After careful consideration and with great respect for our community, the Tucson Pride Board of Directors has voted to cancel the in-person Annual Tucson Pride Parade and Festival this year. In its place, Tucson Pride is taking the annual celebration virtual in October 2020, in honor of National Coming Out Month. This decision was not made lightly; the board has carefully monitored Covid-19 guidelines and recommendations from authorities on local, state, and national levels, as well as explored all available alternatives. With the support of Arizona Virtual Pride and our community, we are looking forward to bringing a quality virtual event this October we hope you will find engaging and entertaining.…
Tucson Pride has earned the 2020 Platinum Seal of Transparency, the highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar, a service of Candid. By sharing metrics that highlight progress Tucson Pride is making toward its mission, the organization is helping donors move beyond simplistic ways of nonprofit evaluation such as overhead ratios. “In accordance with our long-held belief in being transparent about our work,” said Sam Cloud, Board of Directors President “we are excited to convey our organization’s results in a user-friendly and highly visual manner. By updating our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile to the Platinum level, we can now easily share a wealth of up-to-date organizational metrics with our supporters as well…
Despite COVID-19 related fundraising woes, the Tucson Pride Veterans Project (TPVP) will launch in large part due to a funding boost from the Safeway Foundation. Earlier this week, the Foundation awarded a $2,000 start-up grant to TPVP. TPVP was created to address difficulties faced by LGBTQ+ service members and veterans. Namely social isolation, mental illness, unemployment, chronic homelessness, and veteran suicide. These problems are amplified for LGBTQ+ veterans due to historically discriminatory policy and attitudes toward LGBTQ+ service members. Discrimination against LGBTQ+ service members goes back as far as the Revolutionary War. Following World War I, the military made the act of sodomy a crime subject to punishment by court-martial. By…
MANY VOICES, ONE COMMUNITY: Arizona Entertainers Raise $1,005 for Navajo Nation COIVD-19 Relief Fund
An all-star cast of Arizona entertainers came together on July 5, 2020 to host Many Voices: One Community, a virtual benefit show raising funds for the Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund. The show; organized and hosted by 2019-2020 Tucson Pride Royalty, Lucinda Holiday and Justin Deeper-Love, brought together a diverse line-up of talent. Many Voices, Once Community included title holders and representatives from various Arizona LGBTQ+ organizations including; Tucson Pride, Phoenix Pride, Diné Pride, the Imperial Court of Arizona, Grand Canyon Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and the Arizona Gay Rodeo Association (AGRA). The show featured the talents of: Eddie Broadway: Mr. Trans USA Felicia Minor Gray Matter Té. D. Diamond: Miss…
TUCSON, Arizona – September 20, 2019 – Tucson Pride kicked off Pride Week 2019 with a royal affair at St. Philips Plaza. Following a commanding performance in the newly overhauled Tucson Pride Royalty Competition, Lucinda Holliday and Justin Deeper-Love were crowned as the 2019 Tucson Pride Royalty. Lucinda and Justin were crowned in matching crowns created by Tucson Pride sponsor, Krikawa Jewelry Designs. The pair also received performance crowns by Made for a Queen. The fundraising duo ascended to royal status after raising a staggering $21,731.50 for Tucson Pride. The team’s strategy included a line-up of events ranging from traditional bar shows to two all ages brunch shows which featured youth…
Tucson Pride is excited to announce a new format for the contestants of Tucson Pride Royalty. We, here at Tucson Pride, are committed to unifying, celebrating, and strengthening the LGBTQ+ community of Southern Arizona through advocacy, education, leadership, and support. The new format seeks to revisit our roots and is based solely upon fundraising, with no pageantry involved. In recognition of years gone by and the importance of grassroots fundraising, we’ve decided that this is the best avenue to involve the entire community. The Tucson Pride Royalty contest is open to all ages and gender expressions. All that is required to compete is a two person team with a touch of…
Tucson Lesbian and Gay Alliance, commonly known as Tucson Pride is an all-volunteer administered and operated nonprofit that produces and promotes cultural, educational, and recreational events for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in Tucson, Arizona and beyond. Tucson Pride was founded in 1977 making it Arizona’s first and longest established LGBTQ Organization. Each year, Tucson Pride hosts the Annual Pride in the Desert festivities, including a well attended Pride Parade and the Pride in the Park Festival. OUR PAST While most Pride events in the US commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York, Tucson has its own reasons beyond that of other cities. The Tucson Pride history began…
