#'what would they wear if they went to a present-day American pride festival as I know them?'

[grumpyoldsnake]

Mirian | Pride 2020

[Image description: A digital illustration of a short, average weight Indian woman with greying hair and ocular albinism. She wears bifocal glasses and practical work clothes with a Black Lives Matter lapel patch. She is standing in an aggressive, confident stance, and her grin is fierce and challenging. Detailed description below the cut. End ID.]

Mirian is a lesbian, as well as a cis intersex woman with CAIS. She’s a research biologist who pursues both academic and recreational interests with a fierce enthusiasm. She’s fascinated by bugs, smiles a bit too much, and is absolutely gleeful when encountering something new.

Mirian doesn’t really have a dedicated setting! She’s one of my roleplaying characters that I adapt as needed.

[Detailed image description: Mirian is a short, average weight Indian woman with very long, grey-streaked black hair. Her hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, and she wears blue-rimmed glasses with thick, visibly bifocal lenses. Her eyes are blue due to ocular albinism, and her skin is tawny brown. She is wearing a yellow short-sleeved shirt, a light green vest, and loose olive brown cargo pants. On her vest Mirian is wearing a large Black Lives Matter patch, a small pin in the colors of the community lesbian pride flag, and a small pin with the appearance of the intersex flag. End description.]

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia -- Chapter 79: Drop the Bomb

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

A snout pressed to the ground along the side of the road, where the highway gave way to more densely wooded country. Yes, that was the scent they were after, no mistaking it. Less than another day’s travel ahead. Lips curled back past sharp teeth, releasing a low growl of satisfaction. They had missed the departure of the students, all nestled into their transport and none the wiser that something was just behind them. It wasn’t a short journey from the school to their destination, but traveling cross country, a nearly straight line whenever they didn’t have to stop to find the scent again, made up considerable time. They did not tire. This terrain was what they were bred to cross. They moved back into the cover of the trees as they followed the smaller road, claws digging into the dirt as they pushed forward.

They’d be at the camp soon.

***

“Ooooh, that had to hurt,” Isamu winced.  

“I’ve told him he relies on his Quirk too much,” Midoriya replied, gazing at the scene before them through his fingers.  “Tell me he’s still breathing?”

“He’s groaning, Toshi,” Tokoyami said.  “He’ll be fine.”  She chirped a few times.  “I think.”

“She really hit him hard!” Frog-Shadow said, adding her own opinion from Tokoyami’s shoulder.

“Poor Shota,” Izumi said. “Still, he lasted longer than I expected him to.”

“Well… that was definitely something,” Boost-Rush said.  “Where’d you learn a move like that, Kaniyashiki?”

Kaniyashiki was busy helping Shinso back to his feet, but she looked over in the Rookie’s direction. “My Aunt Monika’s a police officer, sir,” she said, tossing off a salute with her free hand, before turning it into a crab-claw V.  “She taught me a lot of self-defense stuff.”

“Well, tell her she did a good job,” Boost-Rush said.  He looked to the larger group of U.A. and Shiketsu students.  “And I think that’s our best example so far of why being able to fight without your Quirk is important.  Shinso here has one of the most powerful Quirks in either class, and Kaniyashiki laid him out in two moves.”

The morning’s instruction had largely been focused on Quirkless exercises, directed by Boost-Rush. The powerfully-built Rookie was an extremely good hand-to-hand combatant, though he’d admitted that Doc Clock was even better than he was, something which had gotten Aizawa beaming with pride for all of about three seconds before his natural resting grump face had taken back over.  Boost-Rush had put them through a number of exercises, before he’d set them up sparring. Eventually, they’d break off into pairs, but for now, they were also getting a bit of a show out of it, as he called different combinations to spar against each other and demonstrate what they’d learned so far.  

A few students, mostly those with heavy mutation-type Quirks like Shoji and Bondo, had largely been exempted, and would get some other specialized instruction, since their Quirks were more innate Mutant types.  Ground Zero, Aizawa, and a couple of the other Rookies were with them.  Some of the others had also been peeled off for other types of training with some of the other Rookies.

He had to admit, though, it had been especially exciting when Boost-Rush had opened it with Kana against Kimiko Ojiro.  As the two best martial arts in any of the classes, it had made sense.  It hadn’t been one hundred percent Quirkless, since Ojiro couldn’t turn off her invisibility, but she’d wrapped her arms and legs, donned gloves, and wore the visor from her costume so that Kana would have a decent idea of where her limbs and face were.

It had been, in a word, spectacular.  And not in a “two attractive girls fighting” sort of way (Though he’d be lying if he completely denied that part.  His girlfriend was very hot.  And also very scary when she went full out like that.  He was starting to realize the comparisons to Kirishima-Bakugo weren’t entirely inaccurate.), but also in a “two incredibly skilled people giving it their all” sort of way.  Kana’s style was more aggressive than Ojiro’s, focusing on powerful strikes and kicks, while Ojiro focused on speed and repeated strikes to confuse and disorient. Both of them were absolutely on the top of their game and on a completely different level than just about anyone else.  Shiro Monoma had watched the whole thing with rapt attention.

“That,” Shinso said, “was so cool!  She just grabbed my wrist, and the next thing you know, bam!  I’m on the ground!”   He stared at the 1-B girl with wide eyes.  “You’ve got to teach me how to do that!”

That got a groan from Isamu, Midoriya, and Tokoyami.  That would be Shinso all over.  The kid was trying really hard lately, had been ever since the end of their Internships, but at that end of the day, he was still a ray of sunshine fanboy.  Somethings just never changed.  

Kaniyashiki threw back her head and let out a laugh.  “Sure thing, shorty.”

“Hey!” Shinso said, crossing his arms as a grumpy look spread across his face.  “I’m not that short!”  Of course, he was the shortest one in the class, but he was also several months younger than most of them too…

“Anyway,” Boost-Rush went on, “next up, we’ve got… Haimawari against Awase!”

“Oh boy…”

***

Since he was dating their Class Representative, Isamu had gotten to know several of the members of Class 1-B reasonable well, and several more of them in passing.  Bondo, Kaniyashiki, and Fukidashi were some of Kana’s best friends. The first two were a terrible twosome, usually cracking jokes and up to some small measure of no good, and both of them really loved antagonizing Monoma.  And he had yet to determine whether or not Fukidashi was legitimately crazy or just extremely differently wired. He’d been surprised, though, to learn her mother was the support equipment designer, Bibimi Kenranzaki. Though honestly, that may have explained some of her more extreme tendencies.

He’d had several pleasant and lengthy conversations with the bat-like Koumori about music.  Koumori’s musical choices tended themselves more to rock than pop, but they’d found some common ground in that both of them had an appreciate for the horse-headed American rock duo, Wild Stallions.  And the giant Fukui seemed to be able to get along well with anyone.  He’d even managed to make sure there were no hard feelings with the force field generating Kido, even after he’d bested him at the Sports Festival.

Hell, he’d even managed to have a couple civil conversations with Monoma.  Even if the blond also did a lot of “I’m watching you” gestures at him when he thought no one else was looking.

Awase, on the other hand, he didn’t really know.  The Vice Class Representative was studious and not particularly talkative.  He’d probably said hello to him in passing, but beyond that, he didn’t know him.  Awase was dark-haired and athletically built and, if Isamu remembered right, his Quirk had something to do with being able to fuse his molecules with other substances, taking on their properties.  Not that that would matter much in a Quirkless spar.

He stepped into the circle that had been set up for sparring, watching Awase as he did the same.

“You can do it!” he heard Shinso call out, bringing a smile to his face.

“Show them what 1-B’s made of, Awase!” And that would be Monoma, as expected.

“You’ve got this, Isamu!” He heard Kana call out.  Followed by, “What?  He’s my boyfriend.  I’ve got to support him.”  Which was probably her defending herself against Monoma.

Awase dropped into a fighting stance, hands up, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet.   Isamu on the other hand, dropped lower, legs spread wide, arms flared out to his sides.  Even without his Quirk, his style was never going to be about all out brawling. Keep it fast and loose.  He didn’t have the raw strength to do otherwise.

“Are you both ready?” Boost-Rush asked.

“Yes, Sensei,” Awase said simply.

“I’m ready,” he agreed.

“Then begin!”

Awase didn’t make any sounds as he charged forward, but he was telegraphing his right hook pretty badly. Isamu dropped all the way to the ground, like he would when using his Quirk and pivoted, swinging his leg out. It connected solidly with Awase’s leg, tripping him up and knocking him down.

But Awase was just as quick to spring back up, and Isamu got back to his feet, back-peddling away from a flurry of punches.  “Oooffff!” All the air got knocked out of him as one of Awase’s punches connected with his stomach.  Guy definitely had a lot of power behind him, even without his Quirk.

Isamu wasn’t completely helpless though, and he managed to get his hands up and ward off the next punch, just like Midoriya had taught him before the Sports Festival.  He managed to fire off a few rapid fire punches of his own, putting Awase back on the defensive.  Isamu had a few inches on the other boy and his arms and legs were longer too.  It gave him a reach advantage that he pressed, throwing a couple more strikes to unbalance him.

Unfortunately, Awase was quicker on the recovery than he expected, delivering a punch that set his head spinning back around.  He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his blurring vision as Awase came in for another round of strikes.  

This time, Isamu was able to dodge, bobbing this way and that, leaning and ducking out of reach of Awase’s blows.  When he was fighting with his Quirk, he relied on movement, keeping out of the way, and staying just long enough to get a couple of hits in.  There was no reason not to apply the same principle to Quirkless fighting.

“Stand still, dang it!” Awase shouted, after he’d missed with yet another blow.

“Ah,” Isamu said, “how about no?”  He dodged again, ducking under another blow.  His picked up his speed a little, so that he continued to circle Awase, letting him wear himself out trying to keep up and throwing blows.  The other boy should have been aiming for where he was going to be, but instead kept trying to catch him, which resulted in most of his blows being too slow to hit anything or only scoring a glancing hit.

So he kept it up, dodging several more blows that way.  Awase was definitely slowing down, starting to tire.  So when he launched his next blow, Isamu moved as though to duck and dodge to the left, but instead came up with an uppercut, knocking Awase down once more (And ow, ow, ow, boy did that leave his hand smarting!).

“He did it!  He did it!”  Isamu heard Shinso shout, before hearing Tokoyami try to quiet him.

Awase let out a groan, before slowly getting back up to his feet.  “Dang,” he grunted.  “You’re fast as heck even without your Quirk.”  Isamu could already see a bruise forming where he’d punched him.  For a moment, things seemed like they were going to get tense, but Awase nodded decisively.  “Good job.  Easy to see why you won the Sports Festival.”

He offered a hand, and Isamu took and shook it, trying very hard to take the praise.  He still had a lot of trouble believing his own win, even months out.  But he was getting that self-confidence up.  “Thanks,” he said.

The sound of applause broke the moment.  “Good job, both of you,” Boost-Rush said.  “Go see Bioshock if you feel like you need it.”

The Hero looked down at his clipboard.  “Okay, next… Let’s have Kirishima-Bakugo and Tatsuma.”

***

Katsumi may not have had Papa’s shark-teeth, but she’d been told that her grin was very frightening indeed. Right now, her grin seemed to be so scary that several of her classmates and 1-B students were actively backing away from her.  Sero had, in fact, let out a rather high-pitched shriek and leaped into Tensei Iida’s arms.   At least Izzy had stayed by her side.

“You’re being deliberately frightening again,” Izzy said.  There was a disapproving tone in her voice and Katsumi did feel a little bad about that.  Disappointing Izzy was not something she liked doing.  Maybe she could live with it for this the chance to teach the Shiketsu girl a lesson.

The giant girl was giving her a look that seemed to match her own.  She stepped into the ring and for the smallest of moments, Katsumi wondered if she wasn’t biting off more than she could chew.  Tatsuma’s overall build was comparable to her own.  Both of them were muscular, especially for women, though Katsumi’s build was the result of rigorous training and hard work.  She couldn’t tell it that was the case for Tatsuma or if it was related to her Quirk, not that she knew what that was. But Tatsuma had considerable height, reach, and weight on her.  Katsumi was the second shortest person in the class, only barely taller than the Loud Kid. But it wouldn’t be Womanly to step away from a fight, no matter how big the other person was.

She didn’t know what Tatsuma’s deal was, why she thought she was so much better than U.A. students. Izzy had said something about Tatsuma having a good reason, but she also didn’t especially care.  You disrespect her, you disrespect her friends, her school, she’d kick your ass, plain and simple.

