The week is over, but not forgotten, as hundreds of Curaçao visitors and residents celebrated the island’s very first Pride Week, September 25-29th, 2013. The Caribbean island of Curaçao has always been welcoming to the LGBT community with great accommodations, events and attitude, but Gay Pride Week took the island’s commitment to the LGBT community to another level.

Hundreds of people showed up at The White Affair event at the Floris Suite Hotel, host property of Curaçao’s first Pride Week, transforming the hotel into “Pride City” for the week. In addition, hotels and restaurants contributed with gourmet food and drinks in support of Pride Week. They included the Hilton Curaçao, Curaçao Marriott Beach Resort, Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort, Kyoto Restaurant, Tempo Doeloe Restaurant, Pirate Bay, Sandton Kura Hulanda Hotel and others.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

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Three years in the making, Lithuania’s second-ever gay pride parade encountered the sadly predictable mob of angry protestors in the Baltic nation’s capital city of Vilnius on July 27. Twenty-eight of the agitators ended up arrested, including anti-gay politician Petras Grazulis, according to the Associated Press. Several other political figures, including Birgitta Ohlsson, Sweden’s European Union Affairs Minister, were pelted with eggs while speaking onstage in the parade’s concert area, but it’s easier to change clothes than to get out of jail, so that adds up to something of a victory for Lithuanian parade-goers.

Lithuanians held their first gay pride celebration in 2010, overcoming an initial court order attempting to bar the event from happening. Judges relented and the show went on in Vilnius, though the affair was relegated to an out-of-the-way riverbank. Apparently it wasn’t quite far enough out of the way, however, because protestors wielding rocks and smoke bombs still managed to find it, and it resulted in nineteen arrests.

Read more at dot429.com

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International lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates are crying foul after a top court ruled to uphold a ban on Pride marches in Moscow for the next 100 years.

As the BBC reports, the ruling came after Russia’s best-known LGBT rights activist, Nikolai Alexeyev, had sought to overturn the city council’s ban on Pride festivities. According to the ruling, the earliest that a Pride march, rally or celebration can take place in May 2112, Pink News notes.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

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T-shirts designed by Emmy Award-winning actress Jane Lynch, Tony Award-winning artists Alan Cumming & Idina Menzel and comedian Chelsea Handler were unveiled as additions to the Give a Damn Campaign’s Celebrity T-Shirt Project presented by Van Gogh Vodka.

The Give a Damn Campaign is a project of the True Colors Fund, an organization co-founded by Cyndi Lauper to inspire and engage everyone, especially straight people, to become active participants in the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality and to raise awareness about and bring an end to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth homelessness.

The limited edition shirts went on sale June 15 to celebrate Pride Month and promote messages of equality and acceptance. All proceeds from the t-shirt sales will support the work of the Give a Damn Campaign.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored LGBT Pride Month and addressed the effort to advance equal rights in a video released Tuesday.

“I am honored to join you to celebrate the fundamental freedoms that all human beings deserve—no matter who they are or whom they love,” she stated. “This month, and every month, we proudly reaffirm our commitment to making sure that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Clinton’s address also acknowledged the progress being made to advance the cause of LGBT rights, but noted that the fight is far from over.

“We will not rest until full and equal rights are a reality for everyone,” Clinton imparted. “History proves that the march toward equality and justice will overcome barriers of intolerance and discrimination. But it requires a concerted effort from all of us. No matter how long the road ahead, I’m confident that we will travel it successfully together.”

Clinton has been a strong ally for the LGBT community and has delivered statements or remarks to celebrate Pride Month for the last three years. Last year, she also delivered a speech in Geneva in observance of Human Rights Day in which she notably affirmed that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”

The full text of Clinton’s statement is available at the Department of State website.

