Its Gay Pride Month, a great time to celebrate and give back to the community. Washington, DC’s Capital Pride is coming up this week and culminates in the Capital Pride Parade on Saturday, June 8 and the Capital Pride Street Festival on Sunday, June 9. If you live in or around the metro area, there is something for everyone to enjoy. I mean how could you not want to dress up as a super hero and attend SPANDEX: The Official 2013 Pride Week Superhero Party on Friday, June 7? Plus the parade on Saturday travels through Dupont Circle, a historically gay neighborhood. I worked there in the 80’s, and believe me, that place had gay pride before Gay Pride. Here are the links to the events and places to purchase tickets:
If you are in the area and taking pictures at the events, send them to me and I will post them here. And for those of you in other places, send me the dates and info and I will post that as well.
There are also many organizations that help LGBTQ youth from Promise Place on the DC/Prince Georges County line to The Wanda Alston House in Washington, DC. Or perhaps the Ali Forney Center in NYC or The Albert Kennedy Trust in the UK. A favorite organization of mine is The Matthew Shepard Foundation founded by Matthew Shepard’s mother, Judy Shepard. If you haven’t visited that site before, please do so. It’s both heartbreaking and immensely uplifting to see what has emerged from such a horrific tragedy.
There are not enough shelters and organizations to go around for all of those children and teens in need and those that exist really need our support in every way possible. One easy way is to buy ebooks. Several authors and one terrific editor, Kris Jacen, have contributed their royalties from several novels. S.J. Frost and Kris Jacen with Finding A Dream, Sue Brown’s The Sky Is Dead, and Lost and Found Anthology (Kris Jacen), whose entire royalties will be sent to Lost-n-Found Youth, Inc. And these are only the most recent. Enjoy a good book and give at the same time. It’s easy, its enjoyable, and it is needed.
So have a great week. Celebrate, dance, and make time to read a book or two! Oh, and check out the cocktail recipe at the end. Here is the week ahead in reviews:
Monday, June 3: Outlast The Night by Ariel Tachna
Tuesday, June 4: Flawless by Cat Grant
Wed, June 5: The Caveman and the Devil by Chris T. Kat
Thursday, June 6: The Jouster’s Lance by A.J. Marcus
Friday, June 7: Stonewall by Martin Duberman
Saturday, June 8: Prelude by Shira Anthony and Venona Keyes
Here is a specialty cocktail recipe just for Gay Pride (shakes head, you really went there, didn’t you). It came from Alex’s Cocktail Recipes
Gay Pride Cocktail:
1 shot Apple sourz
1 shot blueberry sourz
1 shot cranberry juice
2 shots 5 alive
pop rocks
Instructions
Put the cranberry juice and 5 alive into a tumbler. Pour the sourz into shaker over ice and shake well. Pour into tumbler and add a pink umbrella, then sprinkle with pop rocks
“A womanly drink, it won’t get you drunk but drink it wearing hotpants for the ultimate sense of gay satisfaction.” Alex also has links for other drinks, none of which I can print here. Visit his site for more information.