We Hear You, We See You, We Stand With You, ✊

Dear Baton Rouge Pride Friends and Family,

On behalf of the Baton Rouge Pride Board, it is with great sadness we announce the decision to cancel our annual pride fest in lieu of postponing for later this year. We know the importance of Pride to the community; however, as we cancel our normal pride festivities of June due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we encourage the Baton Rouge LGBTQ+ community and its allies to stand with our Black and Brown family members and the Black Lives Matter Movement. After all, the first Pride was a riot led by Marsha P Johnson, a black trans woman who objected to the continued harassment of the LGBTQ community by the NYPD.

Since the Stonewall Riots and the Christopher Street Liberation, we have used Pride as a celebration to stand together as a colorful, diverse community. We want Baton Rouge Pride Fest and our other community events to be a safe place for all to come together and not feel torn apart. We understand that everyone is different in their own way, but those differences make the human race beautiful and amazing. In the end, we want everyone, LGBTQ+ and Allied, of any color, religion, or gender identity to feel unified, welcomed, and most of all LOVED.

Our LGBTQ+ Community has a deep understanding of oppression, violence, and discrimination, especially those whose lives exist at the crossroads of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We must all stand up to hatred together, now and FOREVER. For we cannot be a stronger community if we aren’t a community together.

With this, we encourage members of our colorful LGBTQ+ community to support our Black and Brown family members and support the Black Lives Matter Movement. Here are a few ways you can help: 

• Learn about the movement at BlackLivesMatter.com
  
• Follow local leaders on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter
  
• Sign-up for and support Dialogue on Race Louisiana 
  
• Educate yourself with resources from the Southern Poverty Law Center, 100 Black Men, ACLU, The LGBTQ Freedom Fund, Baton Roots,  or Snap for Freedom. 
  
• Donate to a fund to help those in need. Funds such as The Black LGBTQIA Therapy Fund, YMCA Greater Baton Rouge Community Bail Fund, the Innocence Project, National Bail Out fund, The Bail Project, or Campaign Zero. 
  
• Sign a Petition such as #JusticeForFloyd, #JusticeforBre, or the NAACP’s We are Done Dying petition.
  
• Write to your Congressman and Senators Kennedy and Cassidy.
  
• Register to vote and ensure your voice is heard. 

I’d also like to encourage everyone to make a visit to our online apparel store, every dollar earned from our store sales in the months of June, July, and August 2020 will be donated to The LGBTQ Freedom Fund.

The Baton Rouge Pride Board and I stand as a united, colorful, multi-racial group committed to helping the LGBTQ+ Community and to fight for our black family members, today and into the future. We are committed to the betterment of the lives of LGBTQ+ Individuals of the Greater Baton Rouge Area through multiple events and meetups later this year. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram as details emerge. I hope you will join us. 

Together, we will fight oppression, racism, discrimination, and hatred. 
With LOVE and Pride,
Christopher Bradford
Chairman