“I look forward to educating you,” Tatsuma said.  She cracked her knuckles.  It was noisy. Definitely a show of intimidation. Katsumi approved of the strategy. If she was anyone else, it might have worked.  But she was too damn tough to be scared by some wannabe from some pretentious school like Shiketsu.  

“You can try,” Katsumi shot back. She rolled her neck casually, tensing the muscles in her arms. No backing down.  Never let them think they can intimidate you.  And give back as good as you got.  She shot back with a glare of her own.  It’d be a lot more satisfying to unleash some explosive hell on her, but punching would do pretty nicely.

“Oh hell no, this isn’t happening.”

Katsumi spun around, realizing it was Vanish Veil who had spoken.  What the hell?  This was like the time Toshi had tried to tell her that picking her battles didn’t mean she could pick all of them.  Why were people so opposed to her using violence on the deserving?

“You two’ll kill each other and nobody’ll learn anything,” Vanish Veil said, crossing her arms.  She sounded more annoyed than anything, but there was a little of what sounded like concern in her voice too.

“Don’t think I can take her, Old Lady?” Katsumi snapped.

“I told your dad I wouldn’t let you cause a scene, Brat,” Vanish Veil snapped back.  Katsumi’s usually ability to wind Mahoro up was failing her here, it seemed.  Damn it.

“You have a problem with my teaching choices?” Boost-Rush asked, approaching Vanish Veil. Katsumi could nearly hear the sneer in his voice. If she didn’t already know he was a Monoma, that would have confirmed it.

“Only when you don’t get the memo,” Vanish Veil told him flatly.  She walked over and poked him hard in the chest with a finger.  Her twintails swayed with the motion.  “Pick somebody else, you sanctimonious ass.”

Boost-Rush just laughed at that.  He was wearing his helmet, but Katsumi could hear the smugness in his voice.  “Oh, if you insist,” he said, sounding as though he was the one doing Vanish Veil a favor.  “Still… how about Park?”

Vanish Veil seemed to be weighing her options there, her mouth set in a frown.  “Yeah, okay… that’ll probably be all right…”

***

Well, at least she’d get to show up one of those Shiketsu kids, Katsumi thought.  Windbag was all right in extremely small doses, but the rest of them could go hang. Definitely time someone knocked one of them down a peg and she was very good at knocking.  Didn’t really matter which.   Could have just as easily been the pretty boy cat guy.  He’d have probably been real satisfying to punch.

Park…  Hmm.   Katsumi considered herself pretty decent at reading people.  Tatsuma was simmering fury, waiting to erupt, buried just barely below the surface.  A lot like herself, really.  Not that she’d admit that to anyone.  She went from zero to one hundred in no time, even when the situation didn’t really call for it.  It was pretty much a family trait.  She had it, Dad had it, the Hag had it.

Park, though, Park was a quieter kind of angry.  A cold one. As Katsumi began sizing her up, she wondered, possibly for the first time in her life, if she hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew.

“And begin!” Boost-Rush called out.

Katsumi got her hands up and she and Park circled each other cautiously, both looking for an opening. She’d taken some different martial arts classes as a kid and she had had plenty of instruction from Dad and Papa, Uncle Deku, and even Ojiro’s dad.  But overall, her style mostly focused on single, powerful moves, putting someone down with just a punch or two.  It was best to take them out before they had a chance to be a threat.  

“DIE!” she bellowed, throwing the first punch, a powerful left handed strike that had a lot of her weight behind it.  

Park sidestepped her blow and came in close.  Her hand snapped out and grabbed into the shirt of Katsumi’s gym uniform.  Before she could even react, Park’s leg shot up, slamming into her side several times in rapid succession.  Katsumi let out a growl and managed to shove her away, buying herself a little space.

“Okay,” she snarled.  Her side was protesting furiously as she kept moving. “You got one in. Congratulations.  But that’s all you’re going to get.”

Park’s expression didn’t change much, but one eyebrow raised slightly, as if to say I disagree.  She calmly took a couple side steps, her eyes maintaining that cold indifference. “Angry already? If being struck upsets you, then you’re aspiring to the wrong profession.”

Katsumi knew the other girl was trying to get in her head.  But knowing that didn’t make her any less angry about it.  “I don’t know about you,” she growled, “but I was born to fight.”  She shouldn’t have been talking either, she knew.  Wasted breath.  Maybe it worked for some people, like Horse Girl.  Katsumi would, under duress, admit that Mineta had made provocation a weapon she could use.  But that wasn’t her.

She charged, throwing a right hook at Park’s head.  Park’s head shot to the left, her hand coming up and grabbing Katsumi’s wrist. In a single fluid motion, she bent and twisted it. Pain shot up her arm light a bolt of lightning, overriding her rage, overriding everything except for the white-hot sensation of pain.  It felt like her wrist was one small increment of pressure away from snapping like a twig.

“I’m aware this would likely not work if you could use your Quirk, but since our esteemed instructors insist on this human cockfighting, I might as well emphasize their point. Though I suppose with your Sports Festival, you’re used to bread and circuses.” She twisted it more. “Perhaps if they bothered with a more extensive self-defense course this wouldn’t be necessary.”

Pain shot up Katsumi’s arm so intensely that she had to grind her teeth hard to keep from crying out. No way she’d give Park the satisfaction of hearing her scream.  What the hell kind of fighting style was this?  Aunt Ochaco had done a lot of the grab and flip stuff, but…

At least she still had her other hand free.  With Park’s attention on her other arm, Katsumi brought her left hand in low for a body blow.

Park saw the blow coming and released the hold, but she wasn’t not fast enough to dodge all of it. She let out a small growl as Katsumi’s strike connected, though it was more of a solid graze than a full hit. She moved with the dodge, twisting and sending a kick up at Katsumi’s head.

Even if she wasn’t using a Quirk, Katsumi had to admit that Park was fast.  Deceptively powerful too.  She might have been impressed, if she wasn’t so damned angry.  She saw the blow coming, fortunately, moving out of the way.  Her right arm still hurt from the wrist grab, meaning her options were limited, but she knew how to play through the pain.  She faked left, throwing a couple blows to try and get Park moving the way she wanted, then followed up with a roundhouse kick from the right.

Park had obviously been expecting punches, and hadn’t expected Katsumi to throw a proper kick. As she made to defend against the punches, the kick sent her down. She gathered herself quickly and rolled so that she came to be resting on the soles of her feet.

“That had to have been learned outside class.”  Her look was harsh, judgmental somehow. “Makes sense with the amount of enemies the child of a pro hero has.”

Park got up, her eyes narrowing. “But how will that do against someone who’s had enemies the moment they were born?” She darted toward Katsumi, looking to launch a kick, but instead threw a straight-forward punch like something out of a street fight.

Okay, what the hell was that supposed to mean?!  And sure, they’d all had some basic self-defense lessons, some of them more than others.  You heard horror stories about the kids of Pro-Heroes being threatened or kidnapped. A few of them had even come damn close to it.

The punch hurt, leaving Katsumi seeing stars, her vision swimming.  “You haven’t rung my bell yet,” she growled in the direction of what she hoped was the actual Park.  The world was spinning and it felt like a struggle to stay upright, but she forced herself to keep fighting.

She moved quickly this time, throwing one punch after another.  Not too much style, but plenty of power.  Park was good and, as much as it pained her to admit it, more technically proficient than she was.  But she had more raw power than the other girl.  She just needed one really good punch to make an end of it.

Park dodged the punches, attempting to once more grab and twist Katsumi’s arms. This time, she was ready for that crap and kept herself moving too quickly to be caught. Katsumi’s style may have been straightforward, but the speed was forcing Park to stay on the defensive.

***

‘This is stupid. Beating each other for the sake of some trite lesson that could easily be fixed with a proper martial training program. Look at them: So self-important while others are thrown aside.’ Park’s thoughts raged through her mind. She cast a glimpse once more at Boost-Rush. ‘Alright you son of a bitch. You put a child in this situation.  Don’t whine at me when the expected happens.’

***

Park darted as if dodging again, but grabbed the waistband of Katsumi’s pants, using the leverage to throw her down. It was a hard, bone rattling impact that knocked her senseless for a moment.  Katsumi’s first instinct, drilled into her, is to protect her head, but Park snarled and instead threw a kick at her back.

The kick hurts, Katsumi’s damn sure that was one of her kidneys.  The pain kept her down even as she tried to get herself back up.  There wasno way she’s going to let herself be beaten like this.  She’s one of the toughest damn U.A. students there is.  Daughter of two Top Ten Heroes.  Practitioner of the Art of Womanly Living.  And when it comes to a fight, she doesn’t quit.  Ever.

“You’re going down!” she screams, forcing herself back to her feet, swinging wildly.

“That’s my line.” Park dodged to the side again.  Her arm shot out like a stone from a sling and grabbed Katsumi’s arm, wrapping her fingers around it in an iron grip.  She twisted it, and used the momentum to drive Katsumi into the ground. Park hung onto her arm this time, pulling it back and locking in her grip behind Katsumi’s back.

***

A little more torque and she could easily break it. For a moment she felt herself wanting to. To share even a small ounce of the suffering. She looked into the crowd, and saw the kind rock girl who shared her faith. Akaya. She looked concerned and scared for her classmate.

“I’m not as good a Christian as I’d like to be.” She had told Akaya that. She turned away from her, looked at Katsumi’s struggling face, then looked back at the U.A. students and Rookies. She let go of Katsumi.

***

“This is stupid. Find another pawn.” Park then got up and walked toward her classmates, then past them entirely.   Tatsuma tried to stop her, but she brushed her off.

Katsumi forced herself to her feet, her limbs absolutely aching.  “Get… get back here,” she started to growl, eyes locked on Park’s retreating form.  “I… I can do this… all day…”

She couldn’t lose to some pretentious Shiketsu brat.  And she definitely wasn’t losing to someone who wouldn’t even stick around to assure their victory.  Who just gave up in the middle of a fight like that?  Especially one they were winning?  None of it added up.

Wasn’t she worthy of fighting?  Or finishing off?  

What the hell was wrong with Park?!

Someone helped her to her feet.  It was the Old Lady.  Of course. “I’m fine,” she grunted.  A lie.  She was not fine.  She didn’t think anything was broken, but she could practically feel the bruises growing in all kinds of uncomfortable places.  There was still pain radiating from where she’d been kicked and she was still seeing double.  

“You’re not fine,” Vanish-Veil said, sounding guilty.  “C’mon. We’ll get you to my brother. Hopefully before your dad finds out about this…”

***

“She… she lost,” Toshi said, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them.  The fight had been incredibly short, but incredibly brutal. It’d been deeply uncomfortable, even unsettling to watch. He’d wanted to intervene, no matter how much Katsumi would have yelled at him for it, but the sheer brutality had left him paralyzed where he stood.  He was sure if it hadn’t been so quick, the Rookies surely would have intervened…/

It was only then that he realized that his arm was hurting and had been for some time. “Izumi…?”

“What?  Oh!  Oh my…!” Izumi quickly released her death grip on his arm and he could feel the circulation returning to it. Izumi was willowy and often looked like she’d blow over in a strong breeze, but she apparently had ferocious grip strength.  “I’m so sorry, Toshi…”

He shook his head. “It’s okay.  I think we were all a little shellshocked.”

“I don’t believe it,” Haimawari said.  He was shivering, Toshi realized, and then realized he was too.  Izumi must have been drawing in heat as she’d grown more and more frightened for Katsumi.  “I saw it, but I still don’t believe it.”

Toshi never would have thought it possible either.  He’d seen Katsumi lose, of course.  The two of them were about evenly matched when they’d sparred in the past and he’d won about as many as he lost.  And, of course, Katsumi had lost against Izumi during the Sports Festival.  But those had been friendly competitions, between people who had known each other for years.  This had been different.  This had been a beating.

Both Katsumi and Park had been looking to prove something, even if he wasn’t entirely sure what it was for Park.  He knew already, that Tatsuma didn’t think especially high of them.  But it didn’t look like Park did either.  He’d spent of a lot of time thinking over Tatsuma’s reasons for disliking the Hero System and what this class represented, and was still grappling with those.  But he didn’t know what drove Park, not yet.  

Katsumi, he knew, just wanted to prove she was better than the Shiketsu students. They’d gone after her pride and she really wasn’t the best decision maker where that was concerned.

