Fifth Day of Second Pride

Oh  what a wonderful party we had yesterday with legendary DJ Sarco followed by DJ Jerrod, both are of course old time friends of mine (*cough cough* Did´ya notice my namedropping?). Australian DJ Sarco had gotten up at 3 am his time to give us this marvelous time.

And if I was complaining about not knowing a soul at yesterdays party, this evening I knew nearly them all, well no there were a lot of cute guys and nice girls from 2010 and 2011 also.

Enough talk! Today I will mostly show you the party pictures but let me tell those of you who weren't there: YOU MISSED AN AWESOME PARTY!

JPS Anatine, beautiful as ever

Andrey and I - Why does he always look better on pictures than I do?

Andrey and I showing off

Andrey and I give it all we can...

DJ Jerrod - steampunking it

DJ Sarco - the Man, the Myth, the Legend

Elorian Scarbridge having a good time

Sweet Kolja Shan

Myles Sperber hotter than ever

Minoah Palen & Joeh Acker

Myles Sperber showing off on the dance floor

NakedCarl (blogger) grooving

Mr Gay Pride 2011, Regi Yifu in the mood

Second Pride Photo Contest

The board of the Second Pride Festival 2011 today announced that a photo contest is to be held on Flickr

The board asks that you please visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/1698746@N21/  and add your photos. The best photo will land on the cover of PRISM - The Second Pride newsletter, as well as receive a cash prize.

So get over to the Festival and start snapping away!

Get Ready For DJ Butch

I had never heard about it before (Who bothers to read the TOS anyway?) but apparently there is a clause in the SecondLife TOS  forbidding anyone from calling Butch Diavolo "sexy" without his prior written and notarized permission, so I must instead choose another adjective when I describe him.

So who is Butch then, if one has to omit the word "sexy"?

DJ Butch is a barefooted hunky and sizzling piece of Dutch manmeat with loads of charm and an excellent taste in music, preferably trance, electro-trance or electro-anything.

Today you will have the possibility to enjoy his music and company at Second Pride between 9-11 AM SLT. Just be there!

The Jesters Hat Goes To Second Pride

As the proud creator of the fashion forward Jesters Hat, only recommended for the most daring of fashionistas, I was happy to find two pictures of it on Jeff Ellsworth's blog.

I should have known that some of the gay men would understand my vision.

Ernst Maven in The Jesters Hat (a bit toned down to suit his outfit). Photo by Jeff Ellsworth

Themba in The Jesters Hat - rainbow edition. Photo by Jeff Ellsworth

As some of you know this fashionable hat is the base of the BMcM Corporation, everything started with this hat. It is the creation to which I own my fame or infamy!

Only two other people loved it before, my Ars and Millimina, and that may well be because they love me too.

Myself in my creation

Second Day of Second Pride

The second day of Second Pride 2011 and I went to the party at the LGBT-sim. The first DJ there was my old friend from Boots Beach, Jerrod Roddenberger. He was really great to my relief!

Jerrod was so sweet to refer to Ars and myself as his mentors from his early days in SecondLife. I am sure I do not deserve such an honorable mention, but Ars was always good at looking after others and helping out as best he could. He is well worth any praise he gets.

The second DJ was Sasch Petrov, who is a sure card from the old days too. I used to go to the German gay club Arsenal to listen to him DJ. Sasch is still going strong, also to my great relief!

Well to fit the occasion I had made a special outfit for myself and a rainbow Jesters Hat. I thought I looked pretty stunning, but some still mistook my hat for hair which kind of upset me a little until I decided they could not be true fashionistas.

The club was filled with the most awesome male avatars I have seen in a while, well except for other members of my SecondLife family that is. Andrey, Dejerrity, Jeb, Guyke and Janttu are hard to beat when it comes to stunning avatars. One of the men caught my special attention, his name is Jimmy Windstorm. I would love to see him photographed by Eddi Haskell someday

 

I took a whole lot of pictures the first hour but was too tired when Millimina had joined me, which I really regret now because she looked beautiful as always. Life is too short for regrets though, so here are some of the pictures I did take.

One of the nice things about Second Pride is you get to meet people you haven´t seen for the longest while, nice guys that you have met earlier and become friends with but somehow your paths never cross - except for at Pride. Of course an explanation to that could also be that I have been pretty reclusive the last year.

Oh I mustn't forget to mention, I gave a guy an interrogation on behalf of someone I love dearly. He passed all my tests with flying colors so far, but I am not completely done with him yet...

