Marchers parade down Beale Street at the 2024 Pride celebration. (Photo: Kevin Reed, Courtesy Mid-South Pride Foundation, Inc.)
The Mid-South Pride Parade will now roll on June 21, 2025, after being canceled on Saturday because of strong thunderstorms which threatened Memphis last weekend.
“Pride in Memphis has never been easy, but perseverance is what defines us,” says Vanessa Rodley, president of Mid-South Pride. “This reboot is not just about salvaging an event, it’s about recognizing what’s been built over five decades. It’s about showing up for each other. Because how we rise from this moment matters.”
The rescheduling comes after a controversial cancellation. When extreme weather descended on the Mid-South on Saturday morning, the mayor’s office and organizers were left with the agonizing decision. Should they delay the parade and celebration in Robert Church Park until the afternoon, in hopes that the squall lines would pass? Or should they cancel the highly anticipated 50th anniversary celebration of LGBTQ rights in the Mid-South?
In the end, strong winds, lightning, and ankle-deep water in the park led to the decision to cancel. But later in the afternoon, the skies cleared and the sun came out, leading to a round of disgruntled comments on social media.
Many of the performers scheduled for the park celebration retreated to local gay bars The Pumping Station and Dru’s Place, the latter of which later said they had over 1,100 people pay cover over the course of the weekend. On Sunday, First Congo Church hosted an impromptu makeup parade on Cooper Street.
A unicorn float parades down Cooper Street during the First Congo Impromptu Pride Parade on Sunday, June 9, 2024. (Photo: Chris McCoy)
The make-up parade will now roll down Beale Street at noon on Saturday, June 21st.
“The parade will still take place in the heart of Downtown Memphis, with a full lineup of floats, performers, and community groups that reflect the vibrant spectrum of the Mid-South LGBTQ+ family,” Mid-South Pride said in a news release. “Updated maps, timing details, and access information will be shared in the coming days.”
“As we move forward, we invite everyone to join us — not just to march, but to reconnect, recharge, and remind ourselves that Pride isn’t just an event. It’s how we show up for each other, especially when things don’t go as planned.”
Marchers parade down Beale Street at the 2024 Pride celebration. (Photo: Kevin Reed, Courtesy Mid-South Pride Foundation, Inc.)
Elijah Townsend is one of seven members of the board of directors for the Mid-South Pride Foundation. A born-and-raised Memphian, he says much has changed over his lifetime. “I can remember being a boy and just not feeling safe to be who I was, with things that were inside of my mind. These were natural instincts for me, but I could tell by the reactions of people that something was wrong. Just to be candid, people told me that I was gay before I even knew what the word was and what it meant.”
Today, we see many headlines about a resurgence of homophobic repression. Transphobia became a major plank in the platforms which got both President Donald Trump and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn re-elected. Local LGBTQ groups like Friends of George’s have been fighting a ban on drag performances in Tennessee, the first such law passed by any state legislature.
But in Memphis, Townsend says, “We have teenagers who are able to exist in high school and be who they are. We have a government — as far as the mayor’s office — who supports our community. We have a liaison who we can call and talk to. We have restaurants and allies all around the city, spaces that are safe for us to go if we need resources or help. And so I definitely can tell the difference from being a young man to a more mature man, in the spaces that have been intentionally created for us to progress in our queerness and just be able to feel free and safe.”
The biggest safe space of all is the Mid-South Pride celebration, which will take place in Robert R. Church Park on Saturday, June 7th. The celebration will kick off at 11 a.m. with a parade down Beale Street, and continue into the evening with music, education, community, and, yes, drag. This is a special year, says Mid-South Pride president Vanessa Rodley, as it marks the 50th year for the celebration in Memphis. “This year’s theme is about honoring where we’ve been while amplifying where we’re going. Pride in Memphis began as a grassroots movement, a bold statement of visibility and demand for change. Fifty years later, we stand on the shoulders of those who marched before us, and we’re carrying their legacy forward.”
Drag performer Bruce Bui dressed as a mermaid in the 2019 Pride parade. Bui died of a heart attack in 2021. (Photo: Kevin Reed | Courtesy Mid-South Pride Foundation, Inc.)