He was also fairly certain this wasn’t something he could fix, wasn’t something he could make right. That was a hard admission for him to make.  Dad had always said you couldn’t save everyone but that you still had to try. He’d thought maybe he could still try here, but after this…

Katsumi was his friend. And she was confident and powerful. She was one of the best fighters in the class, with a strong Quirk and an iron will.  Even in friendly sparring with him, she just took every loss as a way to get stronger still.  To see her humbled like that…

“Is it over?”  Shota asked.  Toshi looked over and jerked with surprise as he saw that Shota had his eyes scrunched up tight, with his hands over his ears.

Asuka put a reassuring arm around his shoulders.  “It’s all right,” she told Shota, gently removing his hand from over his right ear with her other hand.  “You can look now.”

“She didn’t win, did she?”

“I am afraid not,” Asuka replied.  

“This will not be good,” Izumi said, worry filling her soft voice.  “Even though her injuries can be treated, Katsumi will treat this as a grievous wound to her pride and a personal insult besides.  She won’t let that go any time soon.  And I fear what she may try in retaliation.”

“She’s right,” Asuka said. She chirped softly and worriedly. “Izumi, Toshi, you know her the best. What do we do?”

Toshi frowned. Tatsuma and Katsumi had been ready to tear each other apart, before Aunt Mahoro had intervened.  She hadn’t objected to Park, but…

If they didn’t do something to try and buy a little peace with the Shiketsu students, then someone was just going to get hurt worse.  

Looking around, he could see, not just the concern, but the anger, on so many of his classmates’ faces. Even many of the 1-B students looked disturbed by it, especially Monoma and Kana.  

Of the Shiketsu students, only Tatsuma and Yoarashi were there.  Park had walked off somewhere, and Tsuchikawa and the spider-girl were with one of the other training groups.  Tatsuma was looking vaguely smug and satisfied, though Toshi couldn’t help but notice that she was also looking off in the direction Park had left. Yoarashi had gone pale and oddly quiet. Toshi didn’t know him as well as some of his friends, but he’d still known him for years.  Yoarashi didn’t do quiet.

If they didn’t do something to try and make peace with the Shiketsu students, someone was going to get hurt.

Get hurt worse, he realized, as Aunt Mahoro led Katsumi away.

“Oookay,” Boost-Rush said, much of his earliest bravado gone.  “That’s… that’s enough direct sparring for today.  Why don’t we break into small groups to work on what’ve learned so far.”

A stupid, desperate plan dropped into his mind.  He couldn’t exactly slip away, but… “I hate to ask you to lie,” Toshi whispered to Izumi, “but…”

Izumi nodded.  She grasped his plan without him having to even say it.  They’d been friends a long time.  He wasn’t as close to her as Katsumi was, he wasn’t sure anyone could be as close as the two of them were, but Izumi was still one of his best friends.  Hell, after a hopeless childhood crush on Nejire Togata, he’d had a crush on Izumi for a little while too, though he’d never worked up the courage to ask her out or anything.  If nothing else, Katsumi’s looming presence in both their lives had made it clear if anyone really loved Izumi, it was her.

“I do believe I’m feeling a bit of a flare up,” she said, stretching exaggeratedly.  I should probably go get checked out.”

***

Izumi arrived at the first aid station that Bioshock had set up.  The Metabolic Hero was laying hands on Katsumi as she approached and she could see her friend’s bruises start to fade already and a bit of her color return. Bioshock’s Quirk was not quite the cure-all that Doctor Izumi’s was, but it was still very effective.  She knew now, from what she had read, that he had run himself ragged during Plague’s assault on Japan, pushing himself nearly to death’s door until Uncle Izuku and his sister had literally had to drag him away from the hospital wards.  

“Okay,” Bioshock told Katsumi, “I think that should be good.  Nothing broken, thank goodness.”  His features darkened.  “What the hell was Boost-Rush thinking?  Dammit…”

He shook his head, his eyes going wide as he realized he’d spoken out loud.  “My apologies.  That was unprofessional.”

Katsumi waved him off. “Eh, you said what you said, Doc. Own it.”  Her red eyes had locked with Izumi’s.  For all the fierceness and bravado Katsumi put on for the rest of the world, Izumi could easily tell when she was faking it.  Such as now.

“Oh, hey, Todoroki,” Bioshock said when he noticed her.  “Everything all right?”

“I’m feeling a bit fatigued,” Izumi told him.  She spoke each word carefully, trying to project some measure of exhaustion into her voice.  She was tired, but not that tired.  “I fear this new schedule is playing havoc with my body.”

Bioshock looked between her and Katsumi for a moment, then his expression changed ever so slightly. “Oh, sure,” he said.  “Let me go check the coolers, see if we’ve got anything with some electrolytes for you.  Why don’t you keep Kirishima-Bakugo company while I’m gone?”  He gave them a little wave as he walked off.

Katsumi just gave her a look as she took a seat next to her, in one of the small folding chairs.  It wasn’t especially comfortable, but that was of little importance.  “You are the worst liar I have ever met, Iz.”

“What?” Izumi asked. “But Bioshock…”

“He was humoring you, Iz.”

Oh.  Well.  She supposed that was all right.  She was still able to achieve her goal of getting to talk to Katsumi.  Though perhaps she could work on the lying? Heroes did need to sometimes, well, not exactly lie, but certainly project more hope and certainty than they might have been otherwise feeling.

“Are you all right?” she asked instead.  “Not physically,” she added quickly.  “That much I could see.”

Katsumi looked down at the dirt.  “That wasn’t a fight, Iz.”  The words were said so quietly that Izumi could barely hear her.  

“That level of brutality was well outside the bounds of a friendly spar,” she agreed.  “Though you too were quite ready to rise to violence.”

Katsumi’s head snapped up, a snarl starting to pull at her lips.  “Damn right I was.  Did you see the way that giant was looking down her nose at us?  She disrespected me and she disrespected the school.  I had to teach one of them a lesson.”

“Did you?” Izumi asked, when she was certain Katsumi’s rant had finished.  “Or were you just seeking conflict?”

“So I like a good fight,” Katsumi replied, looking rather annoyed still.  “Is that a crime?”

“How badly would you have hurt one of them?” Izumi asked instead.  Answering Katsumi’s question would do no good to anyone, and likely lead to a very circular conversation.  Sometimes you had to point Katsumi in the direction you wanted her to go. Even if you usually had to make her think it was her idea.

“Broken nose, maybe,” Katsumi said, shrugging.  “I just really wanted to punch one of them.”

She sighed.  “But that wasn’t a fight, Iz.  That was a damned beatdown.  She was toying with me.  Whatever damn style she was practicing, it’s damn good at causing a lot of pain.  And… she’s better than me.”

Katsumi trailed off. She’d said something, but so softly that Izumi couldn’t hear it.  “I’m sorry,” she said, “what?”

“I said she’s better than me!” Katsumi snapped.  “She could have kicked my ass from here back to U.A., up and down both sides of the street, easy.  But she wanted to make it hurt and she wanted to make sure everybody saw it.”  Her fists were clenched hard, her knuckles going white.  “This wasn’t even about putting me in my place.  She was making a damned statement.  Hell if I know what it was though…”

Katsumi bolted up out of her chair suddenly, grabbing it and spinning around sharply, letting it go flying through the air.  It landed several feet away, bouncing a few times before it finally stopped.   Izumi would give her friend credit: she’d expected it to explode.

Katsumi was visibly shaking and Izumi rose to embrace her.  Katsumi’s strong arms soon found their way around her and Katsumi’s head came to rest against her.  As Izumi held her, Katsumi’s shaking began to subside.  

“I’m supposed to be the toughest woman around here, Iz,” Katsumi said quietly, but there was a growing fire to her words.  “This isn’t over.”

Katsumi was right. For more reasons than she thought. If they didn’t do something soon, to try and bridge the gap between the two schools, things could very likely explode, in more ways than one.

[justforbooks]

The Italian publisher, editor and collector Franco Maria Ricci has died at the age of 82.

In sumptuously produced art books, and as editor of the bi-monthly art magazine FMR, Ricci published writing by Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Roland Barthes and many others over the course of his long and distinguished career. In 2019, Susan Moore visited his estate at Fontanellato, near Parma, where in recent years Ricci had constructed the largest labyrinth in the world out of bamboo; they discussed Ricci’s notable collection of largely 18th- and 19th-century sculpture and paintings, as well as his library of books published by the great typographer Giambattista Bodoni, whose works Ricci had reprinted in his first foray into publishing. The interview is published in full below.

Collecting may be read as a form of autobiography written with works of art rather than words. In the case of Franco Maria Ricci, his is a life composed of both words and pictures. He has not only published the most lavishly produced art magazine – FMR – and art books in the world, but also spent the last 50 years amassing a peerless collection of volumes produced by the great Italian typographer, compositor and publisher Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) and a rich, eclectic collection of some 500 largely neoclassical and baroque paintings and sculptures. Both collections are at the heart of his most recent and extraordinary venture, the creation of the immense, star-shaped Labirinto della Masone, near Parma, the largest labyrinth in the world – and surely one of the few planted with bamboo.

There is something surreal, and slightly disturbing, about turning off the autostrada and suddenly encountering this majestic bamboo structure rising 10m or more above the plains of the Po valley. For all its elegant calligraphic stems and angular leaves, this is not the sparse specimen bamboo of Chinese ink-painting, but a forest. Here, more than 200,000 of these fast-growing bamboos arch upward in their quest for light. Once I turn into the drive of what was originally Ricci’s grandfather’s estate at Fontanellato, the brilliant azure June sky all but disappears. By the end of my two-day visit, it seems that the contrasts of light and dark are an apt metaphor for the book and art collections – and for the entire complex of maze, museum, archive and chapel, the latter built in the form of a pyramid. Ricci has always been part rationalist, part visionary.

Ricci’s story begins with the book. ‘I grew up surrounded by my father’s books. Reading Shakespeare, Homer, Joyce and Dante saved me from bad taste,’ he once said. ‘It made beauty simple, familiar and immediate in my eyes.’ It was a book, too, that transformed his life and launched a long and successful career: Bodoni’s Manuale tipografico, first published in 1818. Before his discovery of Bodoni’s works in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma in the 1960s, a career in publishing seemed unlikely. The stylish Ricci, a racing driver and a dandy with dark cherubic curls, was best known for patterning the snow in the piazza around Parma Cathedral with the wheels of his E-type Jaguar. Even Bernardo Bertolucci remembered that car.

As a young man, Ricci had wanted to study archaeology, but an uncle in the oil world persuaded him to sign up for geology instead. After three months in Turkey spent looking for oil that was not there, he realised the oil business was not for him. Yet his education proved critical in unlikely ways. He spent weekends exploring the mysterious, labyrinthine underground tunnels and caves that are a feature of the Romagna region of Italy. He also designed posters for Parma University’s theatre festival that caught the attention of an American curator preparing a show of Italian design in New York. He became, inadvertently, a graphic artist, and went on to create striking graphics for everything from Poste Italiane to Alitalia.

Ricci has long insisted that ‘Bodoni was not only a typographer. He achieved modernity and elegance through graphic art. He was, like Canova, a champion of neoclassicism but in two dimensions. I immediately fell in love with the proportions, the concept of beauty.’ Bodoni’s genius was not simply the freshness, rigour and precision of the typefaces, with their dramatic contrasts between thick and thin line, but also his sense of how to lay out a page. Texts are set with extravagantly wide margins and with little or no decoration.

Ricci decided to reproduce the master’s Manuale tipografico, although everyone told him he was mad to do it. He bought two early offset typography machines which, he noted, were ‘as expensive as a Ferrari, which I wanted to buy but never did’, and had the highest-quality paper made exclusively for the project by Fabriano. It took a year to publish the three volumes in 900 numbered copies (1964–65). ‘So I became a publisher. It became a bestseller.’

Much to his mother’s horror, Ricci decided to continue to publish very expensive books – art books printed in Bodonian style – and later, literary editions, several series of which were edited by Jorge Luis Borges, whose presence looms large in library and labyrinth. At a time when Arte Povera dominated the Italian avant-garde, Ricci chose opulent black silk covers embossed with gold, and printed on costly pale blue Fabriano paper with handmade plates. He wanted his books to be rare – printing small editions – but also surprising. He gave Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino and Borges free rein to write accompanying texts.

His wife Laura Casalis remembers having been struck by the originality of Ricci’s 1970 book on the then little-appreciated Erté – text by Barthes – before she met the publisher himself in 1975, and soon found herself working on a book on red paper-cut portraits of Mao, accompanied by 39 of the Chairman’s own poems printed in Chinese characters. ‘Little by little I slipped into publishing with him – Franco was a workaholic and I realised that was the only way I would see him. Those Mao paper-cuts were typical of the practically unknown subjects that he would seek out all his life, and we sometimes show them between loan exhibitions in the museum. Franco has l’occhio lungo – he can see beauty in something which may take others a long time to recognise.’