The Party has Started - Enjoy

Rejoice for - in spite of the Rapture - We are still here, We are still queer and you still need to get used to having us in your face.

So as you cannot beat us why not join in on our celebrations this week?

Some pictures from the events yesterday. I am sorry to say there was no Parade, it had to be canceled for various reasons, but listening to Mapoo Little sing was a great party starter. The crowd went wild for this little woman with the huge voice, of course she pleased us with some gay anthems but at an occasion like this it is fitting

Here are some pictures from the party and the ceremony that followed it, "The lighting of the Flame of Hope". I could not get on the sim for the last event, but thanks to Zack Preminger, I got a good view from the adjacent sim.

 

This great picture was sent to me by my friend Kolja Shan

The Speech given for the "Lighting of the Flame of Hope" by Nanaki Raymaker.
 

It's great to see you all here today!

This statue was a joint effort of the Board of Directors of Second Pride 2011 - specifically Tylendel Falconer, Jace  Lewis, and Nanaki Raymaker. It was designed to be seen clearly from a distance, and across several regions, and therefore uses conventional prims for the flame instead of particles.

The two most obvious symbols of the GLBT community have been used - the rainbow, as well as black and pink triangles.

Inverted pink triangles were used by the Nazis in concentration camps to identify and shame homosexuals. This symbol, which was used to label and shame, has been embraced by the gay community as a symbol of pride.

Starting out as a late-night mission in protective darkness, the giant Pink Triangle has been annually placed atop Twin Peaks - a mountain in the center of San Francisco - during every Pride Parade weekend since 1995.

The rainbow flag and it's colors has been revised over the years, each color representing a positive attribute of our shared existence, hot pink for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic/art, indigo/blue for serenity/harmony and violet to represent spirit. However the most widely used flag now is the one designed by Gilbert Baker (six colors).

 In November 1978, San Francisco's gay community was stunned when the city's first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, was assassinated. Wishing to demonstrate the gay community's strength and solidarity in the aftermath of this tragedy, the 1979 Pride Parade Committee decided to use Baker's flag.

This statue represents the upward progress of all sexualities and gender identities - after all - no civil rights movement has *ever* failed, as well as a symbol of hope that one day we will shine as one light, and speak with one voice.

We've got Mr. Gay 2011 and Ms. Gay 2011 here to light the flame atop this statue. A man who needs no introduction, Regi Yifu is an absolute powerhouse of creativity, generosity, and has been a source of inspiration for the GLBT community.

Marge Beaumont has served on the 2011 board of Second Pride as our Treasurer, and has worked tirelessly in her role. She is both a source of inspiration and endless humor, and I feel very honored to consider her a friend.

Second Pride - Program

What would we all do without the help of our friends?

While I was extremely busy sleeping my dear friend Eddi Haskell published the full program for Second Pride 2011 on his blog Eddi Haskell´s Second Life

As Eddi is almost as proliferous at blogging as PetGirl Bergman used to be this is your direct link to the post with the program.

RAINBOW taxi to the Second Pride (SLurl)

The Second Pride Festival

 The SECOND PRIDE FESTIVAL
May 22nd to May 29th, 2011

Theme: International

The first Festival happened in 2005, it grew bigger in 2007 and remained a big event ever since. Every year is a different adventure as the Teams making it happen change every time, making it as diverse as our community by mixing various styles, concept and ideas each year to make every edition unique.

Making this happen in a diverse community is a challenge, especially in the Second Life virtual world as not only do people from different backgrounds meet, but to that we can add the different ethnicities, cultures, mindsets that we come across the grid which is accessible in most countries today.

Second Pride is a unique experience where we try to make sometimes very, sometimes less different people come together as one in a one week Festival of events. This is a unique human adventure to consider in advance as a thrilling roller coaster with all it's good and scary times but that everyone enjoys in the end and runs to climb back on for a second round !

Come and experience a taste of Global Pride, get out of your routine and take a shot of new things, new people, new ideas, learn to become aware of the globality of LGBT, to enjoy sharing and collaborating, setting aside self-focus, and growing to be a better person from this international sharing opportunity.

Clear Your Calendars

The dates for the Second Pride Festival have been set. Second Pride will be from Sunday May 22nd until Sunday May 29th, 2011.

Clear your calendars, boys,girls, men and women and all those of us somewhere in between it´s time for more of "Where are all these homosexicals coming from?" and "The lesbians are here! Hey!"

Further information will be forthcoming as soon as it reaches this blogger, so remember too check in here often!

Prrrrr-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai

Atchoooo!

