Happy Pride Month

Every June I celebrate the whole month. Being an openly gay woman in California is one of the lucks of my life. I was active in the LGBTQI equality movement, fought for the HIV/AIDS movement to be recognized by our government while so many young men died, marched in pride events, protested the passage of Prop 8 that took our right to legally marry away in 2008, led protests and rallies at the State Capital. Through the passage of time I have been yelled at, spit on, and had bottles thrown at me. There were so many scary times, but in hindsight, my life has been a fantastic adventure.

The good times were the potlucks, the parties in the street, the Drag Queen shows, and the Kings of Drag troupe I started in 2005. The Kings of Drag performed to packed houses and raised over $100,000 for charities in our area. The political movement that I was a part of, that slowly raised awareness of HIV/AIDS and ultimately saw care given to those in need, the politics of achieving equality in California—thanks to Gov. Newsom while he was mayor of San Francisco and held Same-Sex Marriages. The recognition of Harvey Milk as a state hero of the LGBTQI community.

We still have more work to do to achieve equality and I hope you will join me in all the future fights that we have to go through. Together we can be even better. Happy Pride y’all!

-Tina Reynolds

Tina Reynolds
By Tina Reynolds
Tina Reynolds is president of Uptown Studios, Inc. and has been running her own design firm since 1976. She is the community face of Uptown Studios and her blog entries are directed to business owners ready to make their materials, Easy, Fun and Popular.