This post originally appeared in The Buckeye Flame

Canva

Written by S.R. NICKOLOFF WARREN

June’s history is a beautiful portrait painted by Black-led resistance. The celebrations of Pride and Juneteenth share that legacy.

Juneteenth’s origins date back to June 19, 1865, when 250,000 enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, first received word that they were free people, and pushed past racist norms and barriers to reunite with their families, build businesses, create empowered communities and fight unjust laws that treated them as second-class citizens.

Pride came out of LGBTQ+ uprisings against police mistreatment in the late 1960s in New York and California, and from its early days was a movement where Black people took leadership roles.

There are now two Ohio Pride celebrations that specifically celebrate the confluence of Pride and Juneteenth. One is Mx. Juneteenth, a community gathering of reverence, remembrance and celebration “for and by Black Queer folx” hosted at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 16.

The other is Juneteenth Pride in Akron on Wednesday, June 19, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Bayard Rustin LGBTQ+ Resource Center, 652 W. Exchange Street, a “celebration of unapologetic black freedom and an opportunity to get registered to vote.” 

Juneteenth history

Juneteenth is one of the oldest celebrations of the end of slavery in the United States. Despite being commemorated for over a century, Juneteenth was only recently declared a holiday in 2021, by President Joe Biden. Such a recent acknowledgment of the history of Black Americans proves that, despite the strides made by the 13th Amendment, we are still fighting for our story to be told.

Pride history

In 1967, various LGBTQ+ demonstrations made waves across the state of California at places such as Coopers Do-Nut, the Compton Cafeteria and the Black Cat Tavern. Law enforcement’s homophobic and anti-transgender harassment at these LGBTQ+ safe spaces triggered resistance.

Then came the famous Stonewall uprising beginning on June 28,1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village, triggered by LGBTQ+ people being fed up by police raids of the bar. It sparked the creation of a political movement focusing on equity for marginalized communities (the gay liberation movement) as well as celebrations of LGBTQ+ identity (Pride itself).

The leaders of the Stonewall uprising were mostly Black and Brown trans women.

Intersectionality

In 1989, civil rights scholar and Canton, Ohio, native Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality.” Intersectionality was originally intended to describe the dual discrimination of Black women based on race and gender. Today, the definition has grown to include not just race and gender but sexuality, class and other aspects of identity that are crucial to understanding oppression.

Pride Month Would Not Exist as We Know it if Juneteenth Did Not Happen [COMMENTARY]

“It’s a both/and thing,” says Avery Ware, organizer of Mx. Juneteenth, which is in its fourth year (but its first time with the Rock Hall as host). “Not an either/or.”

Being fully Black and queer

Ware created the Mx. Juneteenth event as a space where Black LGBTQ+ people didn’t have to leave their Blackness at the door of queer spaces, or their queerness at the door of Black spaces. Where people can fully relax and lean into their identity.

Ware is committed to a Black, queer, and feminist framework inspired by the Black lesbian Combahee River Collective, which addresses the erasure of queerness in Black and feminist movements.

Mx. Juneteenth (Photo Credit: Aja Joi)

“Even in our modern times, the desire to bifurcate our identity, to choose which part of our identity (Blackness or queerness) holds more weight or should take center stage, [drives us],” says Ware, “Mx. Juneteenth refutes that archaic and dehumanizing perspective.”

Kathryn Clusman, the Rock Hall’s director of community engagement, notes the importance of this event being held at the hall, considering the impact of Black and LGBTQ+ people on American music history.

The event aims to give a direct voice to the community by focusing on local Black and LGBTQ+ artists, who will showcase their jewelry, clothing, books, art projects and more. Community organizations will be on hand as well to share information about political causes and to register voters.

Centering Black wellness

In the southern part of the state, Cincinnati Black Pride is hosting a town forum on Juneteenth entitled “Mental Wellness in teh Black SGL Community.”

Intended to proudly affirm Black authentic selves and celebrate joy “in a world of continuous news cycles and social media posts that are many times weaponized against the [Black community],” the event will feature a panel of professional therapists and mental health experts to discuss ways individuals can rise above today’s media madness and look towards a better and healthier tomorrow.

The ‘free’ in freedom

“Our right to vote is essential to our wellbeing,” declares Jade Johnson-Brown, director of external relations for Bayard Rustin LGBTQ+ Resource Center, the sponsor of Juneteenth Pride on Wednesday, June 19.

Like Mx. Juneteenth, the inaugural Juneteenth Pride will celebrate the intersection between race and sexuality. A collaboration between the Bayard Rustin LGBTQ+ Resource Center and Left of Str8 Podcast, the event will feature vendors providing free food, clothes, music, HIV testing and voter registration. The Juneteenth Pride wants more than anything to celebrate the “free” in “freedom,” say its organizers.

Celebration, respect, liberation

Everyone is welcome at Mx. Juneteenth and Juneteenth Pride. Both events work towards family-friendliness and hope to inspire Black, LGBTQ+ youth to be proud of their identity.

Ware and Johnson-Brown advise non-Black, non-LGBTQ+ attendees to honor the spaces and who they center. This includes decentering oneself, taking the opportunity to learn and accepting the space unapologetically.

They both also note that the commodification of Juneteenth and Pride have caused people to lose sight of the historical context surrounding the celebrations. Johnson-Brown says that while Juneteenth should be recognized, it has become overly commercialized since its rise to the title of holiday. She wants Juneteenth Pride attendees to know the reason for Juneteenth being a holiday rather than merely enjoying the day off of work.

Both events also have goals of Black, LGBTQ+ liberation. Ware describes this liberated future as a utopia: an end to homelessness, the abolition of the prison and the two-party system and the defunding of the police. Johnson-Brown sees a future of diminished homophobia in the Black community as well as lowered AIDS statistics in Black women.

There is much work to be done before we reach this point. The Human Rights Campaign reported that 84% of trans and gender expansive killings in 2023 were people of color, and 50% were Black trans women. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 has disproportionately affected Black, Indigenous, and other people of color as well as LGBTQ+ and poor people. Even the unconstitutional book bans have targeted more books about Black and LGBTQ+ people in 2021 than any other books.

The fight toward liberation has been ongoing for centuries, and Mx. Juneteenth and the Juneteenth Pride exist as reminders of marginalized communities’ refusal to give up the march toward freedom.

“The system [needs] to be burnt down and rebuilt,” Ware said. “Education, revolution, and liberation in that order.” 🔥

IGNITE ACTION

The Buckeye Flame is an online platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of LGBTQ+ Ohioans to support community and civic empowerment through the creation of engaging content that chronicles their triumphs, struggles, and lived experiences.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *