Pride Charlotte
in Uptown
wants to ^stand proud
Pride Charlotte, slated for Aug. 27, captures the heart of the Queen City
by Leah Cagle leah@goqnotes.com
Pride. Inclusivity. Creativity. Diversity.
Words like these saturate the conversa
tions surrounding this year's Pride Charlotte
festival. It only takes a brief glance at the
upcoming celebration to understand just what
an amazing event we have coming our way
this summer.
Although Charlotte has been hosting
Pride festivities since the 1970s, the process
of creating a thriving LGBT community hasn't
been easy, in 2005, the non-profit Charlotte
Pride organization dissolved after facing
intense anti-gay backlash. But since 2006,
when the Lesbian & Gay Community Center
took charge of the event. Pride Charlotte has
grown immensely, jumping from Gateway
Village to the N.C. Music Factory and now,
for 2011, to the very heart of the Queen City
— Uptown Tryon St.
"We are very excited to move our festival
Uptown and to the heart of Charlotte's artistic
and cultural center," Jonathan Hill, Pride
Teamwork makes the
dream work'
Pride Charlotte needs volunteers,
vendors and visionaries to help make
tiiis event possible. If you're interested
in participating, visit the Pride Charlotte
website at pridecharlotte.com to learn
more about volunteer opportunities and
fill out a volunteer application.
Charlotte co-chair, said in a release. "The S.
Tryon St. location provides a unique opportu
nity for our event to grow and to raise more
visibility for this city's diverse gay community."
Organizers [Ed. Note — This publication's
editor serves on the event's organizing com
mittee] sa'^ the Pride festival, slated for Aug.
27, is the largest celebration of LGBT culture
and community in the Carolines. The event
attracts thousands of folks — gay and ally
alike — to partake in a vibrant, week-long
party of artistic, culinary and cultural delight.
Organizers have been hard at work, creating
new fundraising and partnership opportuni
ties in order to offer a more diverse set of
artistic events, participating organizations and
entertainment.
Organizers also say the event serves as a
unique opportunity for LGBT Charlotteans to
declare both their presence and their worth in
the greater community. Dave Webb, who also
serves as Pride Charlotte co-chair, called the
event a "statement of affirmation" that will
show "Charlotte's LGBT community is a vital
part of the city's cultural fabric."
Center Board Chair John Stotler envisions
the event as an inclusive, unifying and mend
ing experience that will "build bridges within
our own community and among natural allies
across the metro Charlotte area."
But Pride planners know from past
experience that not everyone in attendance
shares the same dream of acceptance and
celebration.
"Unfortunately there are still politicians
Pride Charlotte's 2010 festival was held at the N.C. Music Factory on the outskirts of Uptown.
and individuals in Charlotte that feel com
pelled to judge and condemn the gay commu
nity, but times are a-changing and the louder
they protest, the more they show their true
colors as agents of hate and intolerance,"
Webb explains.
Pride Charlotte will again organize its
coalition of volunteers known as "Partners
in Peace," dispersing them throughout the
festival to help promote positive communica
tion and ensure a peaceful experience for all
in attendance.
Despite the inherent political implications
in such an event, Dave Webb reiterates that
the true spirit of the festival is communal
rather than partisan.
"The Pride Charlotte festival is not a politi
cal rally, it is a peaceful gathering of the LGBT
community, families and its' supporters to
celebrate our community," he says.:;
Let me see y'all one, two step
Other upcoming hoedowns
Southern Country Charlotte values community, organizer says
by Matt Comer :: matt@goqnotes.com
Growing up gay can be hard. That's espe
cially true if you grow up in the South or other
rural, conservative settings. Despite these
hardships, many of us LGBT Southerners still
long for a piece of home or clamor to embrace
what we consider our "roots." Being gay
and Southern — or "country," "redneck,"
"cowboy" or whatever term of endearment
you choose to identify yourself—has never
been mutually exclusive.
Organizations like
Southern Country Charlotte
(SCC) and a host of similar
groups across the nation
prove it
see, which holds their
annual Queen City Stomp
each April, was founded in
1991 and celebrates their 20th
anniversary this year. Though
folks come from far and wide
to partake in a show of Country Western
dancing, they're also contributing toward
good causes. Southern Country Charlotte has
raised nearly $100,000 in cash, goods and ser
vices benefitting local non-profit groups, both
within and outside of the LGBT community.
But SCC President Chris Gray says the
group is about much more than Country
Western dancing and fundraising. When he
and his partner moved to Charlotte in 2008,
12 qnotes April 16-29.2011
SCC offered them welcome and friendship.
"We had gone to the Eagle one
Wednesday night and they were doing dance
lessons," Gray says. "He fell in love with it
and we started going every Wednesday.
The atmosphere, the people, they welcomed
everybody gay or straight or whatever."
Gray's partner loves to dance, though Gray
himself doesn't.
"It's what I call
a spectator sport,"
he says. "There's
a lot of members
that don't dance,
including myself. A
lot of people who
come out do so just
to watch and it's
amazing to watch
the unison of these
people dancing."
After the late 2009 closure of the Charlotte
Eagle, a gay Leather/Levi bar off South Blvd.,
SCC was forced to move their Queen City
Stomp to the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel.
There, SCC members' love of dance and their
comraderie has overflowed and left its mark
on hotel staff and guests alike.
"The relationship we built with Sheraton
last year worked great," Gray says. "They've
been real hand-in-hand. If we needed
something they were right-on it. We had no
problems. Even people who were at the hotel
— who weren't gay and who just happened to
be staying there — they would pay to come in
and they had a blast."
Gray says the Sheraton has even pur
chased a new dance floor. It mades its debut
at this year's Queen City Stomp.
The community that surrounds SCC and
welcomes new members arid guests extends
beyond the group's local activities and mis
sion. SCC is a member of the International
Association of Gay/Lesbian Country Western
Dance Clubs (lAGLCWDC). Incorporated in
Texas in 1993, the international fellowship is a
member of the Gay and Lesbian International
Sports Association and helps to promote
both dancing balls, like Queen City Stomp,
and competitions across the globe. In July,
it'll host a dancing competition at the North
American OutGames in Vancouver.
Gray says SCC's relationship with
lAGLCWDC has been fruitful and Queen City
Stomp has even managed to get the attention
of many of the group's members.
"We have wonderful cocktail parties," he
says. "They were the talk of the [lAGLCWDC]
convention last year."
Though SCC appreciates the praise, their
mission and focus remains squarely with the
people and organizations it benefits.
In the mood for more Country
Western dance? In addition to
Charlotte's Queen City Stomp, be sure
to check out these great events this
season.
Seattle:: April 29-May t
Emerald CityHoedown
Hosted by Rain Country
Dance Association
raincountrydance.org
Provinpetown:: April I^May 1
19th Annual Spring Stomp
Hosted by Gays for Patey
gaysfo||atsy.org
Philadelphia:: May ^-29
The Philadelphia Hoedown
The 18th Annual Convention of tite
International Association of Gay/Lesbian
Country Western Dance Clubs.
iaglcwdc.org
~ Event listings courtesy lAGLCWDC
"We are able to raise money for organiza
tions and charities while at the same time
getting out and doing stuff in the community
as much as we can," he says. "Even with
the economy last year, we were able to raise
around $10,000. That was a great thing and we
hope to keep it going."::
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