March 15, 2021
Greetings,
Last summer amid protests for Black lives transition happened at Stonewall; shortly after I started as interim I shared a statement in which I noted the following:
“Over the years the community has found refuge and space away from the Center [and] we hope they’ll return. Economics of scale support we’re more efficient together; matters of the movement show we’re stronger together. I hope in swift time we are able to reclaim your trust, garner your support, engage a larger community, and bring key community partners and programs back to the Center. Stonewall Columbus is not working to control a narrative; we’re working to elevate the platform from which the narrative is given. As stewards of this community’s center, we look forward to working with many of you and welcoming you all home.”
These last few months have been filled with great conversations, new moments of partnership, and unquantifiable amounts of council—for which I am ever so thankful. It is warming to know that our community truly believes in working to meet the needs of those most in need among us while also working to meet the needs of our respective identities in the LGBTQ+ community; as we move forward it will be figuring out how we respectfully do that work together while supporting all of our various identities…that will take time.
I must acknowledge something that we all already know, Stonewall, like any organization, can’t singularly do the work of serving all of the various identities within our community; our organization knows there are better-aligned organizations able to serve respective identities within our community. Stonewall’s responsibility, as a community organization, is to help make space for and uplift all the various identities of our community.
As we head into June and consider that this year Stonewall will once again not be able to produce the traditional march and festival to which we’ve become accustomed, we know that we have an opportunity to help our community celebrate PRIDE—and to use the community’s Center to that success. The vision is to turn the Center into a hub of PRIDE during PRIDE month—every day is a celebration of PRIDE…#PRIDE365! We’ve reached out to the County and City and have requested proclamations that reflect June as PRIDE month; we’re working with the City to light City Hall in rainbow all month long; and although we won’t march we’ll still work to have our PRIDE banners placed around the city.
Stonewall’s signature PRIDE events will punctuate the month, hopefully accented by other community-inspired moments at the Center or out in the city—of course, all of this with an eye to COVID safety precautions in place…but also with the growing possibility that things may be more open.
First, if the news hadn’t already reached you Sabrina Boykin has shifted back to a volunteer role with the organization and as such we are accepting resumes and interviewing for a new team member who will work to help support PRIDE events; do feel free to share with others: https://stonewallcolumbus.org/jobs/events-volunteer-coordinator-manager/. During this transition please do ping me with any priority questions/concerns.
Next, if your group or organization is interested in taking up space and planning an event at Stonewall during the month of June reach out to us. In particular, we would love to highlight programming events for the following areas and identities:
| AREAS | IDENTITIES |
| Arts | Youth |
| Health | Trans |
| Wellness | BIPOC |
| Skills Empowerment/Jobs | Family |
| Latinx | |
| Lesbian | |
| Asian | |
| New American |
2021 PRIDE Events https://stonewallcolumbus.org/pride/
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- (Virtual) March details https://stonewallcolumbus.org/pride/register-to-march/
- Registration aims to open by April 1
- Sponsor details https://stonewallcolumbus.org/pride/sponsors/
- Deadline to receive PRIDE sponsor benefits is April 16
- Entertainer details https://stonewallcolumbus.org/pride/pride-entertainer/
- Registration aims to open by April 1
- Deadline to apply is April 26
- Entertainers notified by May 10 of selection
- (Virtual) March details https://stonewallcolumbus.org/pride/register-to-march/
- Respective event pages will go on line as we get closer to June
Details for June continue to unfold and I hope we’ll see a coming together and uplifting across our community’s various identities.
With PRIDE!
–Densil
PS: If your community based organization is interested in uplifting your current planned PRIDE event(s) we’ll be glad to add them to our Community Events Calendar, https://stonewallcolumbus.org/upcoming-events/, submission link at bottom of this page.
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Densil R. Porteous (he.him.his)
Executive Director
STONEWALL COLUMBUS
1160 North High Street
Columbus, OH 43201
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