(Photo by Danny Garcia)
ORLANDO | Come Out With Pride hosted its second annual “Love & Liberation: A Boldly Unapologetic Juneteenth Pride Celebration” on June 20 at the Central Florida Fairgrounds.
With over 500 attendees last year, COWP board member Shea Cutliff says the Come Out With Pride’s Colors of Courage Collective wanted to take things a step further. This year, they’ve partnered with the famous international ballroom house, House of Garçons, for a ballroom exhibition and with Volusia Pride to create an all-black History of Drag exhibit.
Also, there were food trucks, live music, a step team appearance, a collaboration with the Orlando Magic, walking ballroom legends and local drag performer Darcel Stevens as the host.
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 individuals in the LGBTQ+ community.
“In 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,” Cutliff shares. “When we start looking at intersectionality and where a lot of us exist in the gray, we can’t 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’m still Black, and on lynching day I will still be Black.”
Watermark Out News attended “Love & Liberation: A Boldly Unapologetic Juneteenth Pride Celebration.” View our photos below.
Photos by Danny Garcia.
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