SEAGLA announced the schedule for the third annual Juneau Pride, a celebration of all things Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Questioning (LGBTQ), held June 11-19. The spectacular drag show GLITZ!, which sold out the Rockwell ballroom last year, has been moved to Centennial Hall. The pre-show VIP is expanded. It includes a reception with the star of Ru Paul\u2019s Drag Race Season 3, India Ferrah, and nationally reknowned Drag King Landon Cider. New events have been added, including an improv show, \u201cPinque Pony\u201d featuring an LGBTQ comedy troupe from Chicago and a reception for Two Spirit Alaska Natives, many of whom will be in town for the biennial Celebration. (\u201cTwo Spirit\u201d is a term that many Native Americans use to identify their sexual orientation or gender identity in context of their Native heritage.)<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s festival has been organized by a Pride Committee, spearheaded by SEAGLA, the Southeast Alaska LGBTQ Alliance. In keeping with the goal of providing something for everyone, Juneau Pride will again offer a wide variety of events, including a Pride Prom dance; the signature Pride Picnic, now in its 30th year; a kickball game; hike & bonfire; trivia contest; and a Saturday night pub crawl, among other events. All events are either free or by donation, including the ticketed ones. At the door organizers ask for a suggested donation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPride commemorates the day in June 1969 when corrupt cops conducting a routine shakedown raid on the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village, New York City, were met by a group of fed-up drag queens, transgender people, gay men and lesbians who stood up to them \u2026 and actually threw them out of the bar! The civil disobedience action that occurred over the ensuing few days, generally referred to as \u201cthe Stonewall Riots\u201d, is widely seen as the genesis of the modern movement for LGBTQ rights,\u201d says a press release from the group.<\/p>\n
Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch is expected to issue a resolution naming June 2016 \u201cJuneau Pride Month\u201d as Mayor Sanford did in 2014 and 2015, the release said. Commemorating June as \u201cLGBT Pride Month\u201d is not just a local practice, but has been done annually on the national level by President Barack Obama since 2009. It was first recognized by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Rep. Sam Kito and Rep. Cathy Munoz are scheduled to speak at the 30th Anniversary Pride Picnic at 2:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Former city manager Kim Kiefer will be given the \u201cMildred Boesser Equal Rights Award\u201d at the Opening Ceremony for her 32-year service to the City and Borough of Juneau as an out lesbian and an advocate for LGBTQ equal rights. The award is named for the late Mildred Boesser, stalwart proponent of LGBTQ rights for many decades, who passed in June 2015.<\/p>\n
Juneau Pride invites the entire community to \u201cCome Out, Feel Welcomed!\u201d at all of its events. A mix of pre-Pride fundraisers and donations given at each event fund the production of Juneau Pride. Official Juneau Pride 2016 t-shirts will also be on sale to help raise funds to cover costs. This year marks a new collaboration with Aurora Projekt, who printed the shirts in an effort to \u201clook local first\u201d and keep more business in town. Business sponsors of Juneau Pride include KXLL – Excellent Radio, SALT, Suite 907, Bauer Clifton Interiors, The Driftwood Hotel, and the Alaska State Improv Festival.<\/p>\n
To find out more about the schedule of events, visit www.juneaupride.org. A downloadable Pride Guide is also available on the website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEAGLA announced the schedule for the third annual Juneau Pride, a celebration of all things Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Questioning (LGBTQ), held June 11-19. The spectacular drag show GLITZ!, which sold out the Rockwell ballroom last year, has been moved to Centennial Hall. The pre-show VIP is expanded. It includes a reception with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":4357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4356"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}