It is in the library I find Ricci and, indeed, where he is to be found most mornings and afternoons. It is part of a cluster of picturesque 19th-century stone buildings surrounded by lush and increasingly exotic gardens. He had begun renovating the dilapidated stables behind his grandfather’s long-abandoned villa as a summerhouse and library in the 1970s, and its enormous hayloft still serves as an idyllic open-air dining room and entertaining space, even though the couple have now moved into the main house. Inside this romantic half-ruined folly, Ricci created the unexpected: two neoclassical library rooms lined with bookshelves and marble busts, their domed and coffered ceilings reminiscent of those in the Biblioteca Palatina.

As soon as we arrive in the inner sanctum, the Bodoni library with its more than 1,200 volumes – missing a tantalising three or four tomes but otherwise complete – Ricci is immediately up on his feet and pulling down and opening cherished volumes, eyes blazing. Despite the heat, he wears an elegant embroidered linen waistcoat but not its jacket, which hangs nearby, bearing the synthetic red flower that became in effect his iconographical device. (Tai Missoni gave him a cardigan as a present: Ricci declined the gift – he does not wear cardigans – but declared that he would always wear the red flower from its packaging thereafter, which he did. Once, when he had forgotten the flower, an officer at the Alitalia desk at Milan airport said: ‘I see you are travelling incognito today Mr Ricci.’)

Now Ricci deftly presents Bodoni’s Essai de caractères russes… of 1782, and his 1789 edition of Torquato Tasso’s pastoral play Aminta, exquisitely illuminated for the Prince of Essling. These are dear friends and the joy as he handles these pages is self-evident. This is the only significant part of the collection not to have been moved down to the museum and archive complex, a short bamboo-lined drive away. It is clear that he could never bear to live apart from these books.

The impetus to create the long-imagined labyrinth, and a museum and library to house his collections and publishing archive, was a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The couple sold the publishing house in 1982, and their house in Milan, and moved to Fontanellato. There is a fierce pride in Laura Casalis’s voice as she explains: ‘Franco wanted to do it, he imagined it, and he found the right team of people to help him realise it.’ We are sitting over coffee in the Labirinto courtyard surveying the sharp-edged geometries of its rose-pink brick buildings, a place that already has the air of a lost ancient city discovered in a jungle. Laura describes the evolution of the museum collections within, and recalls the words of the late Italian publisher Valentino Bompiani, who described Ricci as a man of courage and fantasy.

‘Whenever he fell for some subject or artist, Franco would try to buy.’ Laura continues. ‘He was never concerned with what was or was not fashionable, and never bought to decorate a house. He collected pieces that he liked that were strange or unconventional.’ He began with Art Deco, first buying inexpensive little bronze and chryselephantine dancers by the likes of Demétre Chiparus (1886–1947), as well as Guiraud-Rivière’s dramatic figure of Isadora Duncan with two bears, which dominates the central space of the 20th-century gallery in the museum.

Here, too, are three paintings by the outsider artist Antonio Ligabue (1899–1965), a tormented soul who had led a tragic life, painting and wandering around the Po valley when he was not confined to a psychiatric hospital. Ricci published the first monograph on the artist in 1967, two years after his death, a work that helped catapult the artist from provincial to national and then international fame. Two years later, he bought two of the artist’s bold, visceral close-up heads of roaring tigers, painted in the 1950s, including the key work that had been selected for the book cover. A no less bright and richly impasted self-portrait in the guise of Vincent Van Gogh followed a year later.

Ricci also championed – and collected – the work of the third dominant presence in this space, Adolfo Wildt (1868–1931), often described as the last Symbolist but one whose reputation was, as Laura puts it, ‘tarnished by Fascist association’. Ricci published a monograph in 1988, the same year that he acquired the strange masterpiece that is Vir temporis acti of 1913, a virtuoso marble bust of a Greek or Roman soldier reimagined through the combined lenses of Michelangelo and the Secessionists. The expressive anguish of this head may be seen as a symbol of the nobility and redemption of sacrifice, but it is the refined and gleaming silken surface that led to Brancusi.

Ricci has a penchant not only for sculpture but also portraits, and portrait busts in particular. ‘I have hunted portraits all my life. I never get tired of looking at them,’ he confesses, ‘and in turn, I feel observed by them.’ In the 1990s, he began following the art market and collecting in earnest. Ricci had an office, bookshop and apartment in Paris and there and in Monaco he was to acquire many of his largely French 18th-century terracottas, some of the most compelling by less familiar names. A superb example is the bust of an intense, low-browed individual, signed by one A. Riffard and given the Revolutionary date of ‘9. Fructidor an 3e’, from 1794–95.

Another naturalistic tour de force is one of very few known terracottas by Francesco Orso, also known as François Orsy, a Piedmontese sculptor also active in Paris. Orso is responsible for the rarest sculptures here: the disconcerting life-size polychrome wax portrait busts of Vittorio Amadeo III of Savoy and his wife Maria Antonia Ferdinanda di Borbone, complete with painted papier-mâché clothes. The revolution destroyed the sculptor’s courtly patronage in Paris, and he diversified into the more overtly commercial world of the waxwork with a show featuring an effigy of the aristocratic revolutionary leader the Comte de Mirabeau and popular tableaux on themes such as Marat’s assassination by Charlotte Corday.

Unsurprisingly, given Ricci’s passion for Bodoni, the neoclassical looms large. At the centre of the Napoleonic gallery, lined with marble busts – Italian, English and Danish – is a model of Canova’s ideal head of Dante’s muse Beatrice, first conceived as an idealised portrait of Mme Récamier. The display offers a witty face-off between Wellington and Napoleon on opposing pedestals, but the emperor prevails with a sequence of classicising family portraits. Above hangs the second version of Francesco Hayez’s The Penitent Magdalene (1825). Here the Romantic artist has transposed the chilly perfection of Canova’s marble surfaces into pigment.

An unusual and endearing mid 18th-century Italian group portrait presents the family of Antonio Ghidini, a cloth merchant to the Bourbon court in Parma, painted by his friend, the court artist Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari (1734/5–87). In this Zoffany-style conversation piece there is no doubting Ghidini’s business, as he points to documents mentioning his association with his trading partners in Manchester and his wife sits stiffly under her salmon-pink stomacher in sprigged and striped silk finery.

Yet it would be misleading to suggest that Ricci’s ever-curious eye never ranged beyond the 18th and 19th centuries. He owns a number of 17th-century marbles, including that of the all-powerful prelate Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni, who effectively ran the papacy under Clement X – irresistible in profile. In the 2000s Ricci also added, for example, Ludovico Carracci’s handsome three-quarter length Portrait of Lucrezia Bentivoglio Leoni (1589), executed two years before the sitter’s death. Flanking the same door is Philippe de Champaigne’s Portrait of the Duchesse d’Aiguillon (c. 1650), and viewed beyond is an unusual sensual and erotically charged work by Luca Cambiaso (1527–85), Venus Blindfolding Cupid.

Yet Ricci has also always been attracted to what he describes as the art of visionary madness, by the surreal, and by what is prosaic and popular. The museum’s cabinet of curiosities includes a narwhal horn, once thought to have belonged to the unicorn. Its walls are lined with particularly gruesome vanitas paintings and sculptures. Centre stage among the skulls is a decomposing head by Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627), its flesh and rotten teeth seething with maggots and flies.

Only superficially more benign are the drawings of the Codex Seraphinianus, first published in two volumes in 1981 – Ricci’s most extraordinary publication. These meticulously detailed explications of the bizarre and the fantastical illustrate an encyclopaedia of an imaginary world conceived by the artist Luigi Serafini in the 1970s and written in a language still understood only by its creator. Certainly its pages are at home in the Labirinto della Masone complex – another visionary creation, in effect a Gesamtkunstwerk, an all-embracing art work expressing the life and taste of one man.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[macsmack]

Here’s to the History of Canadian Pride

Whenever Pride rolls around, I always see only acknowledgment of The Stonewall Riots, which is absolutely inspiring, and Martha P. Johnson was a BAMF. As a Canadian, though, I’d like to put out our own history, now the majority of this info comes from Queer Events so if you’d like to check out that link after this, there’s tons more info to find out.

May 1969 - Decriminalization of Homosexuality -  On May 14, 1969 Canada decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act first introduced in December 1968. It receives royal assent on June 27. One day before the Stonewall Riots took place in New York. 

August 1971 - First Gay Rights Protest -  On August 28, 1971, roughly 100 people from Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and the surrounding areas gathered in the pouring rain at Parliament Hill for Canada’s First Gay Liberation Protest and March. They presented a petition to the government with a list of ten demands for equal rights and protections.

August 1973 -  Pride Week 1973 Emergence and shift to gay liberation - Pride Week 1973 was a national LGBT rights event held in August 1973 in several Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Programming included an art festival, a dance, picnic, a screening of a documentary and a rally for gay rights that occurred in all the participating cities.

This event represented the shift from the homophile movement into the gay liberation movement, showing the emergence of the concept of gay pride.This event is often considered the first pride parade in Vancouver.

December 1973 -  Homosexuality no longer considered a ‘disorder’ -  Homosexuality is removed as a "disorder' from the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders.

January 1974 - The Tipping Point : The Brunswick Four - In January, The Brunswick four are arrested at the Brunswick Tavern in Toronto. Some historians believe that the arrest and its consequences was a key incident ushering in a more militant gay and lesbian liberation movement in Canada, much as the Stonewall Inn Riots politicized gays and lesbians in the United States.This was also one of the first occasions that a gay or lesbian topic received extensive press coverage in Canada. 

The women brought charges against the officers subsequently for verbal and physical police harassment, however the officers were acquitted due to their switching their hats and badge numbers making them unable to be accurately identified.

October 1977 - Montreal Bathhouse Raids - On the night of Oct. 22, 1977, Montreal police raided Truxx and Le Mystique, two gay bars on Stanley St. This raid was more of a military operation then a normal police intervention: 50 police officers, wearing bulletproof vests with guns (including machine guns) drawn, went in and arrested 146 patrons, all homosexual men, as part of what was at the time the biggest mass arrest since Trudeau had declared the “War Measures Act” during the October Crisis.The men who were arrested were crowded into holding cells for more than eight hours, and forced to take venereal disease tests. They were also forbidden from calling their lawyers.

The very next day, 2,000 people took to the streets, blocking the corners of Ste. Catherine St. W. and Stanley St. to protest what had happened on the previous night. Police and protesters naturally clashed. 

In an effort to get the crowd to disperse, police rode their motorcycles into the crowd, clubbing protesters, who in turn threw beer bottles at the police.

This ended with Quebec adding Sexual Orientation to the Human Rights Code in December of 1977

May 1981 -  First Lesbian Pride March in Canada -  “Look over here, look over there, lesbians are everywhere!” was the chant of over 200 women who marched from Robson’s Square in Vancouver to the West End Community Centre in Canada’s first lesbian pride march which took place on the weekend of the fifth Binational Lesbian Conference.

February 1981 - Operation Soap - On Feb. 5, 1981 Toronto police stormed four gay bathhouses in the city as part of what they called "Operation Soap," and arrested just under 300 men. For the majority, charges were later dropped or dismissed..

Rallies were held in response to the injustice and to this day it is often referred to as Canada’s Stonewall.

To this day, "Operation Soap" is one of the largest mass arrests in Canada and it was 35 years later in 2016 that Toronto's police chief formally apologized for the raids.

July 1990 -  The Sex Garage Raids - On July 15, Police raid The Sex Garage's After Party. The violence ignited 36 hours of clashes between Montreal’s LGBT community and the police force, which was accused at the time of harbouring a culture of homophobia. The Sex Garage raid is now widely considered to be Montreal’s Stonewall, after the New York City riots in 1969 that marked a turning point for the LGBT rights movement worldwide.

Sex Garage politicized a generation of LGBT activists who would change the Quebec political landscape, uniting gays and lesbians, and francophones and anglophones, in a common front. These activists would establish the Divers/Cité Pride March and political-action groups like La Table de concertation des gaies et lesbiennes du grand Montréal to successfully fight for LGBT civil rights and improve gay life in Montreal.

January 1990 -  Two Spirit Term -  The term Two Spirit (niizh manidoowag) is coined at the third annual Native American/First Nations Gay and Lesbian Conference in Winnipeg. The term allows Indigenous LGBTQ+ folks to reject other English terms that impose the Western views of gender and sexuality on indigenous people.

