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n defiance of the bone-soaking weather,
record numbers of people turned out for the
seventh annual Washington D.C. Black
Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Festival on
May 25.
"It’s really nice. Black folks rarely come to
gether like this where I come from,” says Ryan
Canty, 21, of Ohio. “It’s really affirming.”
‘T o spend the day with other black lesbian and
gay people,” says D. Magrini, 42, of Washington,
D.C., “it just feels good to have yourself re
flected.”
Organizers estimate at least 5,000 people at
tended the main festival at Banneker Field near
Howard University.
Which makes this year’s festival the most
successful ever, according to Carlene Cheatam,
president of Black Lesbian & Gay Pride Inc.
“It was a blessing,” Cheatam says. “It rained
all day, but the people stayed out there and the
numbers were large.”
The rain taunted festival-goers all day. It wasn’t
until 5:30 pm—just one hour before the sched
uled end time—that the lightning and rain got the
upper hand and the festival had to be closed down.
But the temperature was warm, and throughout
the day more people were coming into the park
than were leaving.
‘The weather reminds me pretty much of
home, but apart from that, it’s excellent,” says
Trevor Hinds, 33, of London, England.
After three consecutive years of rain, festival-
goers seemed prepared for anything. Some people
were in raincoats; others seemed happy in shorts.
Several people sported raincoats and shorts.
At the main stage, a constant procession of
more than 50 speakers and performers enter
tained the crowd of people who danced beneath a
colorful canopy of umbrellas.
Several local drag queens hosted the show,
including Tina Tuna Adams (Din Adams) who—
you guessed it—impersonated Tina Turner in
classic style. Adams danced and lip-synched to
Turner songs while wearing a disheveled red-
blonde wig with black roots.
I
Celebrating the lives
of black lesbians
The acronym was tough to remember, but
the women who attended say the event will not
be forgotten.
As part of this year’s D.C. Black Lesbian and
Gay Pride festivities, CLOA VE (Collective Les
bians of African Descent Voices Everywhere)
gathered to discuss what it means to be a black
lesbian. More than 100 women attended an
afternoon of panels and performances.
Organizers say they planned the event to
give black lesbians a place to celebrate them
selves outside of the bars.
Seeing we're here
Black gay men and lesbians converge on Washington, D.C.,
for their own show of pride
by M. Jane Taylor
Dana T errell
stole the show with a
church-lady routine,
donning a red choir
robe lined with Afri
can kente cloth and
working the crowd
for tips using a good
old-fashioned
church collection
basket.
H a l f w a y
through, T errell’s
robe dropped off to
reveal a skintight
black dress and red-
and-black tiger-
striped heels, elicit
ing applause as well
as a few catcalls from
the excited crowd.
But the excite
ment of Black Pride
really started days
before the festival,
with official and un
official activities
surrounding what
has long been a D.C. The Rev. Rainey Cheeks
Memorial Day tra
dition among black gay men and lesbians.
“It’s wonderful, ’ says Michael Gary, 36, who
was down from New Jersey for his first festival
weekend. “It’s the acknowledgment and aware
ness that we didn’t have as achild— that there [are]
other black gays.”
People began ar
riving in town on
Thursday and Friday
to attend parties
thrown by several
bars throughout the
city. Black Lesbian
and Gay Pride will
receive proceeds
from at least two par
ties— held at the
Circle and at the
Edge,Cheatam says.
The only com
plaint of Beverly
Moss, who came
“straight out of
Brooklyn” with a
busload of other
women, was that the
bars in D.C. close
way too early.
‘They threw us
out right after they
took our money,”
says Moss— who
added that she and
her partner Leslie
White returned to the
hotel for a romantic evening and didn’t really
mind the early night after all.
The weekend also consisted of several reli
gious and cultural activities.
Jennifer Holliday, best known for her perfor
that lesbians of color are less likely than other
women to get proper care.
The average time between Pap smears for
women in general is nine months, says Biddle,
but for black lesbians it is 34 months.
“Homophobia is a health hazard because it
has an impact on our comfort with the system,”
she says.
Many women spoke about comic Ellen
DeGeneres’ coming out and its impact on black
lesbian visibility.
“We can’t forget what it did for the country,”
says longtime activist Mandy Carter. “But where
are the black lesbians on television?”
Carter praised the portrayals of black lesbi
ans by Queen Latifah in Set It O ff and Whoopi
Organizers were CLOAVE co-founders
Wanda R. Alston and Rebecca Helem, Friends
for Friends (an HI V/AIDS prevention organiza
tion) founder LisaGray, and Amikaelya Gaston,
organizer of Sistah Summerfest, a women’s
retreat.
The panels addressed a range of issues,
including black lesbian visibility, access to
health care, political participation and rac
ism.
There were performances by singers Evelyn
Harris (formerly of Sweet Honey in the Rock)
and Angela Head, and poet R. Erica Doyle, and
even a two-minute skit on safer sex.
During a discussion on health, lesbian health
advocate Beverly Biddle reminded the crowd
This article was reprinted with permission
from the Washington Blade. Darice Clark
contributed to this report.
Goldberg in Boys on the Side. Those films, she
says, were good beginnings in terms of putting
images of black lesbians in the mass media.
There was also a discussion on where black
lesbians are politically and spiritually.
“We got where we are because someone
celebrated,” says the Rev. Carol Johnson of
Boston. “Someone celebrated loving as a black
lesbian and someone saw that, got sparked;
someone interrupted the process of hatred.”
Darice Clark
This article was reprinted with permission
from the Washington Blade.
(503) 227-3639
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mance in the Broadway musical Dream Girls,
was the featured artist for a Gospel Concert spon
sored by Inner Light Unity Fellowship Church of
Washington, D.C.
Black Lesbian and Gay Pride board member
Courtney Williams greeted more than 125 people
who assembled for an early morni ng prayer break
fast.
“Our faith community affirms us all. This is
where we go to lift us up,” Williams says.
The worshipers were inspired by the preach
ing of several D.C. gay religious leaders, includ
ing the Rev. Philip Mathews of the Metropolitan
Community Church of Washington, the Rev.
Miehaele Moore of Faith Temple, and the Rev.
Rainey Cheeks of Inner Life Unity Fellowship.
Cheeks spoke to the assembly about being
proud black gay men and lesbians.
“We have to really work at learning how to
love ourselves,” he said. “Because if you love
yourself, then you can ‘love your neighbor.’ ”
The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League
also had a table at the festival.
‘The majority of our youth are people of color,
and we need more volunteers of color to address
their needs,” says volunteer Reese Isbell.
The organization with the biggest presence
was Us Helping Us—an organization which pro
vides HIV support and prevention services to
black gay and bisexual men.
In anticipation of rain. Us Helping Us set up a
tent large enough for a deejay, several vendors
and scores of people. The tent was a big hit and, at
the end of the day, the organization had taken in
$1,100 in donations.
Other organizations present at the event in
cluded Black and White Men Together, the Na
tional Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum,
and Gay Men of Color (a division of the National
Task Force on AIDS Prevention).
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