Five Decades of Defiance
The modern LGBTQ rights movement began on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village. At the time, there were a few establishments in and around the city where gay and lesbian people gathered under the radar, but they generally didn’t last long, as raids by the vice squad were common and expected. The Stonewall was a Mafia-owned speakeasy and famously the only place in Manhattan where gay men could dance. On this hot summer night, the public morals squad barged in, announcing a raid. But the patrons, some of whom were veterans of the Vietnam War, decided they had had enough. For three nights, protestors and police fought running battles on Christopher Street. When the pioneering alternative weekly newspaper The Village Voice referred to the riots in homophobic terms, protestors surrounded the paper’s headquarters (which were also on Christopher Street) and threatened to burn it down. When it was over, the Stonewall Inn had been destroyed, but a new movement was born.
The movement came to Memphis that Halloween when activist Bill Kendall organized the Miss Memphis Review in the Guild Theatre, now known as Evergreen Theatre. Since dressing in costume was legal for everyone on Halloween, why wouldn’t drag be permitted? Jimmy “Candace” Cagle was crowned the first winner, and the Miss Gay Memphis Pageant became an annual event.
In 1970, thousands marched down Christopher Street in New York City on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The celebrations spread throughout the country, and in June 1976, 35 people gathered in Memphis’ Audubon Park for Gay Day in the Park, organized by the Sexuality and Lesbianism Task Force of the National Organization for Women and the Metropolitan Community Church.
“Mid-South Pride has not always been the curator of Pride here,” says Rodley. “There have been many organizations. We are just the current ones — and hopefully the last ones — but it all started at Gay Day in the Park, 1976.”
The annual celebration of all things queer has evolved over the years, says Ray Rico, publisher of Focus, Memphis’ LGBTQ magazine. “I remember when it was at Overton Park. I remember when it was a small parade in Overton Square. I remember it being at [Peabody] park over on Cooper and Central. I’ve seen the evolution of it, and I know, with the 50-year anniversary coming up, how tremendous it is for our community to have a pride that large, and to have it on historic Beale Street,” he says. “A lot of my friends and family have come over the years, just to attend. I had the honor of being grand marshal one year. It’s nice to be able to share with your community, your friends, and your family.”
In the last 15 years, Pride has grown exponentially. Rodley is a native of Los Angeles, California, who moved to Memphis two decades ago. She first attended a Memphis Pride event in 2010. “I was at the park, and I saw how small it was,” she recalls. “I was not saying the nicest things about it because I’d been used to a huge, three-hour parade down Main Street. The cop cars [in L.A.] have rainbow flags on ’em, and so for me it was a real culture shock. But I was talking trash, and a board member said, ‘You should really put yourself in. If you’re going to say something, you should do something.’ So we all joined up and started volunteering right then and there, and ever since we’ve been trying to grow this to something that we feel like our community deserves. We want everyone to be seen, and to do that, you have to create that environment.”
Last year’s Pride celebration drew an estimated 50,000 people to Robert Church Park, and this year, organizers expect it to be even bigger. “There’s not many Prides in the South until we get to this point in the year,” says Rodley. “Then, a lot of them are in June or in October because of the weather, and also because we all can’t be on the same date. We’re one of the first ones that go out, and we take it as a responsibility to be as loud and as proud and as visible as we can.”
Mid-South Pride remains an all-volunteer organization, and Rodley says the grassroots origins are part of the festival’s core identity. “We have people from all over the world that come to our festival, people from New York, people from Britain, Australia. The biggest compliments I get from these people is how community-centered it feels.”
Focus magazine founder Ray Rico and friend celebrate Pride. (Photo: Courtesy Focus)
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
Ray Rico started Focus magazine in 2015. “It was the year that marriage equality became legal, and we thought that there was a place, a space, and a need for a queer publication.”
He says the last decade has been a time of tremendous change in the LGBTQ community. “We’ve gotten more resilient, I would say, than when we first launched with Focus. That era was a good time for us to identify others, maybe even seek out people who weren’t like us. I think that’s the melting pot glory of what we’ve got going on in Memphis. You might live on a street with a millionaire, and you might live on a street with somebody who’s just getting by. It’s just a mix of folks. When it comes to the LGBT spaces, 10 years ago, I started seeing groups collaborate more, and I started feeling more support from others, from allies, from corporations, and from government even. … I’ve seen things change, some of them in good ways and some in not so good ways. I’ve seen people come into Memphis and shake things up. I’ve seen people come into Memphis and F things up, and I’ve seen people come into Memphis and leave and then come back.
