Is Pride Houston Selling Woof Tickets On Inclusion?

Great first steps to undo the unnecessary drama started by the initial decision, but satisfying to many people including those of us who warned about the Juneteenth scheduling conflict in the first place..

We'll be watching to make sure PRIDE Houston follows through on what you told that packed meeting room you'd do.

Deeds will be far more important than words from now on.
-TransGriot , November 14, 2014

You'll remember yours truly a few months ago talking about the boneheaded, arrogant and vanillacentric privileged clueless decision of Pride Houston to move the date of the 2015 pride parade to Juneteenth despite the warnings of myself and other Houston African American TBLGQ leaders and allies not to do that.

It triggered an unnecessary media firestorm, and at a contentious November 13 Pride Houston community meeting, in addition to Pride Houston moving the date back (June 27) to the traditional last weekend in June, promises were made by Pride Houston to form a Diversity Committee, to add board candidates more in tune with the ethnic diversity of the Houston LGBT community, and to sponsor a float in the 2015 Juneteenth parade.

It's now four months later, and I'm hearing disturbing chatter in Houston SGL, trans and bi world and from our allies that Pride Houston has backslid into its insular, secretive ways that got them into trouble last October and November.

Their deeds so far have not matched their words, and Juneteenth is fast approaching.  As of this writing, Kijana Wiseman, the chair of the Juneteenth Emancipation Celebration & Parade has yet to hear from, much less receive an e-mail from Frankie Quijano or anyone else on the Pride Houston board concerning participation in their 2015 Juneteenth parade.  

And speaking of the Pride Houston board, I'm hearing a problematic allegation that a trans feminine person who wished to serve on the Pride Houston board predominately packed with peeps from the gay wing of the community was stonewalled (pun intended) for several weeks before being told all positions were filled.

As for that Pride Houston Diversity Committee, it has yet to be formed, much less have parties interested in joining it be told when and how to apply for it and when it will have its first meeting.

So yep, starting to look like Pride Houston was selling woof tickets when the unblinking eye of Houston news media cameras was turned on them.  

Maybe it's time for the Houston media cameras to be turned on Pride Houston once again to ensure they keep the promises made to the entire Houston community last November and make them realize we were deadly serious about having a Pride Houston board that reflects the diversity of our city and all the letters in our H-town BTLGIQ community..