Best of the Bayou
If you read one thing: Houston will have two Pride parades this summer after four years in which Houston's Pride parade and festival have been canceled or scaled back.
What obstacles has Houston Pride faced in recent years?
The past few years have included plenty of stormy days for Pride Houston 365, the LGBTQ+ organization that has been putting on the Houston Pride Parade for nearly a half-century: A pandemic disrupted major events, more than $100,000 dollars went missing, bankruptcy became a possibility, and disgruntled volunteers formed a breakaway group that led to a trademark dispute.
The turmoil has been painful for many of Houston's longtime LGBTQ+ leaders, by most accounts. And in the end, it will help deliver double the Pride this summer.
Who is hosting the new Pride?
Houston's New Faces of Pride, which officially launched in October, will host a downtown parade and festival on Saturday, June 22. Pride Houston's parade and festival will be held one week later, June 29, in the same location.
Bryan Cotton, president of Houston's New Faces of Pride, said last week that the new organization is focused on serving and supporting the LGBTQ+ community throughout the year and delivering a well-managed parade and festival.
"If they'd been doing everything we're doing, we wouldn't need to be here," said Cotton, referring to Pride Houston.
How has Pride Houston 365 responded?
Kendra Walker, who became president of Pride Houston last year and has been focused on getting the organization back on course, observed that the ruction is at odds with the spirit of unity that Pride ideally represents.
"It's not like it's the North Houston Pride and the South Houston Pride," she observed. "No. It's Pride in the same location, the same format, along the same route. I go to other cities and everybody's talking about it: 'Oh my God, what are you doing down there?' "
"Initially I did not see it as competing or dueling," Walker said. "Then they ended up copying our name and our events, and we ended up having to sue them."
Read Erica Grieder's full story here.
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Puzzle of the Day: Really Bad Chess
Try to win in the lowest number of moves to score the highest amount of points. Don't let them put your king into checkmate.
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