“There’s more resilience. There’s more support from our collaborators in the community. So instead of working against each other, we’re working with each other. We’re recognizing that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If we have an idea, if there’s somebody over here doing something similar, we work with them to kind of build that up.”
But this increased collaboration has come against a backdrop of increasingly aggressive actions by the Republican supermajority in the Tennessee Legislature, and the election of the most openly homophobic president in recent memory. Thanks to Elon Musk’s DOGE, federal grants for health organizations which provide health services the community depends on have been slashed precipitously.
“On the health side, it’s gotten a little worse,” says Rico. “There are definitely some issues we’re faced with in Memphis. Our HIV rates are the worst — I think they’re number-two for new transmissions. Care for trans folks in Tennessee is terrible because of all the legislative attacks that have come on trans folks.
“For the community, I think there are moves being made, like executive orders, that are not necessarily enforced just yet, but they’re intended to shock and awe. Each day we wake up, we’re understanding what’s different and what are we going to get challenged with today. It gives the community uncertainty because we’re not sure if organizations, programs, housing, medications, if these things are going to be funded or not. And these things are saving people’s lives right now! So essentially, you’re talking about not saving your neighbor or your brother or your friend.
“I am really hurt by what’s going on because I’m seeing firsthand what some of these organizations are being dealt. And I know they’re having to make really tough decisions to eliminate photos, words, and likenesses of things. You can’t say specific things and still get government funding.
“We’ve fought before, absolutely,” says Rico. “But we’re fighting so much harder now that it’s wearing us down. And I think that’s the intent.”
Krista Wright Thayer is one of those fighting back. She’s the advocacy chair for the Mid-South LGBT Chamber of Commerce, as well as a member of the Focus Mid-South Advisory Group. “I guess it started back when the governor took money away from Tennessee for HIV prevention, and that really fired me up. We went to Day on the Hill in Nashville to talk with the legislators, show them that they were wasting money by not giving money to HIV treatment and surveillance. We showed them how much money they were wasting because the diagnosis cost way more than the prevention. It was good conversations with a lot of legislators, and ever since I’ve been an advocate for those in Memphis whose voice isn’t always heard.”
In the wake of the Tennessee drag ban, Thayer says, “I helped organize a meeting with the [Memphis Police Department], as well as the sheriff’s office, … [Congressman] Steve Cohen, and the DA, just to see how is this being enforced. How do you know if someone is in drag? How are you going to check that? How are you going to enforce that? Don’t you have other things to worry about? Where are the resources going? All these executive orders from Trump, they have to be enacted locally. Are we using local resources? Let’s talk about the real things that are going on. They’re trying to enlist fear. All these executive orders have certain organizations having to change their website, scrubbing things off the website that refer to LGBT or even Hispanic culture! In one way, I understand they want to preserve their funding, but in another way, he’s just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. You can say, no, he cannot do this. There are attorneys involved; there are legislations. And although the judges can’t move as fast as he’s moving with all these executive orders, how you fight back is resistance, right?
“Another type of resistance is joy. We’re not going to be running around in fear. Fuck you. We’re going to be as resilient as we need to. We’re going to do what we need to do. And that’s not bowing down to this fake fascism.”
Thayer says MAGA’s attempts to whip up votes with transphobia are meant to distract. “As Laverne Cox said, people are worried about the wrong 1 percent. The transgender community is 1 percent, and that’s not the ones you need to be worried about. They’re not the ones keeping you from having good education, not the ones upping the charge on eggs and gas, when that’s the very thing [Trump] ran on saying you would not have to pay for those things! People are so far in, and you know what I’m talking about when it comes to his followers, they’re so far in, they still can’t see it. I want our community to know we don’t have to run scared. We’re going to be okay. And some people may disagree with me on this, but as much as they try to throw shade on us, our joy shines through so much more. Their jealousy of not being able to live out loud speaks volumes.”
The Mid-South Pride celebration attracts thousands of people from all walks of life to Robert Church Park in Downtown Memphis. (Photo: Kevin Reed | Courtesy Mid-South Pride Foundation, Inc.)
Meeting the Moment with Pride
“My mood is perseverance,” says Townsend. “This is not the first battle we’ve had. It won’t be the last. And, yes, we’ve come so far, but also we still have to continue to work for those who are going to come after us, and make sure that they continue to have a space where they feel heard and seen.”
