(Photo by Danny Garcia)<\/p>\n
ORLANDO | The intersectionality of Black and queer identities is something that Come Out With Pride board members Shea Cutliff and Aliyah Proctor have fought long and hard to celebrate. <\/p>\n
Now, they find themselves organizing the second annual \u201cLove & Liberation: A Boldly Unapologetic Juneteenth Pride Celebration,\u201d the only event of its kind in the state of Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Pride Month rolls around, so does Juneteenth<\/a>, the national holiday recognizing the anniversary of when enslaved African Americans were granted freedom. Although both events call for celebration, Cutliff and Proctor, who also serve as Co-Directors for Come Out With Pride\u2019s Colors of Courage Collective, say it\u2019s rare for Pride organizations to connect the two.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of Prides have a negative connotation when it comes to their inclusion of blackness and black programming,\u201d Cutliff says. \u201cWe really wanted to be very strategic, be very intentional about making an event like our Juneteenth a yearly event.\u201d<\/p>\n With over 500 attendees last year, Cutliff says the CCC wanted to take things a step further. This year, they\u2019ve partnered with the famous international ballroom house, House of Gar\u00e7ons, for a ballroom exhibition and with Volusia Pride to create an all-black History of Drag exhibit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also planned are food trucks, live music, a step team appearance, a collaboration with the Orlando Magic, walking ballroom legends and local drag performer Darcel Stevens acting as the host.\u00a0<\/p>\n As director of the Trans and Nonbinary Task Force as well, Cutliff shared that one of her main goals when creating this queer-inclusive Juneteenth event was creating a space that centered Black invisuals in the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n \u201cIn black spaces that are inclusive of solely blackness and not taking in any intersectionality, your blackness must be first, foremost, and to be quite honest, regimented,\u201d Cutliff shares. \u201cWhen we start looking at intersectionality and where a lot of us exist in the gray, we can\u2019t walk into those spaces and be in that binary of blackness and be true to who we are. As a black trans woman, I know how my contemporaries feel about my existence, but I\u2019m still black, and on lynching day I will still be black.\u201d<\/p>\n Proctor echoes this notion, as a Black woman and masc-presenting lesbian.\u00a0 She says she has firsthand experience of how difficult it is to find spaces accepting of each of her intersecting identities.<\/p>\n \u201cSome Juneteenth events, if you\u2019re black, you can go there, and you can be black,\u201d Proctor says \u201cBut if you\u2019re maybe a feminine-presenting gay man, if you\u2019re a masc-presenting lesbian woman, you have to leave it at the door.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to associating queerness with Juneteenth, she says that while many may not see a correlation, being queer and black is not a new concept.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is even history that points to a formerly enslaved man as the first self-proclaimed drag queen<\/a>, a fact that Cutliff says she only learned from looking through pictures and reading newspaper clippings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Proctor says that one of the biggest missions behind creating the CCC was to be able to give events such as Love & Liberation a more amplified platform with supportive community partners and vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hoping to create a space where Black queer individuals feel seen and heard, Cutliff asks that allies planning on attending the celebration be mindful of the community that has been built.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI really just want people to walk away with a sense of solidarity, no matter how you show up, no matter how you exist in your queerness and your blackness,\u201d Cutliff shares. \u201cWe need each other, we\u2019re here for each other, and this is not the fight, this is not where the fight is, this is where the joy can be found, and that joy fills our tank.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information, visit ComeOutWithPride.org<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLove & Liberation: A Boldly Unapologetic Juneteenth Pride Celebration\u201d is on June 20 at 2 p.m. in the Central Florida Fairgrounds, 4603 W. Colonial Drive.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Watermark Out News eNewsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us for more: \t
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