Bock as feather duster.

Sorry folks, I had so many feathers on last night that I am still sneezing. In fact there were so many feathers at the Pride Samba fund-raiser at the Sidhe-sim that I am amazed there was still sand left on the beaches when the party ended.

All my pictures of Millimina looked f-ing horrible. She would kill me if I posted them, so I have deleted them all instead. Don´t know what it was, perhaps it was that strange smile on her face... really scary! Well, I think we must admit, she is truly beautiful but not very photogenic - we cannot all be that...

Here are some pictures from the great party! The music was awesome - you can never go wrong with samba - and the performers looked absolutely stunning, as did some of the patrons.

MC and Pride Performer Hotboy taking a brake

Hotboy on stage

 

All pictures don´t turn out great... it´s not easy with moving targets...

 

Samba Anyone?

 "Wanna get festive? Shake your tico tico at the Pride Samba Show on Saturday, March 5th.

We're bringing you the rhythms of tropical Brazil with 16 performers, our hot samba dancers, and the Copa Cuícas led by bandmasters Hotboy and Wes!

Prizes galore with original floats and props, and free Mardi Gras necklaces for all.

Our 2 PM event is held on Sidhe in the Gay Archipelago with the hottest Samba set north of Rio:

Taxi to Sidhe

At 6 PM the party moves to Pride where joy and celebration punctuate the evening sky:

Taxi to Pride 

This event is a fundraiser for Second Pride and for the Pride sim!"

 ---

I love samba and hope to see you all at the parties!

Pride Parade in Belgrade, Serbia, attacked

Pride parade under the motto "Together we can"

Today there was a HBT Pride Parade in Belgrade, Serbia. The parade consisted of  approximately 1 000 persons. To defend the parade against attacks from the amassed homophobes there were 5 000 Serbian police.

As far as it is known the police did a great job and the parade was concluded in an orderly manner. The attacking homophobes (5 000 -10 000 Serbian Nationalists, skin heads, assorted ruffians and other riff raff) are still fighting the police. 90 policemen have been injured so far.

Stonewallupproret - 28 juni 1969

I fönstret på "Stonewall Inn" fanns dagen efter kravallerna ett anslag där det står: "We homosexuals plead with our people  to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the Village"

Stonewall eller egentligen "Stonewall Inn" var - och är fortfarande - en gaybar i Greenwich Village i New York (53 Christopher Street, New York, NY), som från de tidiga morgontimmarna den 28 juni 1969 och flera dagar därefter blev skådeplats för en serie våldsamma incidenter mellan polisen och barens publik bestående av homosexuella män, huvudsakligen transvestiter.

Det var alltså "dragqueens" som var de första som hade tillräckligt med cojones för att att säga "Enough is enough. We´re not putting up with this anymore!". Detta är ett faktum som inte får glömmas bort när historien berättas.

Händelsen brukar anses vara en vändpunkt för gayrörelsens kamp och den homosexuella frigörelsen, eftersom man spontant slöt sig samman och slog tillbaka mot det heterosexuella förtrycket.

Under 1960-talet var det vanligt i USA med trakasserier av homosexuella från polisen. Kvinnor och män klädda i för manliga respektive för kvinnliga kläder kunde arresteras för "crossdressing". Razzior mot gaytäta klubbar och barer var vanliga, ägarna tvingades ofta betala större summor för att slippa stänga ner sin verksamhet och trots detta stängdes många klubbar. Eftersom gaytäta barer oftare blev utsatta för razzior än andra barer, spreds diskrimineringen. De homo- och transexuella var inga populära kunder utan avhystes allt oftare med påhittade motiveringar, ibland nekades de att handla i baren eller tvingades sitta avskilt med ryggen vänd mot övriga i lokalen.

Den 28 juni 1970 ägde den första Gay Pride-paraden rum i Los Angeles, Chicago och New York till minne av årsdagen av upploppen. Liknande marscher anordnades även i andra amerikanska städer.

Numera hålls Gay Pride-evenemang varje år i hela världen i slutet av juni för att markera Stonewallkravallerna. (OBS! Gäller inte Stockholm som av någon anledning valt att förelägga sitt firande till slutet av juli...)

Stonewallupproret har oftast jämförts med Rosa Parks så kallade bussepisod, då en enda händelse fått stark slagkraft för en hel folkgrupp.

Fotnot: Innehållet i detta inlägg är klippt och klistrat från svenska och engelska Wikipedia och en massa andra webbsidor med en del omskrivningar och egna tillägg .