For Townsend, the reward for all the hard work it takes to put on a giant festival is intangible. “It’s a feeling when you can look out and see all of these varieties of people, men, women, him, her, them, however people identify. You can see the joy they are having just being in the park and feeling free.”
Rodley says safety is her biggest priority. “We hire our own private security team, and that’s who polices the park. We try to make everyone feel safe. It can feel dark sometimes, but we are going to try to bring that light, and that’s why we have a hundred percent no hate in the park, and we charge $3 so we can protect that.”
On this momentous occasion, Rodley feels the weight of history. “It’s very climactic for me,” she says. “One thing I’ve learned living in the South is that history is so important, and hitting that milestone here and at this time, I feel, is very important because we who are a little older, we know that we have not had rights before, and we’ve had to work hard to get them. The younger generation kind of grew up with rights, so they’ve not really had that feeling of having to fight for them. So it’s kind of bridging that gap between us and bringing to light that we can still fight, we can still gain back.”
“What’s important about Pride is, it brings that community back together,” says Rico. “That’s the important thing about Memphis. It’s a big small town. There’s a lot of folks here, but it’s also pretty close-knit. … It’s a celebration of folks who have stood before us, people who are not here anymore. People we’ve lost through violence, people we’ve lost through HIV. It’s a celebration of those folks, too.”
For all of the changes and growth and setbacks, one thing has remained constant. “It is a fight for our rights,” Rico says. “It always has been.”
• A state report found “out of control” inmates, drug overdoses, staff shortages, and more in Tennessee state prisons, especially at Tiptonville’s Northwest Correctional Facility.
• Cannabis industry leaders began working against new state rules that would remove smokeable products from their shelves and damage the industry.
• Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis kept her job but on an interim basis.
• SmokeSlam BBQ Festival was introduced.
• We got to the bottom of the “Dicc Dash” car that had been seen all over Memphis.
• Winter Storm Heather left five dead in Shelby County, pushed a record-breaking demand for electricity, and put all residents under a boil-water advisory.
FEBRUARY
• Artis Whitehead was exonerated 21 years after he was convicted of a 2002 robbery at B.B. King’s Blues Club.
• Governor Bill Lee pushed for more school vouchers and big business tax cuts in his State of the State address.
• The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board picked Marie Feagins as its new superintendent.
• Data showed that Black residents got four times as many traffic tickets than whites.
• A bill was filed to mandate gun safety training for every Tennessee school student.
Tyre Nichols (Photo: Dakarai Turner)
MARCH
• American Queen Voyages closed.
• Eighteen anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced from GOP lawmakers in the state legislature.
• State House members voted to stop the Memphis City Council from a proposed ban on pretextual traffic stops, which came in the wake of the beating death of Tyre Nichols by MPD officers.
• The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) gave an early look at new trails on land ceded to the park by the Memphis Zoo.
• Memphis ranked as most dangerous city for pedestrian deaths.
• Renting a home in Memphis became more affordable than buying one.
• Elon Musk announced Memphis would be the new home for his supercomputer, Grok.
• New census data said nearly half of Tennesseans could not afford the basic cost of living in their counties.
• Tina Sullivan announced she would step down from the OPC.
• The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) asked the city council for $30.5 million after revealing a $60 million deficit.
• A federal judge blocked some protections of transgender people in Tennessee allowed by new Title IX rules.
JULY
• Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said more than 10,000 people had left Tennessee for an abortion in the two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
• The U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
• The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s new Memphis Art Museum project was allowed to move ahead after a judge denied a challenge from Friends for Our Riverfront.
• City council members asked for more transparency from MATA after the announcement of its big budget deficit.
• New state laws went into effect including a death sentence for child rapists, one against “abortion trafficking,” a declaration of the Bible as a state book, one against “chemtrails,” and another for singers’ protection from AI.
• A court denied former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s (R-Germantown) request to rescind his guilty plea for campaign finance violations.
• The former leader of Shelby County’s Covid vaccine rollout lost a bid to declare she was wrongly blamed for allowing hundreds of doses to expire.
• A court ruled transgender Tennesseans cannot change the gender marker on their birth certificates.
• Memphis International Airport was green-lit for a $653 million modernization of its main terminal.
• The school board settled with the Satan Club for $15,000 and a promise to end its discriminatory practices.
• A court ruling allowed a ban on drag shows in public places.
• Tennessee tourism hit a record spend of more than $30 billion in 2023.
