pride

The Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior drew a record 12,000 people for the 23rd annual LGBT Pride event Labor Day weekend. Anti-gay protesters shouted at parade participants and festival-goers, while politicians angling for the DFL nomination for governor worked the crowds. The festival boasted a big name act with international drag sensation RuPaul.

Cultures collided Sunday when a gay man was harassed by more than a dozen Somali youths while heading home after the Twin Cities GLBT Pride Festival. Shouting “I hate gay people,” “Fuck gay people,” and “Gay is not the way,” the youths followed the man for several blocks. The entire incident was caught on video.

A pair of headlines Thursday morning at the WCCO website made for a stark contrast in the television station’s treatment of LGBT-related stories. On one side, “Twin Cities to Celebrate 37th Gay Pride Fest” and on the other, “Undercover Cops Crack Down on Gay Cruising.”
“Gay cruising” is often a phenomena among men who are closeted [...]

Forty years ago, gay and lesbian activists rioted in New York’s Greenwich Village in protest of police raids on gay bars and arrests of gay people. This weekend’s remembrance of the Stonewall riots, which galvanized the LBGT rights movement, prompts a question: After four decades, has Pride kept its political edge, or has it become merely a big party, more focused on consumerism than civil rights?

The national debate about gay rights hit home in the small community of Pine City, Minn., on Sunday as residents hosted two dueling picnics in the city of 3,000 people. For the fifth year, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks from east-central Minnesota gathered to celebrate family and community. And for the second year, their neighbors organized a picnic just blocks away opposing gay rights and promoting “family values.”