Pride Month
At Naughty Events, we are proud to publicly support LGBTQ+ rights and stand up for sexual freedom.
Pride month started back in the early 70s following the Stonewall riots, which were led by LGBTQ+ People of Color who were the primary targets of the arrests. The Pride parades were more of a protest than a celebration back then. In those early times, the parades were a way to further sexual liberation by reminding people of LGBT communities and that they may include coworkers, family, friends, and loved ones.
As the years passed, the parades got bigger and more inclusive. Today, Pride month is mostly associated with June in most cities, and there are month-long celebrations, events, and, of course, parades.
A lot has changed since the early 1970s when it comes to sexual freedom and LGBTQ+ rights, and we have been supporting these movements for over 20 years. We have seen pushback from our own (lifestyle) community to accept people from the LGBTQ+ community, but the truth is that many of us are the same. We have always wondered why people in the swinging community found it so hard to accept nudists, people into BDSM, and people who were polyamorous, bisexual, gay, or transgender. And we have seen pushback from these communities when it comes to acceptance with the swinging community.
Our friend Sante from Share wrote a great blog recently that points out that the only way for us all to succeed is by finding commonalities between us and using unity and teamwork to effect change. No matter our differences, we can all agree that we have common enemies. Those who want to attack us for who we love, how we love, and how we express ourselves. Instead, we need to join forces to fight back against those who feel it is OK to discriminate against us in the name of religion or morality.
In these different communities, we have more in common than we are different. We share the basic principle that we want to be left alone to be ourselves without limitations and condemnation. We are not each other’s enemy; we should stand together and unite so that we can continue the fight against discrimination and persecution.
In 1969, patrons from the Stonewall Inn fought back against the bullies (cops) who had been raiding the bar for some time. Yet today, we allow ourselves to be bullied by other marginalized communities, who often fight each other instead of fighting the real enemies. We have come a long way since 1969, but we still have a lot of work to do.
On Friday, June 28th, we will lead another Sexual Freedom Parade through the streets of New Orleans at 8 pm. We will start at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, home of Naughty N’awlins, the country’s largest alternative lifestyle event catering to people interested in polyamory, ethical non-monogamy (ENM), swinging, and BDSM. We will parade up to Baronne Street and head towards the NOPSI Hotel, the other main hotel of Naughty N’awlins. We will turn left on Gravier Street to parade by Colette, New Orleans's most popular lifestyle club, before returning to Canal Street, where we will head back to the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, our starting point.
We invite all people to support sexual freedom. We accept everyone who wants to openly support sexual freedom by marching in our Sexual Freedom Parade.
This is the first time the Sexual Freedom Parade falls in Pride Month. Our Sexual Freedom Parade is not a Pride Parade, but is a great opportunity to help spotlight the intersectional identities of each of us. Every step in our fight for sexual freedom matters, and publicly marching in large numbers is important. We accept everyone who wants to openly support sexual freedom by marching in our Sexual Freedom Parade. Please join us on June 28th as we fly our flags and show the world what we stand for and what we stand against.
At Naughty events, we will continue to educate people about tolerance, and give safe spaces for people to live out their own fantasies and desires. We will keep building bridges between marginalized communities and proudly march to stand up for sexual freedom as we fly our rainbow flags with upside-down pineapples.