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“BUILDING COMMUNITY” TO BE THEME OF 2008 PRIDE PARADE AND PRIDE TEXAS FESTIVAL
OIA Newswire
AUSTIN, TEXAS (April 15, 2008) The Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (AGLCC) and Equality Texas have announed the theme for the 2008 AGLCC Pride Parade and Pride Texas Festival, to be held together on Saturday, June 14 starting at noon. The theme is "Building CommUNITY". This year also marks the first collaborative effort between AGLCC and Equality Texas, the statewide political advocacy organization, to schedule program locations and times to compliment and support each organization's events during Pride Month in June.
The 13th annual Pride Texas Festival will be held at Auditorium Shores, the landmark in downtown Austin. The 7th annual AGLCC Parade will start from Auditorium Shores at South First Street and Riverside Drive. The 2008 Pride Texas Festival features Meshell Ndegeocello, a nine-time Grammy Award nominee known for her fusion of funk, soul, jazz and rock who is, according to Rolling Stone, "one of the few artists who really matter" in the R&B world. Pride Texas is from noon to 7:00 p.m. and the Pride parade leaves the Festival grounds at 8:30pm.
"Equality Texas and the AGLCC have been working hard this past year to build a strong partnership. We have achieved great strides towards our goal of collaboration, resulting in the first joint effort to bring the two P:ride events together," states Jimmy Flannigan, AGLCC Board President. "Therefore, it seemed only natural that the theme for this year's parade should reflect that spirit of cooperation, of working together to build and strengthen our community." Paul Scott, Executive Director of Equality Texas states, "We are proud to work with the Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to produce the best Pride Texas Festival and Pride Parade known to Austin thus far. We are extremely excited to work together."
Since the first annual Pride Texas Festival in 1994, the number of attendees has more than doubled from 2,000 people to over 5,000 and the performances have increased in notoriety to nationally acclaimed performers like Meshell Ndegeocello. Since the Parade's inception in 2001, the number of participants in Austin's annual Pride Parade has nearly quadrupled from just over 300 to 1200, and spectators have doubled from an estimated 20,000 to 40,000.
The LGBT community makes up between 7 and 12 percent of Austin's population, giving the Texas capital the sixth largest LGBT population per capita in the country, and the largest population per capita in the Southern United States.
About Equality Texas
Equality Texas is a 501(c)(4) political advocacy organization that works toward the elimination of social, legal, and economic discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression through lobbying, education, and research directed toward the Texas Legislature and other state governmental agencies. Equality Texas Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) organization, serves to educate the public as to how polices regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and expression affect the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Texans. Equality Texas is the only statewide organization aimed at ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at the Texas Capitol.
http://www.equalitytexas.org/
About the AGLCC
The Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (AGLCC) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization with focus on promoting economic growth for Austin-area small to mid-size businesses. AGLCC promotes networking, education, and support for gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses and professionals, with a focus on individual economic development, leaving the broader issues of regional economic development to the larger municipal Chambers of Commerce. AGLCC has expanded its membership to over 200 members since its inception in 1997, and is the only LGBT chamber in the nation to produce and organize a Pride Parade in their city. AGLCC is also the first LGBT chamber in the nation to publish an upscale quarterly magazine, Forward Austin. (AGLCC's Forward Austin Magazine premiered in February 2007.) In another national first, AGLCC announced in January 2008 the formation of the Pride Coalition, a collaborative between eight groups; AGLCC, allgo, Atticus Circle, Equality Texas, Human Rights Campaign Austin, Out Youth, PFLAG-Austin, and Transgender Advocates of Central Texas.
http://www.aglcc.org Full Story. [4/18/08]
25TH INTERNATIONAL AIDS CANDLELIGHT MEMORIAL SERVICE
(Austin, TX) Mark your calendars: This year's 25th International AIDS
Candlelight Memorial Service will be held on Sunday, May 18, from 8pm -
9:30pm at Republic Square Park located at the southwest corner of the
park. (4th and San Antonio Streets) > Full Story. [4/16/08]
FAIRNESS FOR GAY AND TRANSGENDER CHRISTIANS -- UNITED METHODISTS SEEK CHANGE
Fairness for gay and transgender Christians will again be debated, as it is every four years, when elected delegates to the United Methodist General Conference convene to vote on policies for the church. Since 1972 when the first anti-gay statement was placed in the United Methodist Book of Discipline (rule book for the church), the denomination has struggled every four years. > Full Story. [4/15/08]
COURT RECOGNIZES VIABILITY OF LAMBDA LEGAL’S SEX DISCRIMINATION CLAIM ON BEHALF OF TRANSGENDER WOMAN; CASE PROCEEDS TO TRIAL
'The court agreed that Izza never misrepresented herself in any sense, and rejected River Oaks' claim that transgender people have a duty to disclose their biological sex to employers.' > Full Story. [4/4/08]
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