June 1999 -  Blockorama: First black queer space at Toronto pride -  In 1999 Blockorama made its appearance as the very first black queer space in the Toronto pride festival. Today it is an all day dance party and stage during Pride to celebrate Black Queer and Trans history, creativity and activism.

November 2001 -  Community Rally Against Homophobia -  On Nov 18, over 3,000 people came together for a march and vigil protesting anti-gay violence held to commemorate the death of Vancouver resident Aaron Webster who was assaulted and killed in Stanley Park by four young offenders in one of Canada's most notorious anti-gay hate crimes. Webster’s death ignited a community that had enough after a series of hate motivated attacks against members of the queer community.

July 2005 -  Bill C-38: Civil Marriage Act - Bill C-38 bill became federal law which gave same-sex couples the legal right to marry. This made Canada the fourth country in the world to allow same-sex marriage. Official Legislative summary:'This enactment extends the legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes to same-sex couples in order to reflect values of tolerance, respect and equality, consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It also makes consequential amendments to other Acts to ensure equal access for same-sex couples to the civil effects of marriage and divorce'.

June 2009 - Toronto’s First Trans March - The Trans March, originally started by Karah Mathiason began in response to Pride’s lack of organizing efforts for the Trans* Community.The march, which was not recognized by Pride Toronto as an officially programmed event, was a short route that from Church & Bloor Streets to Church & Wellesley Streets.When the march reached the Church and Wellsley Streets, they were met with large metal barricades lined up across the street. The marchers, disappointed and frustrated, pushed through the barricades, and finished the first ever Trans March inside the Village.

March 2013 -  Bill C-279: Trans Rights are Human Rights -  The House of Commons passes Bill C-279 in March, a private member's bill sponsored by Randall Garrison, which officially extends human rights protections to transgender and transsexual people in Canada.

There are SO MANY MORE, I pretty much cherry picked the big events. I apologize for the long scroll, please check out the link for more dates of firsts, because it’s all worth reading. Happy Pride everyone! This pride flag design is made by @thejoanglebook​

[thi5mu5tb3th3pl4ce]

🍌5.04 beware of a lil sadness

BP

I could feel my eyes glistening as I read your descriptions of the films you just watched. I would have enjoyed watching every minute of both films, even more so with you beside me. I’m really glad you enjoyed them and were able to pick up great insights. I definitely agree on what you said about Filipinos vs. Filipino-Americans—there is, also figuratively, a world of difference. I was reminded of the problem I had with “Crazy Rich Asians”. The portrayal of Asians there will always horrifyingly unrealistic, because the writer was Asian-American and no matter how much they want to fight for visibility, at the end of the day, they did not work hard enough to achieve authenticity. Probably a result of innate entitlement brought by their American half. Or maybe I’m just a hater.

This day was not great. It does not come naturally for me to speak accurately about how I feel whenever the feeling is anything sad. I am realizing now that in the past few years, I have lost the ability to allow myself to be that comfortable around people. I wanted to talk about it with you on the phone, but all I could do was tear up several times, tell you how much I missed you, and change the topic. I would be on the brink of saying something about it, but a voice in my head would go, “Don’t ruin a nice trip.” But I know you, you are always so ready to be there for me and protect me from my own irrational, anxiety-driven thoughts. Still, at least through typing this, you have the option of reading this at a better time, maybe at the end of the day when you are home and resting and not first thing in the morning.

Nothing terrible happened, I just felt like I was covered in a blanket of mild depression as I woke up. Maybe it was the fever, maybe it was the mood swings brought by my period. But I know now that it is because of something deeper. Talking to you for a bit and seeing you gave me ease in that moment. 

I went out for a jog because I thought it could bring my temperature down. Subconsciously, though, it may have been for a different reason. My Tita was having breakfast with my mom when I went downstairs. The last time I saw her was in 2017. She pointed out how I was much thinner back then. Although she didn’t mean it in a bad way, nor is that generally supposed to be a true insult, for some reason I found myself sprinting around the UP oval despite having a 38.2 degree fever. I hate it. Why did I let her do that to me? Why would I let anyone do that to me? It reminded me of a time a few years ago when I overheard a bunch of actors “ranking” the women in the crew, and when someone mentioned my name, one of them said “hindi talaga siya maganda, eh” and I pretended not to care. If I really didn’t care, why did I completely change my hair and start to wear more makeup soon after that day? I hate this. At the end of the day, the way I look should be the least of my problems. I don’t even know why I devoted a whole paragraph to this. Maybe it’s my super-secret, very deep insecurity (which I shared with you) of not being ____ enough. This goes beyond my appearance. I should stop worrying about that.

I realized the true reason for my sadness when we drove past the gates of the cemetery. It’s that time of the year....a year ago, I was in grief. What’s fucked up is that maybe I actually wasn’t, I was burying it deep down under a pile of work and a responsibility to be the one consoling my mother and my brother (who was my Lola’s favorite).

My Lola died first, then Nana died a few months later in July. Two mother figures I have lived with since birth died in one year, and I feel like I haven’t cried about it enough to this day.

I had a vision as a drove into the cemetery. About a year ago on the morning of my Lola’s funeral, my mom told me she couldn’t bring herself to do the eulogy. My brother can never be bothered to do anything like that. I had to do it. I did not want to fucking do it, I was not prepared. But I had to.

While everyone was preparing for the mass, I went out of the chapel (which was by the entrance of the cemetery) and walked around the entire park out of nervousness. I was walking around and pacing like an idiot. I was trying to memorize the speech I had typed in my phone in bullet points. My feet were taking me somewhere but my mind was in panic mode, trying to make sure I would be concise in whatever I had to say. I was looking down at my feet the whole time I was walking and thinking. I eventually looked up and found myself at the other end of the park, at my Lolo’s grave. My Lola was to be buried beside him there.

I walked back, gave the speech, it went okay. I was not satisfied but I was definitely glad it was over. 

Just a month later, Nana went from a strong, feisty old lady to being weak and immobile. She started going in and out of the hospital, and I would be the one driving. She took care of my mom since birth, and she took care of my brother and I the same way. When my parents split up and times were hard, we didn’t need to spend on maids to take care of us and the house because we had Nana. Our family was indebted to her in ways that can be too painful to grasp now that she is gone.

She saw me through different phases of my life, especially the worst ones. She would open the gate for me at 4am, either drunk or wired. She would ask me where I had been and I would lie to her every single time. 

I remember when we were asking each other those questions when you slept over one time, and one of them was “What was the saddest day of your life?” I answered my suicide attempt, but honestly, that was only second. The saddest moment of my life has yet to uncover and process fully. These memories of last year are still buried deep, and I haven’t been able to talk about any of this with any friend (except for Celest, but even with her, everything I told her was just at surface-level).

On the last day Nana came home from the hospital, we thought she would be okay. We were already somewhat relieved, as we were on our toes the past few weeks. I came over to where she was staying (just right beside our house, at her sister’s apartment). I knocked on the door and her sister answered. I told her I was gonna come by to see her before I left for work, and her sister told me not to go upstairs and just come back tomorrow because she looked tired (after work, I had plans to go to Fete with Sel). I didn’t bother insisting, I just immediately ran to work.

At Fete, an hour in to my 1/4acid trip, I got a call from my mom. Nana had died. I could have seen her for one last time that morning, but I chose not to.

I am confident that getting my heart broken in any form will never hurt as bad as this. My heart was broken, and it will always be.

I couldn’t cry during Fete. Things never process immediately for me. We left and just spent the rest of the night at our friend’s house in Antipolo. I cried like a baby when I got home, and woke up with my eyes thrice its size. 

I wrote and posted an entry that night (I took it down right away).

Lost 2 moms already this year, my lola died a few months ago, and in the middle of Fete tonight I got a call that Nana was gone too. She took care of me since literally the day I was born. From every day that I was playing in her room when I was a kid, to my pissy pre-pubescent days, to my fucked up college days, to whoever the fuck I am right now. I still aint fuckin shit and she didn’t even live to see me in a nice version of myself, and a nice version of myself would have been the most proper way to say thank you to her for her literal blood, sweat and tears for me and my family. Hating yourself or obsessing over how inadequate you are isn’t an excuse to just sit there. You have to do better. It’s not for yourself anymore. It’s so you can present yourself to the people who raised you and those who love and care for you in a way that reflects how good they were to you. It’s for them. Just do better.

Most of my regrets come from my grief. I feel stuck in a limbo of grieving and feeling numb. So today, yes, it must have been the fever or the PMS, but more than either of that, it is the fact that it is only after a year that I am realizing that I am not okay.

If I knew you at the time, I’m sure I would have behaved differently. I would have allowed myself to feel because you would bug me to. Instead, I was tied to a now-irrelevant man who not only failed to help, but made everything worse.

I’m sorry for the length and the tone. All of this was basically a summary of my day—my brain getting lost in painful memories I refused to go back to, on top of other relatively trivial matters, like future unemployment and just not being satisfied with myself at all. I genuinely thought it was PMS, though. Its effects on my mood can get to horrible lengths. My suicide attempt was on the third day of my period. Not that I will kill myself, it’s just that I am at my most unstable at this time of the month. But I promise I try my hardest to make it out alive, no matter how deep I am buried in darkness.

My crewmates will be invading my house in a few hours. I guess this could be a good thing. After all, they were there for me last year more than my ex was. We shot a lot of sequences at my Lola’s house when we couldn’t find any other location. They appreciated her, and they also were able to meet Nana several times. Perhaps they are who I need to be with tonight, instead of getting drunk on my own.

I hope the beauty of being in a festival celebrating my favorite medium (*CINEMAAAAHHHH*) and the pride of seeing your music videos screen in front of an audience will lift you up from this very pensive entry. I know it will for me. I am extremely proud of you. If I were there, my eyes would be filled with stars watching your video play, and watching you watch it play.

The only thing reeling me out of my terrible memories is the present moment of being in love with you. A day will never me completely terrible for me because I have you in my life. And with that, I am a much cheesier cloth than you are.

Anna

[mrmichaelchadler]

Ebertfest 2018, Day 2: Critics Panel, 'Interstellar,' 'Selena,' 'Belle'

The morning after its audience had been given a shot of adrenaline with Andrew Davis' opening night film “The Fugitive,” Ebertfest had its own blockbuster event in the form of 14 critics talking about the state of their profession. As led by moderator Claudia Puig, the panel included Leonard Maltin, Nell Minow, Richard Roeper, Sheila O’Malley, Matt Zoller Seitz, Susan Wloszczyna, Sam Fragoso, Michael Phillips, Sarah Knight Adamson, Brian Tallerico, Scott Mantz, Rebecca Theodore-Vachon and Matt Fagerholm. 

The subtitle for the event was “The Future of Criticism,” but given the the passion from the chorus of watchers and film-lovers, it concerned the state of movies itself. The lively active audience covered an expansive list of topics, including: the pros and cons of Netflix, given the accessibility of their material but the smaller screens; the Ava DuVernay test and the Bechdel test; the ultimate mission of the critic; our evolving attention spans as parallel by a growing amount of movies available each week; a hope for the industry to better embrace diverse narratives and diverse filmmakers. 

At the end of the panel, Puig asked the critics to share what they think is the worst and the best thing about being a critic. The answers that came from the worst thing came from problems that reflect the current state: the changing amount of jobs and pay; an overwhelming amount of movies despite the desire to see them all; that people are criticizing movies based on trailers; and having to see a lot of bad movies, among others. 

But the best thing about being a critic seemed to bring out the future of criticism, with everyone sharing their excitement about their work and a pride in their field. There was excitement about being able to advocate films that they love, the sense of community, the transporting quality of a good film and more. As Sheila O’Malley stated, “The best thing about being a film critic is that I am a film critic.” 

After an extensive hour-long conversation, the panel was opened up to audience questions. When an audience member asked how to get paid for writing about film, Rebecca Theodore-Vachon advised to have a platform for your writing, and the need to network. She also emphasized the need to follow editors and they people they follow on social media, and to send pitch letters. 

When asked about what makes an effective critic, Leonard Maltin said that “you must have love, passion and knowledge.” It was a fitting response given values of those on the panel. But those qualities could also help define what made the second day's film choices so powerful, whether it was "Interstellar," "Selena" or "Belle." 

