This week is the 50th anniversary of The StoneWall Riot at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, against the police brutality towards the gay, lesbian, trans and queer community and a year later on June 28th 1970, to commemorate and remember the Stonewall riots, Pride Marches were organized in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Marsha ‘Pay It No Mind’ Johnson, was one of the activists who refused to allow the police brutality and stood for the rights of trans person and others. Since then a lot has changed and yet nothing seems to be different. 

Some of you may be aware of the ban on rap music at the Progress Bar, that has since been removed, that started or rather increased conversations around the issues of ‘racism’ in the Boystown/Lakeview area. An internal email that accidentally leaked into the community said, “Our goal is to promote a positive, happy, energetic, upbeat and most importantly... a fun vibe.”

 It is June! It is PRIDE month! It is already the middle of June -- and we can see signs of preparation all around us. This is also the month when most United Methodist Annual Conferences have their Annual sessions -- we had our session June 2-4, 2019. Paula Roderick is our member of Annual Conference, so she was there. She will be giving a report of her experience soon. Here are a few more things that I want to share with you: