(Photo by Danny Garcia)
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.
Now, they find themselves organizing the second annual “Love & Liberation: A Boldly Unapologetic Juneteenth Pride Celebration,” the only event of its kind in the state of Florida.
When Pride Month rolls around, so does Juneteenth, 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’s Colors of Courage Collective, say it’s rare for Pride organizations to connect the two.
“A lot of Prides have a negative connotation when it comes to their inclusion of blackness and black programming,” Cutliff says. “We really wanted to be very strategic, be very intentional about making an event like our Juneteenth a yearly event.”
With over 500 attendees last year, Cutliff says the CCC 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 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.
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.
“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.”
Proctor echoes this notion, as a Black woman and masc-presenting lesbian. She says she has firsthand experience of how difficult it is to find spaces accepting of each of her intersecting identities.
“Some Juneteenth events, if you’re black, you can go there, and you can be black,” Proctor says “But if you’re maybe a feminine-presenting gay man, if you’re a masc-presenting lesbian woman, you have to leave it at the door.”
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.
There is even history that points to a formerly enslaved man as the first self-proclaimed drag queen, a fact that Cutliff says she only learned from looking through pictures and reading newspaper clippings.
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.
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.
“I 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,” Cutliff shares. “We need each other, we’re 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.”
For more information, visit ComeOutWithPride.org
“Love & Liberation: A Boldly Unapologetic Juneteenth Pride Celebration” is on June 20 at 2 p.m. in the Central Florida Fairgrounds, 4603 W. Colonial Drive.
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