kittehs to keep you company in teh closet, ’til it’s safe to come out.
First Baltimore Pride!
yesss houston pride is gonna be great :)
also i think san antonio is having theirs this weekend, for the record.
I missed out on Key West last weekend! :/ But there’s this in Fort Lauderdale:
http://www.facebook.com/stonewallwiltonmanorsfl#!/event.php?eid=209738969066472
Dallas’ pride parade is September 18 because they think it will be less hot than it is now. Pretty sure it will still be like 334 degrees out though.
Austin’s is a week earlier so apparently they also had the same idea in moving it from June to September.
Need more AS gear! Is the shop getting more tanks/shirts anytime soon?
I’ll be working at a booth at the Portland, Oregon one, but hopefully I’ll get to do some fun things too…
This time last year I was juuust coming out of the closet and hadn’t heard of the magical magnificence we call Pride. But uh, now that I am a totally happy out lesbian but stuck in this shithole of a town, I’m very gloomy that I don’t get to go :/
If you are going to college in CA, you should really try to make it to one of the big Pride events. SF pride is ridiculously awesome…like LITERALLY over ONE MILLION GAYS awesome.
I’ve also heard LA and San Diego have rockin’ ones too :]
I’m going in Oregon. I have nothing to do this summer besides a part time job, from which I can easily obtain time off, but I have nobody to go with to the San Francisco pride. I’m sure my pseudosister would go, but I don’t think she’d enjoy being dragged around to all of the super gay things I’d like to do.
So bring her with you, drop her somewhere that she’ll have fun, and enjoy the festivities the way you want to. Pride is definitely more fun with friends, but it’s still overwhelmingly awesome on your own. And who knows, you might meet some cool new friends along the way. I did most of NYC Pride by myself just three weeks after moving here, and while I spent the majority of the day alone, it was still an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world.
I TOTALLY second that. Pride is good to go all by yourself! And I have never gone to any Pride without meeting new friends, that’s probably my favorite part of Pride :D
If I were in the state I would totally go meet up with you, but alas, I’m in the OTHER bay area [Tampa] most of the year and am only gonna be in the SF bay area for the first week in July…
So I’m stoking myself up for the St. Pete pride. It’s no 1.2 million that SF does, but almost-100,000 is nothing to sniff at IMHO.
oh-kaaay.. so, i really need to move to Canada or US and live there!! The rainbow is just so much more colorful there than where i am…
Anyone from Vancouver Island going to Victoria Pride on July 10th?
http://www.circuitfestival.net/web11girlie/en/main You’re not to late for Barcelona :)
I plan on going to the Nashville Pride this weekend but I don’t own anything Autostaddle (life of a broke lesbo). Can I still send in photos though?
I’m thinking of going to the San Diego Pride for the first time ever and am super nervous. I keep thinking, “but I don’t know what to do there!” I guess I’ll find out?
Sinthe, I am having the same feelings about it. Do we stand around and just like, be proud of ourselves?
(On the bright side, maybe I’ll develop a gaydar?)
I will sent you some pics from Venezuela, if the people finally decide where is going to be
My city isn’t having Pride this year because the mayor, Linda Thompson, is a homophobe and the city is filing for bankruptsy and no one will stay in the parks and rec department long enough to take care of the permits. Can I have my own Pride? Will that count? Please let it count.
Leslie Knope would fix this.
Ya’ll better send in LOTS of photos. I just found out that our Pride has been CANCELED so I need to vicariously live through your gorgeous selves.
Will do happily :D
Could you maybe investigate into why Christianmingle.com has adspace on this website? I’m disturbed.
We don’t decide who advertises: http://autostraddle.tumblr.com/post/6541855139/how-do-you-pick-who-advertises-on-the-site-the
Burlington Vermont Pride
July 23!
Lovely Drag show to follow.
In Madrid (Spain) things are being crazy for the last weels (a part from the Spanish Revolution circa 15-M ).
Since last Monday there is a “cazerolada” ( people with saucepans, whistles…anything can make any type of noise ) from 21h until 22.30 in downtown protesting cause the right wing want to move the celebration from Chueca ( gay + lesbian neighbourhood ) to other places. The thing is there is people who doesnt understand that in Chueca are people living and who works early in the morning ( part of them are gay ) and who don’t like to wake up smelling vomiting…
But talking about the celebration here starts on the Wednesday the 29th ( with concerts, exhibitions, art, theatre… ) until Sunday the 3rd.
The big parade is always the Saturday, this one starts at 18h but you never know when it will finish cause is around 20 trucks ( all type of brands getting publicity, collectives, parents asociations… ) with loud music through the heart of the city. Last year around 1 million people were enjoying the week.
Is kind of crazy full of people from every single corner of the country and the world ( last year Kylie Minogue was singing as the end of the parade at 1 AM in for free.
If you are thinking about to come just get enough water and confortable clothes if you don’t want to dye cause the heat.
Wow that was a lot but i hope you can get the pic from future trips to Spain.
una razon maz para que abandone este paiz en lugar de espana.
Una razón más para abandonar ese país ( which one?) y venir a España? Hehe
I am agree with you but not all is “fiesta” here, we work too !!!
What is a pitty is all the foreing students who lose the oportunity of cultural and historical life just to have 24 hours “fiesta” ( getting drunk, passing out … )
Thank to the godess there is other people who comes to learn and live and some of them decide to stay here for living and if you are lucky and find love to get married.
All the best for NY in the next Senate votes for lesbian and gay marriage.
Stockholm Aug 1- 7!
anyone in town for Nashville, TN pride??
Anyone going to Toronto, ON Pride?
I had my sticker on my cellphone case, but lost my phone at Pride. Luckily someone found and returned my phone, unluckily the case was ruined and is now lost to the wind :(
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