June is well known as Pride month in most parts of the world – an homage to the Stonewall riots in late June of 1969.   As I write this, I’m at LGBT Week in New YStonewall Inn 1969” target=”_blank”>Stonewallork City where it all happened.  The conference is an “open source” mosaic of events and activities. People from all over the world are attending and organizers include our friends at /LGBT Brandvoice by Pink Banana Media and CMI Community Marketing & Insights.  They are the company who asked you to fill out a survey on LGBTQ consumer habits.  Those results help “make the case” for brands, organizations and government agencies to pay attention to our community and steer resources our way.
 
 Today we got a lesson in pronouns for myriad gender identities from a Millennial (who prefers they/them). I’m still wrapping my head around it all. (Google “The Genderbread Person”).  The accelerated pace of humankind continues to amaze and, sometimes, amuse me.  It’s almost surreal when I think about my coming out process in the late 1980s, and even more so to think that Mary and Rob Petry slept in separate twin beds as a married couple in the 1960s TV series, The Dick Van Dyke Show. The times they have a-changed!
Pride takes on new meaning this year as we have an unexpected swing to the right on the political spectrum, and uncertainty is the watchword of the day. New CMI research shows that we as an LGBTQ community are more likely than ever to attend a Pride celebration this year.  Ours waits until cooler temperatures prevail in November.  You’ll find both Leather Pride and Palm Springs Pride on our calendar on the back page of this supplement.
Pride celebrations happen all around us in June, as our frenetic pace of events settles down for a long summer’s nap!  According to our partners at the Los Angeles Blade, “This year, Christopher Street West celebrates the right to demonstrate with #ResistMarch, an all-inclusive march that will take place on June 11th.
The march begins at Hollywood & Vine and will work its way through the city, ending at West Hollywood Park where participants can continue celebrating at the LA Pride Festival.” Palm Springs holds our version on the same day and we’ll have details online.
And we’ve partnered with the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce and Desert Business Association for a June Pride Month Mixer on Arenas Road on Monday, June 19th.  Win prizes when checking in at participating businesses with #ILoveGayPalmSprings. 
 
Orange County Pride is June 24th and GayDesertGuide will be on hand for the festival and the parade.  That’s the same weekend as San Francisco Pride.
June in the valley includes the first weekend of Splash House June 9-11.  There’s some great talent for both weekends.  The pool party lineup includes performances from Bonobo, Kaytranada, Hot Chip, Thomas Jack, Big Gigantic and more. 
You can keep your cool at the cinema with the Palm Springs Short Film Festival June 20 – 26.  There’s an LGBT track that we’ll highlight on our Events calendar at GayDesertGuide.LGBT.
And there’s one last event to close out the month you may not have heard about: The Palm Springs Swing & Mix 2017, the international gathering of the gay square dancers.  There are two local clubs participating and helping to organize the event:  Boots In Squares and Windmill Twirlers. They look forward to working with the LGBTQ* dance community and their straight friends and dance buddies to create a welcoming event for all who seek to dance together.
 
And we look forward to helping you enjoy June here in the Coachella Valley.  Follow us on social media @GayDesertGuide and sign up for our weekly “This Weekend in #ILoveGayPalmSprings” newsletter on our Facebook page.  As always, we invite you to share and comment!