The first film of the day was Christopher Nolan’s galaxy-hopping sci-fi epic “Interstellar,” as presented with an incredible 70mm print. But before that movie started, the crowd at Ebertest heard from the filmmakers of “Disturbing the Peace,” a documentary about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that premiered at Ebertfest a couple of years ago. Co-director Stephen Apkon shared an update about the film, which has been on an “extraordinary two-year journey” since starting at Ebertfest. Among the exciting details about the film’s journey is that it is has screened for six consecutive months in Palestine and Israel, and is now available in 23 films. They also mentioned that there was a screening in which the film was projected on the West Bank wall, with Israelis and Palestinians watching the film “under a full moon and starred sky.” They said that it was a life-changing event, especially with the standing ovation that they received. It’s a special honor and memory to think that such a significant film started at Ebertfest. 

That importance of empathy then played out on a massive screen and over the course of three hours with “Interstellar,” which was introduced by our own Brian Tallerico as “the perfect film for a festival about empathy … the rare sci-fi film that’s about emotion and connection." Tallerico was joined by Scott Mantz and Chaz Ebert to talk to the festival’s guests for the film, two astrophysicists—University of Illinois’ own Brand Fortner and Professor Miguel Alcubierre. 

Given their wealth of knowledge in the field of science that “Interstellar” explores so vividly, they were able to speak to the validity of the story, but also to its emotional power. Fortner said that the movie was a strong mixture of reality and not reality, while saying that the idea of leaving Earth one day is a reality that the human race will eventually face. 

Fortner praised the movie for its emotional intelligence as well, saying that “it takes real science and mixes that with a deeply emotional, resonant story. It bypasses our brains and hit us in the gut; it’s only by getting close to that reality that we can create emotional impact.” 

Alcubierre, one of the top relativists in the world as someone who studies black holes and black hole collisions, also boasted a unique connection to the film. His supervisor’s supervisor was Kip Thorne, the astrophysicist who directly inspired the screenplay Christopher Nolan constructed. He praised the movie for its scientific knowledge, noting that “they show science as it really is.” 

In the afternoon, the Ebertfest crowd was treated to a special screening of “Selena,” a biopic about the famous Tejano singer, with writer/director Gregory Nava in attendance. Nava introduced the film, which was released in 1997 but has become even more popular over time, and one of the most-played films on cable. Introducing the film, Nava mentioned to a crowd of Ebertfest viewers that he wanted to make a positive film out of the tragedy of Selena Quintanilla. Before the film started (a print of his own that he had shipped from the Academy), Nava presented an original poster from the film, signed by Jennifer Lopez and Nava, expressing their gratitude for the film being programmed at Ebertfest.

After the screening, Nava was asked questions on stage by Monica Castillo and Claudia Puig. He discussed how Lopez came into the project, starting with Nava's refusal to cast a non-Latina to play the role. Nava shared that in Lopez’s audition process she had studied the various dance moves and “imitated Selena at all the various periods in her career.” He championed her dedication to the role of Selena, and how the studio refused to put money into an Oscar campaign for her work. Nava did mention, however, that the massive scene with Lopez performing as Selena in the Astrodome for thousands of people (who showed up for nine hours and for free, Nava mentioned) directly inspired Lopez’s own music career. “I want that, I want to do that,” he recalls her saying, before she went on to one day have the #1 movie and the #1 song in America. 

When discussing the film, Nava shared how much of the script comes from real stories with Selena and her family, including the scene where Selena and her boyfriend Chris decide to elope. He did mention one scene that was very much his own idea, which is also one of its most powerful—a discussion that Edward James Olmos’ patriarch Abraham has with Selena and brother Abie about being Mexican-American. Saying that he’s always wanted a way to put that idea across, of not feeling Mexican or American enough as Mexican-American. As someone who was born on the border and grew up in San Diego but would go to Mexico “three times a week,” Nava said “that’s my reality.” 

It’s clear years later how much the film means to so many people, honoring Nava’s original goal of making a “universal human statement,” but featuring people who do not see themselves often represented in popular media. In sharing the moment he knew he wanted to make this film, Nava expressed that he was at first uncertain, but when he saw a couple of young Latinas who were wearing Selena shirts. When he asked them why they love Selena, they replied, “because she looks like us.” 

The last film of the evening brought out one of the festival’s very special guests, Amma Asante, director of the period piece "Belle," about a mixed-race woman who is raised by her aristocratic great-uncle in 18th century England. Asante was joined on-stage by Rebecca Theodore-Vachon and Chaz Ebert for a Q&A to talk about the true history behind the film, its period look and the discussions the filmmakers had about how to handle the story's inherent ideas of racial identity. 

As a filmmaker who has gravitated towards writing and directing her own films, she expressed how there are seem to be two different way to direct, the "insider" and "outsider." She said that she felt like an outsider directing her previous movie "A United Kingdom," but with "Belle" that the material came from the inside, saying that "I felt like knew what it might be like to walk in the shoes of a black British woman in 18th century London." 

When asked about the current situation for women in film, Asante spoke proudly about the impact of “Belle.” “I think the tide is changing,” she said. “And I’m going to go ahead and take some credit for that.” 

A lot has changed since she first started directing, as she expressed about the challenge of getting trust from the crew, saying that she used to have the problem of “constantly being questioned.” Now with four films under her belt, she added, “I do not answer those questions any more. As for other aspiring women filmmakers, Asante encouraged the idea of going out and making a movie. “Get out there and don’t wait for the projects to come to you,” she advised, while emphasizing that “the story you want to tell is unique.” 

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[bodizwonder]

How Patriotism and American Pro Sports Became Allied

At a rally in Alabama, President Donald Trump poured gasoline on the Colin Kaepernick nationwide anthem-kneeling controversy, encouraging NFL homeowners to fireside protesting gamers and calling them SOBs. Dozens of professional footballers and some full groups responded final Sunday with linked arms and much more kneeling in the course of the “Star-Spangled Banner” in a present of participant solidarity.

The loudest criticism of Kaepernick’s silent protest in opposition to police brutality and racial bias, which started in 2016 at a San Francisco 49ers preseason sport, is that failing to face in the course of the nationwide anthem exhibits disrespect for the navy, particularly veterans who risked or gave their lives for our freedoms.

But how did skilled soccer, and American sports activities generally, get so wrapped up in public expressions of patriotism? It wasn’t all the time this fashion. Sports historian and anthropologist Orin Starn at Duke University says that sports activities did not get tied up with notions of nationwide id and nationwide pleasure till the creation of the trendy Olympic video games in 1894, the place athletes first competed for his or her nation. Before that, it was “town against town, village against village.”

Around the identical time, the United Kingdom launched the British Home Championships, the primary soccer (soccer) match by which particular person UK international locations — England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales — fielded their very own crew in nation vs. nation competitors, says Martin Polley, director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University in Leicester, England.

Baseball, America and Apple Pie

By the flip of the 20th century, baseball had develop into America’s unofficial nationwide sport, though it was extra of a fixture of US nationwide id — “As American as baseball and apple pie,” because the saying goes — than a automobile for public shows of patriotism.

That all modified on a September evening in 1918, when the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Socks met for the primary sport of the World Series because the nation was deeply embroiled in World War I. National morale was low and the group’s temper at most of Game One was solemn, almost silent, in line with a 2011 article in ESPN the Magazine.

Then a navy band took the sector for the seventh-inning stretch and commenced to play “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a well known patriotic tune in its time, however not but the official nationwide anthem (that would not occur till 1931). Red Sox third-baseman Fred Thomas, on depart from the Navy, whipped off his hat and snapped to consideration. The remainder of the gamers eliminated their caps and positioned their palms on their hearts. A New York Times reporter on the scene described what adopted:

“First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.”

Due to its wild recognition, “The Star-Spangled Banner”was performed once more in the course of the seventh-inning stretch of Game Two and was moved to the pregame festivities when the collection traveled again to Boston. A sporting custom was born, though the nationwide anthem did not develop into a staple of pregame baseball till 1941 with America’s entry into World War II.

Along Comes Football

Although sports-fueled patriotism entered the American psyche by baseball, it was soccer’s rising recognition within the 1960s and 1970s that cemented the connection between sports activities and a distinctly militant taste of nationalism. After all, soccer is basically a navy battle disguised as a sport. With the coach as their “general,” items of faceless, helmeted warriors collect in “formation” to do battle within the “trenches,” “blitzing” the offense and throwing lengthy “bombs” into the endzone.

“There’s kind of a sacred bundle between football, war, and American identity,” says Starn. “In football, you see patriotism on steroids.”

Not solely is the nationwide anthem required earlier than all NFL video games, however the anthem is commonly accompanied by a navy honor guards and veterans teams taking the sector, and frequent flyovers by Air Force jets.

One motive for the amped up patriotism at soccer video games has to do with the demographics of the NFL fan base. According to a 2014 survey, soccer followers are predominately white (83 %), male (64 %), older than 45 (51 %) and politically conservative. Republicans have been 21 % extra prone to watch soccer than Democrats. And that goes doubly for NFL crew homeowners.

“The NFL is the most conservative of sports leagues in terms of the ‘America first’ ethos promoted by its owners,” says Starn. “There’s only one owner of color, no African-American or Latino owners, and they’re overwhelmingly Republican.”

But the mixing of aggressive sports activities and navy pleasure, it seems, is extra than simply the pure byproduct of patriotic followers and conservative crew homeowners supporting their troops. In a considerably surprising 2015 report, it was revealed that the U.S. Department of Defense paid NFL groups greater than $5 million from 2011 to 2014 to provide public shows of help for the navy, together with honor guards, field-sized flags and “Hometown Heroes” segments on the Jumbotron calling consideration to vets within the crowd.

The DOD defended spending thousands and thousands for pro-military shows, calling it a useful recruitment device and never “paid patriotism.” Either manner, the follow stopped as soon as the report went public.

America Versus Europe

How does America’s patriotic sports activities tradition evaluate with the remainder of the world? Polley, from the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, says that you simply will not hear nationwide anthems at common membership matches in any of Europe’s main soccer leagues, however anthems are performed in the course of the World Cup when nationwide groups are competing.

English soccer followers completely see the game as a part of their nationwide id, Polley says, and crowds will typically chant navy tunes that harken again to World War II. There are some ways by which sports-fueled patriotism is expressed in England, and never all of them wholesome.

“For some people, supporting the national team is a patriotic act, and it doesn’t need to be dressed up with flags and anthems,” says Polley in an e mail. “For others, the rituals associated with flags and anthems are central, and they might also wear clothes that express this, or paint their faces with national flags. For others, beating up fans from other nations around the game is part of how they like to express their national pride.”

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[thepearlsourceposts]

When I look back upon Wednesday, November 9, 2016, I realize it was a very interesting day for me. As I watched the news that morning, the news struck me… Donald Trump is actually our president. I wasn’t quite sure, just yet, how I felt about it. But, as he stepped up to make speeches for the media, one thing caught my eye… the fashion style of Melania Trump. I watched her as she wooed the press with her smile and style. Her fashion sense said a lot. It was definitely classy and demanded attention.

I asked myself, could she ever match up to the remarkable fashion sense of Former First Lady Michelle Obama? Would Melania Trump ever actually look the part of the First Lady of the United States of America?

Former first lady notable fashion style

What Made Michelle Obama’s Fashion Style So Remarkable?

Anytime Michelle Obama stepped out in front of the camera’s eye, she gave the women of America a sense of pride. We were proud to know her, proud to love her and proud to call her our First Lady. She exudes class. And, she brightens up the entire room when she steps inside.

This was the very first Presidential First Lady to fashionably impress the masses during my lifetime. As I look at images of former White House Queens, I realize, none has graced the Presidential Home with such style and grace since Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy.

And, what impressed many of us, even more, was the fact that Mrs. Obama actively supports American designers. She’s had a serious influence on pop culture, without even trying. Fashion designer and celebrity stylist, Brandon Maxwell, dressed her for the cover of InStyle and the State Dinner in Singapore.

No one would have ever guessed he’s the same stylist who helped to create the eye-popping gear worn by Lady Gaga. But, unlike the pop singer, Maxwell’s creations made Michelle Obama look like the real queen she truly is… inside and out.

However, for the Former First Lady, it was not about looking good just to be popular. During these days, it was about her rallying to support new art and the artists behind it. She was a woman with purpose, and she always dressed the part.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama: Her Fashion Told a Story

To this day, even after leaving the White House, anytime we see Mrs. Obama, her outfit is telling us a story. Fashion bloggers have reported seeing her in London fashion houses anytime she visits the UK. And, when she went to check on the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she dressed the part there, too.