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Apparently Tony Perkins doesn’t approve of Pride Month. While filling in on the American Family Association’s radio network last week, Perkins fielded a call from an individual claiming that right-wing commentators were ignoring actual societal ills in favor of promoting misconceptions about the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Ironically confirming the caller’s accusation Perkins began, “The month of June is Gay Pride Month,” later going on to say, “Now, I have not yet seen where they have declared Adultery Pride Month; I have not seen where they have declared Drunkenness Pride Month. We’re not celebrating those other forms as a society; we’re not promoting [them] and teaching [them] as normal in our schools.”

Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, a conservative organization whose agenda could be described as being diametrically opposed to that of LGBT civil rights proponents.

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The city of Moscow, Russia has banned all public gay pride demonstrations. The Tverskoy district court ruled that the ban will exist for the next 100 years.

Till March 2112, no gay pride events will be allowed in the city of Moscow. The final ruling comes after months of appeals by Russian LGBT activists. One LGBT leader in Moscow, Nikolay Alekseyev, said he intends to post an appeal to the Moscow City Court Presidium, and other LGBT organizers have pledged to fight the ban to the highest courts in Russia—even eventually taking the case to the European Human Rights Court.

Read more at dot429.com

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It’s Pride season. That time of year when we come out of our houses and flood into the streets to celebrate our community in all its glory. Yes, all of its glory (I’m talking about you, assless chap guy). So why do we party the way we do? Would it be better for the community if we left the feathers and drag at home?

From the early white-gloved “homophile” demonstrations to the seedy backroom of the Stonewall Inn, here’s a look at the history behind pride and the importance of celebrating our roots.

Read more at AskTheGay.com

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A gay pride parade in the Croatian city of Split, which Catholic nationalists in Croatiasaid they were planning to bomb, went off without trouble on Saturday. Authorities brought in 700 police and closed off much of the city and banned counter protests.

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Despite increasingly accepting and sympathetic views on same-sex marriage and other gay equality issues, growing up gay in America remains a less-than-pleasant undertaking. A survey released Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign indicates that gay and lesbian teenagers in the U.S. are less likely to be happy, more likely to report harassment and more inclined to experiment with drugs and alcohol than the nation’s straight teens.

The nationwide online survey considered more than 10,000 gay and lesbian young people and is one of the largest ever to focus on the nation’s gay youth. LGBT participants aged 13 to 17 were polled, as were approximately 500 13- to 17-year-olds who identified as “straight.”

Linda Spears, vice president of policy for the Child Welfare League of America, said the study bears out “our worst fears about LGBT kids. These kids are often so vulnerable in the way their lives are being led because of the lack of support they have. They need what all young people need, parents and others who are there for them and nurture their development.”

HRC’s new president Chad Griffin said the survey “is yet another reminder that we still have a lot to do in this country so that young people can grow up healthy.”

World’s first out and proud LGBT brewery
Just in time for Pride San Diego’s Hillcrest Brewing Company (HBC) has come out as the “world’s first out and proud LGBT brewery.” The HBC will join the Mo’s Universe family of LGBT-friendly establishments, which include Urban Mo’s Bar & Grill, Baja Betty’s and Gossip Grill.

While big name brewers have started paying more attention to their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers, and beers targeted at gay consumers have been marketed in Mexico and Europe, HBC has setting itself apart as the “Queens of Beer” and the first and only openly gay brewing company in the world.

The owner of Mo’s Universe, Chris Shaw, explained that they were selling so much beer at their three other locations that when brewmaster David White proposed the idea for a brewery, they figured, “Why not start brewing our own?”

Shaw added that he hopes the HBC will be a place where “our old friends can gather and feel like part of the community.”

HBC is located at 1458 University Avenue in San Diego, Calif.

Sarah Silverman named Grand Marshall for San Francisco Pride
Sarah Silverman has been announced as the Grand Marshal for this year’s San Francisco Pride parade. Silverman joins “Glee’s” Dot Jones and well-known drag performer Carmen Carrera at the June 24 event.

San Francisco Pride officially kicks off June 23. A full list of events is available at the San Francisco Pride website.

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