This #GivingTuesday, the Tucson Lesbian and Gay Alliance (Tucson Pride) will celebrate giving by honoring the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall through the coming year by offering a variety of social and educational events in our community. #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide. Following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this year’s #GivingTuesday will take place on November 27th and will kick off the giving season by inspiring people to collaborate and give back. The Tucson Lesbian and Gay Alliance, Arizona’s oldest LGBT organization was founded 1977…
Dear Community, Integrity and transparency is of the utmost importance when serving a community. As such, with heavy and humble hearts your Tucson Pride Board of Directors wishes to inform our community of an error made and the action being taken to correct it. Recently, as one of the newly implemented processes this year in the ongoing effort to develop sustainable structure, an internal review of the Mr and Miss Tucson Pride Pageant 2018 held on August 26, 2018 was conducted. The results of the internal review indicated a series of errors had been made. An internal review panel of 8 individuals consisting of contestants, board members, community members, and individuals with…
Tucson Pride is turning over a new leaf with the 2018 Tucson Pride Parade. Consistent with this year’s “New Beginnings” theme, a number of changes have unfolded as this year’s parade approaches including the addition of a first-time Title Sponsor, Intuit, newly crowned Tucson Pride royalty, and a new location. With the support of the City of Tucson, and considering the feedback from the community, we will bring our parade out of the dark and into the light. The parade will be the morning of September 29th, 2018, at 11:00AM. There is no cost to attend the parade. The route will take us down Country Club from Broadway and into Reid…
This year, our Pride community said farewell to two extraordinary lives. In recognition of these two community-minded individuals, the Board of Directors voted to extend posthumous recognition to Stephanie Anne Donoghue and Janette Bunge as this year’s Grand Marshals Stephanie Anne Donoghue Stephanie lived an eventful life in which she served both her country and her community. Stephanie is a veteran of the United States Air Force. After separating from the Air Force, she went on to a career in the aerospace and defense industries, where she worked as a software developer. Following her retirement, Stephanie occupied her time by volunteering with numerous LGBTQ organizations. Most notably, Stephanie logged hundreds of…
A Comedy Show Benefiting Tucson Pride Hosted by Tucson’s Queen of Comedy, Lucinda Holliday Featuring Kristine Levine, and special guest comedians. Doors Open 6pm, Show begins 7pm This is a 21 and over show. Cash bar. The Cast Lucinda Holliday Lucinda Holliday – Tucson’s Queen of Comedy, Lucinda is Tucson’s longest running drag queen, who has received several awards for his achievements in fundraising, and community engagement, including a lifetime achievement award. Lucinda owns a renowned jewelry company madeforaqueen.com. Lucinda is from a small town in Iowa and moved to Tucson, where she began a new life, to become a treasure to the local community, as well as a drag icon. Kristine…
TUCSON, Arizona – June 16, 2018 – Former President of Tucson Pride, Jimmy “James” West has been arraigned on multiple felony counts in the Superior Court of Arizona, in Pima County. According to the indictment, a Grand Jury charged West with three felony counts including Fraudulent Scheme and Artifice, Felony Theft, and Computer Tampering. West will be in court again on July 17, 2018 at 9:00AM. West’s charges stem from alleged misappropriation of Tucson Pride resources throughout 2017, while he served as the President of Tucson Pride. The Board of Directors became aware of West’s alleged activity on September 23, 2017. West was immediately removed from his position and the Board of…
TUCSON, Arizona – June 15, 2018 – Less than one month after receiving a Bronze Seal of Transparency, Tucson Pride is proud to announce the organization has now been recognized a second time for transparency with the 2018 Gold Seal on our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile! GuideStar is the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. More than 8 million visitors per year and a network of 200+ partners use GuideStar data to grow support for nonprofits. In order to get the 2018 Gold Seal, Tucson Pride shared important information with the public using our profile on www.guidestar.org. Now our community members and potential donors can find in-depth information about our goals, strategies, capabilities,…
When you think about attending a large event, whether it be a concert, festival, or convention, you are probably not spending a whole lot of time thinking about safety plans. As attendees, we tend to trust our safety has been considered and planned for while we focus on fun, just as it should be. Nevertheless, behind every large event, there is a team of people, whose primary focus is public safety, planning every detail and aspect in conjunction with law enforcement, security, and even city officials. “In this day and age, with active shooter situations occurring more and more frequently, planning evacuation routes and emergency response strategies is no longer enough,”…