The Former First Lady was captured wearing blue jeans and a pair of flats. Her shirt sleeves were up to her elbows, more than likely because she had plans to put in work. At some point, Michelle even changed into a pair of tennis shoes. Yet, her style was still remarkable.

First Lady Melania Trump: Modern FLOTUS Attire

During a CBS 60 Minutes interview with the Trump Family, Melania Trump was stared down by Lesley Stahl. She didn’t flinch an inch. I guess she’d already been warned that First Ladies must present themselves as “perfect” figures in public.

She handled herself gracefully. And, not one of Melania’s hairs were out of place.

Throughout Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign, Melania’s fashion style was both appropriate and sophisticated. One fashion blogger called it “modern FLOTUS attire.” Her look was modest, yet sleek, well-tailored, yet trendy. So, when her husband won the race for office, she could only go up from there.

Melania really got noticed by the fashion world at the Presidential Inauguration. She was the air of sophistication in her sky-blue skirt suit, fit for Jackie O herself. Thanks to her, designers sold out of some of the pieces she wore that day almost instantly.

Although she’s nothing like Michelle Obama, First Lady Melania Trump does have the allure of a White House Queen.

Many have noted that Melania does quite a bit of her own shopping. Designers such as Gucci, Roksanda, and Antonio Berardi seem to be among her favorites. She turned to Hervé Pierre to dress her for the Inaugural Ball. She looked amazing in her elegant gown.

Melania Trump… Are You Ready?

The Former First Lady graced us with her ladylike presence. When it came to her wardrobe, there were both highs and lows. She wore what was appropriate when necessary. But, she knew what to wear when it was time to have fun.

Mrs. Obama wooed us with her fashion style. Her clothes always flattered her figure. We got many chances to see her toned up arms. She even lifted our spirits with her colorful, festive holiday gear. Oftentimes, such outfits were actually worn in support of particular countries or cultures, because the issues always mattered.

As First Lady, Michelle Obama’s attire was well thought out, bold and brave. Her outfits always said, “I’m proud to be an American.” Now, the question is… “Melania Trump, are you ready for the challenge?”

The post Former First Lady Notable Fashion Style: Can Melania Trump Compete? appeared first on Pearls of Wisdom.

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[cynthiajayusa]

Miami Beach Gay Pride Announces Marshals For 2017

Honoring Four Individuals Who Significantly Contribute to the LGBT Community

For the first time in its nine-year history, Miami Beach Gay Pride will honor four individuals who have made significant contributions to the LGBT community as Pride Marshals. Television personality and pop culture expert Ross Mathews will serve as Grand Marshal; celebrity bartender and cast member of iHeart Radio’s “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” “Uncle” Johnny Pool, will serve as the Advocate Marshal; and philanthropists and advocates Liebe and Seth Gadinsky will serve as Ally Marshals. Miami Beach Gay Pride is presented by Celebrity Cruises and runs April 7 to 9, 2017. “We are really proud to expand our Marshal program this year,” said Mark Fernandes, chair of the Pride board. “As an organization and an event, it is critical that we embody the diversity and inclusiveness of the entire community we serve. We can think of no better way to live up to that promise than by celebrating the accomplishments and efforts of these four outstanding leaders.”

Openly gay comedian, TV host and author Ross Mathews will serve as Miami Beach Gay Pride’s Grand Marshal leading the loud and colorful parade that’s expected to draw over 130,000 spectators this year. Mathews is a strong supporter of the Human Rights Campaign, speaking at many of their nationwide events and receiving their Visibility Award in 2011. He has hosted the GLAAD Media Awards, officiated a same-sex marriage from a float in the middle of Capital Pride in Washington D.C., and recently produced a widely hailed video response to a personally degrading comment made by Milo Yiannopoulos during his resignation press conference as senior editor at Breitbart.

Of his video response, The Advocate later reported: “Knowing he can be an example for kids across the world who don’t have positive role models is what drives him most, (Mathews)  went on to say, ‘I’m afraid that the kids like me out there now will see his message and not my message. So I want every kid out there who is different, who feels different, who knows that they’re different to know that that’s good.’” Mathews entered the public psyche as “Ross the Intern,” a correspondent on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Currently, Mathews can be seen hosting the nationally syndicated daily entertainment talk show “Hollywood Today Live,” which was just renewed for its second season. He’s part of the E! Network’s red carpet commentary team and has guest judged on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.”

 In addition to his work on television, Mathews can be heard weekly on his top rated podcast “Straight Talk with Ross Mathews” [PodcastOne] where he gives his hilarious take on the latest entertainment news and gossip.

 In 2013, Mathews released his first book, “Man Up: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence” [Grand Central Publishing], which quickly became a national bestseller. “Man Up” takes readers inside Mathews’ personal journey from coming out to his family, to becoming a super fan, while revealing the most embarrassing and hysterical moments of his small town life and big city adventures. It chronicles his journey of how he managed to turn an obsession with pop culture into one-on-one interactions with A-List celebrities.

“Uncle” Johnny Pool is a legendary bartender who bartended at the world-famous Stonewall Inn in the 1960s. He was an active participant in the Stonewall Riots, widely credited as the beginning of the equal rights movement, and has since fought for the equality of all human beings regardless of sexuality or skin tone. The Advocate Marshal, new for 2017, honors an individual who has fought tirelessly for LGBTQ equal rights.

Pool got his start bartending in Cherry Grove on Fire Island where he has worked for over 53 years. His career began at The Beach Hotel & Club in Cherry Grove in 1964, which would later become The Ice Palace. He currently works at Cherry’s on the Bay and is celebrating his 17th year this summer. With over 53 consecutive years bartending at the legendary LGBTQ summer destination, Pool has seen it all. Now he can be heard as the oldest living intern on “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” the #1 top 40 radio show in the country, where he bartends on a weekly basis. Johnny is best known on the show for his infectious greeting, “Hello Lady”, as well as his sometimes irreverent knock-knock jokes. To celebrate “Uncle Johnny” and his decades of fighting for equal rights, Miami Beach Gay Pride will turn one the bars in Lummus Park into Cherry’s on the Bay and Pool will make special appearances at the bar to mix his favorite cocktail recipes. Bartenders throughout the Pride Festival will also wear “Hello Lady” buttons.

 Also new for 2017, the Allied Marshal pays tribute to LGBTQ-allied individuals who have championed social justice and human rights. Liebe and Seth Gadinsky have devoted over two decades to advancing social justice. Seth serves on, and formerly chaired, the board of the Anti-Defamation League in Florida. Liebe is dedicated to building community through her volunteer efforts, having distinguished herself as a strong supporter and advocate for human rights. Through her volunteer work for SAVE (Safeguarding American Values for Everyone), she worked tirelessly to help pass and defend the Miami-Dade Human Rights Ordinance. She served on the Board of The Miami Foundation and its GLBT Community Projects Fund Advisory Board. Liebe currently serves on the board of the National LGBTQ Task Force and formerly served as the first straight ally to chair the board. Additionally, she has spent the last 10 years helping ensure the success of the Task Force Gala – Miami. Together, Seth and Liebe are passionate supporters of myriad LGBT organizations in Miami-Dade and beyond.

Since its inception in 2009, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown from a neighborhood event to an event on the global stage with A-list celebrities such as Elvis Duran as Grand Marshal in 2016 and Jordin Sparks as headline entertainer. Mario Lopez was Grand Marshal in 2015, Gloria Estefan was Grand Marshal in 2014 and Adam Lambert performed in 2013. Attendance has grown as well. An estimated 15,000 spectators turned out for the first Pride parade in 2009; an estimated 130,000 attended the event in 2016, which attracted not only South Floridians, but also visitors from throughout the world. In addition to Parade spectators, last April’s event included more than 65 parade contingencies, 35 floats and 2,700 participants. The Pride Festival which followed featured more than 100 LGBTQ-friendly vendors and businesses, plus refreshments, two stages of entertainment, a family-friendly play area and fireworks. Recently, Miami Beach Gay Pride was named one of the “Top 100 Events of the Year” for the third year in a row by BizBash Magazine and earned the Pink Flamingo Award as favorite multi-day event for the fourth year in a row. For 2017, Miami Beach Gay Pride will be a full, three-day weekend, April 7 – 9, and will include a Friday night VIP Reception, Saturday beach party and festival, and Sunday parade and festival.

 Miami Beach Gay Pride is produced with the support of the Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority.  In addition to Celebrity Cruises as the presenting sponsor, other sponsors include: 1015 Multimedia; AHF; Ambiente / Unity Coalition; Artfood Staffing & Hospitality; Atlantic Broadband; Bank of America; Barefoot Wine & Bubbly; Bayou Rum; BB&T; Brown-Forman; Blick Art Materials; Chase; City of Miami Beach; Coca-Cola; Crunch; Craig Zinn Automotive Group; CVSHealth; Delmay and Partners; Fertility & IVF Center of Miami; G.H. Cretors, Cornfields; Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; Gulfstream Park; Hiro Sake; Herradura; HotSpots / Mark’s List / Genre Latino; iHeart Radio: 103.5 The Beat, 93.9 MIA, Enrique Santos, Tu 94.9, Y100; Jack Daniels; Jackson Health System; Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; Miami Gay Blog; Monster Energy; NBC6 / Telemundo; Palette Magazine; Pollo Tropical; Pride.com; Source Events; Salvation; Score; South Beach Hotel Group; Spartacus; Stoli; T Mobile; TD Bank; The Gaythering; The Hub at the LGBT Visitor Center; The Palace; Twist; URGE; Walgreens; W South Beach Hotel; Washington Park Hotel; Wet; and Wire Magazine. For more information visit www.miamibeachgaypride.com.

source https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2017/03/08/miami-beach-gay-pride-announces-marshals-for-2017/ from Hot Spots Magazine http://hotspotsmagazin.blogspot.com/2017/03/miami-beach-gay-pride-announces.html

[demitgibbs]

Miami Beach Gay Pride Announces Marshals For 2017

Honoring Four Individuals Who Significantly Contribute to the LGBT Community

For the first time in its nine-year history, Miami Beach Gay Pride will honor four individuals who have made significant contributions to the LGBT community as Pride Marshals. Television personality and pop culture expert Ross Mathews will serve as Grand Marshal; celebrity bartender and cast member of iHeart Radio’s “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” “Uncle” Johnny Pool, will serve as the Advocate Marshal; and philanthropists and advocates Liebe and Seth Gadinsky will serve as Ally Marshals. Miami Beach Gay Pride is presented by Celebrity Cruises and runs April 7 to 9, 2017. “We are really proud to expand our Marshal program this year,” said Mark Fernandes, chair of the Pride board. “As an organization and an event, it is critical that we embody the diversity and inclusiveness of the entire community we serve. We can think of no better way to live up to that promise than by celebrating the accomplishments and efforts of these four outstanding leaders.”

Openly gay comedian, TV host and author Ross Mathews will serve as Miami Beach Gay Pride’s Grand Marshal leading the loud and colorful parade that’s expected to draw over 130,000 spectators this year. Mathews is a strong supporter of the Human Rights Campaign, speaking at many of their nationwide events and receiving their Visibility Award in 2011. He has hosted the GLAAD Media Awards, officiated a same-sex marriage from a float in the middle of Capital Pride in Washington D.C., and recently produced a widely hailed video response to a personally degrading comment made by Milo Yiannopoulos during his resignation press conference as senior editor at Breitbart.

Of his video response, The Advocate later reported: “Knowing he can be an example for kids across the world who don’t have positive role models is what drives him most, (Mathews)  went on to say, ‘I’m afraid that the kids like me out there now will see his message and not my message. So I want every kid out there who is different, who feels different, who knows that they’re different to know that that’s good.’” Mathews entered the public psyche as “Ross the Intern,” a correspondent on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Currently, Mathews can be seen hosting the nationally syndicated daily entertainment talk show “Hollywood Today Live,” which was just renewed for its second season. He’s part of the E! Network’s red carpet commentary team and has guest judged on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.”

In addition to his work on television, Mathews can be heard weekly on his top rated podcast “Straight Talk with Ross Mathews” [PodcastOne] where he gives his hilarious take on the latest entertainment news and gossip.

In 2013, Mathews released his first book, “Man Up: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence” [Grand Central Publishing], which quickly became a national bestseller. “Man Up” takes readers inside Mathews’ personal journey from coming out to his family, to becoming a super fan, while revealing the most embarrassing and hysterical moments of his small town life and big city adventures. It chronicles his journey of how he managed to turn an obsession with pop culture into one-on-one interactions with A-List celebrities.

