For PGN, the week before Pride — specifically Monday through Wednesday — is the single busiest week of the year: That Wednesday is the most intense production day of the year.
For this year’s issue, PGN covers a lot of ground. We have a piece looking back on the 30-year AIDS epidemic Victoria Brownworth, who reported on HIV/AIDS for PGN in the early years. We have an installment of our recently started column, Millennial Poz, looking at HIV/AIDS from the perspective of a newly poz gay man in his 20s. We interviewed Chaz Bono, who was in town last week for the 10th annual Trans Health Conference. We spoke to Aisha Tyler, this year’s Pride headliner. We spoke to numerous folks in the arts and entertainment industry — musicians, singers, playwrights, photographers and drag queens. We talked to community members about LGBT representation in film. We cover summer events, the debut of a new gay theater company and allies working on behalf of LGBT issues. We mark the deaths of community members with obituaries. And cover pro- and antigay politicians, legislation and lawsuits. We cover fundraisers, conventions and parties.
For PGN, this is our bread and butter. While the Pride issue allows us to include more articles, that’s a list what we cover, week after week. We may not cover each of our reader demographics in every issue, but we try to listen to readers who note an oversight in our coverage and to suggestions on new ideas and what we could do better.
As a communications tool for the queer community — a medium — we try to think about what is important to the community at large, and to us personally. Sometimes they intersect, sometimes they don’t. We try to strike a balance between politics and entertainment, between what affects the community and its members and what we do in our leisure time. (Sometimes they intersect, sometimes they don’t.)
During Gay Pride Month, it can feel like everybody flies the rainbow flag. While it sometimes feels like everybody is jumping on the Pride bandwagon, that’s not necessarily bad. The more folks come out, the more allies give support, the more companies who participate in Pride events, the more media outlets that cover LGBT issues and people, the greater the visibility of the community.
And that’s what the LGBT community needs. Visibility, being open and out, is what gains us allies. When people know us for who and what we are — whatever that may be — they are more likely to support us.
This Pride weekend, remember that we have only made progress by being out. Celebrate who you are and make it easier for the next generation.