“Uncle” Johnny Pool is a legendary bartender who bartended at the world-famous Stonewall Inn in the 1960s. He was an active participant in the Stonewall Riots, widely credited as the beginning of the equal rights movement, and has since fought for the equality of all human beings regardless of sexuality or skin tone. The Advocate Marshal, new for 2017, honors an individual who has fought tirelessly for LGBTQ equal rights.

Pool got his start bartending in Cherry Grove on Fire Island where he has worked for over 53 years. His career began at The Beach Hotel & Club in Cherry Grove in 1964, which would later become The Ice Palace. He currently works at Cherry’s on the Bay and is celebrating his 17th year this summer. With over 53 consecutive years bartending at the legendary LGBTQ summer destination, Pool has seen it all. Now he can be heard as the oldest living intern on “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” the #1 top 40 radio show in the country, where he bartends on a weekly basis. Johnny is best known on the show for his infectious greeting, “Hello Lady”, as well as his sometimes irreverent knock-knock jokes. To celebrate “Uncle Johnny” and his decades of fighting for equal rights, Miami Beach Gay Pride will turn one the bars in Lummus Park into Cherry’s on the Bay and Pool will make special appearances at the bar to mix his favorite cocktail recipes. Bartenders throughout the Pride Festival will also wear “Hello Lady” buttons.

Also new for 2017, the Allied Marshal pays tribute to LGBTQ-allied individuals who have championed social justice and human rights. Liebe and Seth Gadinsky have devoted over two decades to advancing social justice. Seth serves on, and formerly chaired, the board of the Anti-Defamation League in Florida. Liebe is dedicated to building community through her volunteer efforts, having distinguished herself as a strong supporter and advocate for human rights. Through her volunteer work for SAVE (Safeguarding American Values for Everyone), she worked tirelessly to help pass and defend the Miami-Dade Human Rights Ordinance. She served on the Board of The Miami Foundation and its GLBT Community Projects Fund Advisory Board. Liebe currently serves on the board of the National LGBTQ Task Force and formerly served as the first straight ally to chair the board. Additionally, she has spent the last 10 years helping ensure the success of the Task Force Gala – Miami. Together, Seth and Liebe are passionate supporters of myriad LGBT organizations in Miami-Dade and beyond.

Since its inception in 2009, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown from a neighborhood event to an event on the global stage with A-list celebrities such as Elvis Duran as Grand Marshal in 2016 and Jordin Sparks as headline entertainer. Mario Lopez was Grand Marshal in 2015, Gloria Estefan was Grand Marshal in 2014 and Adam Lambert performed in 2013. Attendance has grown as well. An estimated 15,000 spectators turned out for the first Pride parade in 2009; an estimated 130,000 attended the event in 2016, which attracted not only South Floridians, but also visitors from throughout the world. In addition to Parade spectators, last April’s event included more than 65 parade contingencies, 35 floats and 2,700 participants. The Pride Festival which followed featured more than 100 LGBTQ-friendly vendors and businesses, plus refreshments, two stages of entertainment, a family-friendly play area and fireworks. Recently, Miami Beach Gay Pride was named one of the “Top 100 Events of the Year” for the third year in a row by BizBash Magazine and earned the Pink Flamingo Award as favorite multi-day event for the fourth year in a row. For 2017, Miami Beach Gay Pride will be a full, three-day weekend, April 7 – 9, and will include a Friday night VIP Reception, Saturday beach party and festival, and Sunday parade and festival.

Miami Beach Gay Pride is produced with the support of the Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority.  In addition to Celebrity Cruises as the presenting sponsor, other sponsors include: 1015 Multimedia; AHF; Ambiente / Unity Coalition; Artfood Staffing & Hospitality; Atlantic Broadband; Bank of America; Barefoot Wine & Bubbly; Bayou Rum; BB&T; Brown-Forman; Blick Art Materials; Chase; City of Miami Beach; Coca-Cola; Crunch; Craig Zinn Automotive Group; CVSHealth; Delmay and Partners; Fertility & IVF Center of Miami; G.H. Cretors, Cornfields; Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; Gulfstream Park; Hiro Sake; Herradura; HotSpots / Mark’s List / Genre Latino; iHeart Radio: 103.5 The Beat, 93.9 MIA, Enrique Santos, Tu 94.9, Y100; Jack Daniels; Jackson Health System; Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; Miami Gay Blog; Monster Energy; NBC6 / Telemundo; Palette Magazine; Pollo Tropical; Pride.com; Source Events; Salvation; Score; South Beach Hotel Group; Spartacus; Stoli; T Mobile; TD Bank; The Gaythering; The Hub at the LGBT Visitor Center; The Palace; Twist; URGE; Walgreens; W South Beach Hotel; Washington Park Hotel; Wet; and Wire Magazine. For more information visit www.miamibeachgaypride.com.

from Hotspots! Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2017/03/08/miami-beach-gay-pride-announces-marshals-for-2017/ from Hot Spots Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.tumblr.com/post/158154135840

[hotspotsmagazine]

Miami Beach Gay Pride Announces Marshals For 2017

Honoring Four Individuals Who Significantly Contribute to the LGBT Community

For the first time in its nine-year history, Miami Beach Gay Pride will honor four individuals who have made significant contributions to the LGBT community as Pride Marshals. Television personality and pop culture expert Ross Mathews will serve as Grand Marshal; celebrity bartender and cast member of iHeart Radio’s “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” “Uncle” Johnny Pool, will serve as the Advocate Marshal; and philanthropists and advocates Liebe and Seth Gadinsky will serve as Ally Marshals. Miami Beach Gay Pride is presented by Celebrity Cruises and runs April 7 to 9, 2017. “We are really proud to expand our Marshal program this year,” said Mark Fernandes, chair of the Pride board. “As an organization and an event, it is critical that we embody the diversity and inclusiveness of the entire community we serve. We can think of no better way to live up to that promise than by celebrating the accomplishments and efforts of these four outstanding leaders.”

Openly gay comedian, TV host and author Ross Mathews will serve as Miami Beach Gay Pride’s Grand Marshal leading the loud and colorful parade that’s expected to draw over 130,000 spectators this year. Mathews is a strong supporter of the Human Rights Campaign, speaking at many of their nationwide events and receiving their Visibility Award in 2011. He has hosted the GLAAD Media Awards, officiated a same-sex marriage from a float in the middle of Capital Pride in Washington D.C., and recently produced a widely hailed video response to a personally degrading comment made by Milo Yiannopoulos during his resignation press conference as senior editor at Breitbart.

Of his video response, The Advocate later reported: “Knowing he can be an example for kids across the world who don’t have positive role models is what drives him most, (Mathews)  went on to say, ‘I’m afraid that the kids like me out there now will see his message and not my message. So I want every kid out there who is different, who feels different, who knows that they’re different to know that that’s good.’” Mathews entered the public psyche as “Ross the Intern,” a correspondent on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Currently, Mathews can be seen hosting the nationally syndicated daily entertainment talk show “Hollywood Today Live,” which was just renewed for its second season. He’s part of the E! Network’s red carpet commentary team and has guest judged on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race.”

  In addition to his work on television, Mathews can be heard weekly on his top rated podcast “Straight Talk with Ross Mathews” [PodcastOne] where he gives his hilarious take on the latest entertainment news and gossip.

  In 2013, Mathews released his first book, “Man Up: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence” [Grand Central Publishing], which quickly became a national bestseller. “Man Up” takes readers inside Mathews’ personal journey from coming out to his family, to becoming a super fan, while revealing the most embarrassing and hysterical moments of his small town life and big city adventures. It chronicles his journey of how he managed to turn an obsession with pop culture into one-on-one interactions with A-List celebrities.

“Uncle” Johnny Pool is a legendary bartender who bartended at the world-famous Stonewall Inn in the 1960s. He was an active participant in the Stonewall Riots, widely credited as the beginning of the equal rights movement, and has since fought for the equality of all human beings regardless of sexuality or skin tone. The Advocate Marshal, new for 2017, honors an individual who has fought tirelessly for LGBTQ equal rights.

Pool got his start bartending in Cherry Grove on Fire Island where he has worked for over 53 years. His career began at The Beach Hotel & Club in Cherry Grove in 1964, which would later become The Ice Palace. He currently works at Cherry’s on the Bay and is celebrating his 17th year this summer. With over 53 consecutive years bartending at the legendary LGBTQ summer destination, Pool has seen it all. Now he can be heard as the oldest living intern on “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” the #1 top 40 radio show in the country, where he bartends on a weekly basis. Johnny is best known on the show for his infectious greeting, “Hello Lady”, as well as his sometimes irreverent knock-knock jokes. To celebrate “Uncle Johnny” and his decades of fighting for equal rights, Miami Beach Gay Pride will turn one the bars in Lummus Park into Cherry’s on the Bay and Pool will make special appearances at the bar to mix his favorite cocktail recipes. Bartenders throughout the Pride Festival will also wear “Hello Lady” buttons.

  Also new for 2017, the Allied Marshal pays tribute to LGBTQ-allied individuals who have championed social justice and human rights. Liebe and Seth Gadinsky have devoted over two decades to advancing social justice. Seth serves on, and formerly chaired, the board of the Anti-Defamation League in Florida. Liebe is dedicated to building community through her volunteer efforts, having distinguished herself as a strong supporter and advocate for human rights. Through her volunteer work for SAVE (Safeguarding American Values for Everyone), she worked tirelessly to help pass and defend the Miami-Dade Human Rights Ordinance. She served on the Board of The Miami Foundation and its GLBT Community Projects Fund Advisory Board. Liebe currently serves on the board of the National LGBTQ Task Force and formerly served as the first straight ally to chair the board. Additionally, she has spent the last 10 years helping ensure the success of the Task Force Gala – Miami. Together, Seth and Liebe are passionate supporters of myriad LGBT organizations in Miami-Dade and beyond.

Since its inception in 2009, Miami Beach Gay Pride has grown from a neighborhood event to an event on the global stage with A-list celebrities such as Elvis Duran as Grand Marshal in 2016 and Jordin Sparks as headline entertainer. Mario Lopez was Grand Marshal in 2015, Gloria Estefan was Grand Marshal in 2014 and Adam Lambert performed in 2013. Attendance has grown as well. An estimated 15,000 spectators turned out for the first Pride parade in 2009; an estimated 130,000 attended the event in 2016, which attracted not only South Floridians, but also visitors from throughout the world. In addition to Parade spectators, last April’s event included more than 65 parade contingencies, 35 floats and 2,700 participants. The Pride Festival which followed featured more than 100 LGBTQ-friendly vendors and businesses, plus refreshments, two stages of entertainment, a family-friendly play area and fireworks. Recently, Miami Beach Gay Pride was named one of the “Top 100 Events of the Year” for the third year in a row by BizBash Magazine and earned the Pink Flamingo Award as favorite multi-day event for the fourth year in a row. For 2017, Miami Beach Gay Pride will be a full, three-day weekend, April 7 – 9, and will include a Friday night VIP Reception, Saturday beach party and festival, and Sunday parade and festival.

  Miami Beach Gay Pride is produced with the support of the Miami Beach Visitors and Convention Authority.  In addition to Celebrity Cruises as the presenting sponsor, other sponsors include: 1015 Multimedia; AHF; Ambiente / Unity Coalition; Artfood Staffing & Hospitality; Atlantic Broadband; Bank of America; Barefoot Wine & Bubbly; Bayou Rum; BB&T; Brown-Forman; Blick Art Materials; Chase; City of Miami Beach; Coca-Cola; Crunch; Craig Zinn Automotive Group; CVSHealth; Delmay and Partners; Fertility & IVF Center of Miami; G.H. Cretors, Cornfields; Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau; Gulfstream Park; Hiro Sake; Herradura; HotSpots / Mark’s List / Genre Latino; iHeart Radio: 103.5 The Beat, 93.9 MIA, Enrique Santos, Tu 94.9, Y100; Jack Daniels; Jackson Health System; Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; Miami Gay Blog; Monster Energy; NBC6 / Telemundo; Palette Magazine; Pollo Tropical; Pride.com; Source Events; Salvation; Score; South Beach Hotel Group; Spartacus; Stoli; T Mobile; TD Bank; The Gaythering; The Hub at the LGBT Visitor Center; The Palace; Twist; URGE; Walgreens; W South Beach Hotel; Washington Park Hotel; Wet; and Wire Magazine. For more information visit www.miamibeachgaypride.com.

from Hotspots! Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2017/03/08/miami-beach-gay-pride-announces-marshals-for-2017/