AUGUST
• Environmental groups asked Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) to deny an electricity deal for xAI’s supercomputer.
• The Links at Audubon Park opened.
• Memphis cases of HIV and syphilis spiked 100 percent over the past five years.
• Leaders warned of a tax surge coming after property reappraisals next year.
• Black Lodge closed.
• Serial scammer Lisa Jeanine Findley was arrested in Missouri for her attempt to steal Graceland from the Presley family.
• MATA suspended trolley service.
• Kaci Murley was named OPC’s new executive director.
• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) raised electricity rates by 5.25 percent.
SEPTEMBER
• Carol Coletta stepped down as CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
• A state land deal could protect the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
• Cannabis industry leaders sued the state over new rules that would ban smokeable products.
• Tennessee ranked near the top for arresting people for cannabis.
• For the third year in a row, water levels were down in the Mississippi River after Midwest droughts.
• AG Skrmetti proposed warning labels for social media.
• Social media threats made for a turbulent week at local schools with disruptions and some lockdowns.
OCTOBER
• Lawmakers want to replace the now-fallen statue of racist newspaper editor Edward Carmack at the State Capitol Building with David Crockett.
• A court decision mandated schools offer “reasonable accommodation” for transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice.
• Three MPD officers were convicted in the beating death of Nichols.
• Memphis Mayor Paul Young replaced every member of MATA’s board.
• State Democrats pressed for financial reforms to address the state’s “crumbling transportation infrastructure.”
• Judges blocked discipline for doctors who provide emergency abortions.
NOVEMBER
• Atomic Rose closed.
• A new school voucher bill was filed.
• The Memphis-area crime rate fell.
• Tuition at state schools looked likely to rise again next year.
• TVA approved xAI’s request for power.
• Teachers scoffed at Lee’s $2,000 bonus as a “bribe” to go along with school vouchers.
• 901 FC left Memphis for Santa Barbara.
• University of Tennessee Health Science Center began a plan to demolish the “eyesore” former hotel building on Madison.
• Gun Owners of America sued the city of Memphis to block the gun referenda approved by voters from ever becoming law.
• A new $13 million plan will help redesign the intersection of Lamar, Kimball, and Pendleton.
• Crime fell Downtown in 2024 compared to 2023.
• Cannabis industry leaders filed another suit against the smokeables ban after lawmakers left it in the final rules.
DECEMBER
• Buds and Brews, a restaurant featuring cannabis products, opened on Broad.
• Blended sentence laws could usher hundreds of kids into the adult criminal justice system.
• State revenue projections flagged on big business tax breaks.
• A blistering report from the U.S. Department of Justice found that MPD used excessive force, discriminated against Black people, and used “harsh tactics” against children.
• Houston’s abruptly closed.
• The SCOTUS heard Skrmetti’s case against gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
• The former Velsicol facility in North Memphis could enter into a state-run environmental response trust.
• Feagins narrowly survived the board’s ouster move but the situation will be reviewed in 2025.
“We’re not the best situated to address issues like that. … Doesn’t that make a stronger case for us to leave those determinations to the legislative bodies rather than try to determine them for ourselves?” — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tennessee’s transgender care ban, Dec. 4, 2024
So just how worried should a reasonable person be about Donald Trump’s return to power? We’ve entered that awkward stage in post-election reporting where the op-ed journalists who watched the Donald abuse power the last time he held office are writing sensible columns about why everybody should probably calm down since, even with seriously eroded guardrails, nobody could possibly do all the terrible things he says he wants to do, and certainly not as fast as he says he wants to do them.
Christian leaders agreed to support him in exchange for his promise to appoint an unprecedented number of conservative, pro-life judges: “God’s wrecking ball.”
If you’ve ever wondered how Trump can receive so much earnest support from conservative Christians while appointing a cabinet full of sex pests and incompetents, it’s because they don’t expect him to build God’s kingdom on Earth, they expect him to smash norms and destroy liberal institutions.
Trump had been out of office for almost two years when the Supreme Court did the unthinkable and overturned Roe v. Wade, gutting half-a-century’s worth of settled abortion law. For all the anxiety the decision may have created for swing district Republicans campaigning in the 2022 midterms, this moment still has to be seen as a major victory for the once and future president whose first election turned on a promise to enable such a decision through judicial appointments: promise fulfilled.
And since modern Christian politics are rooted in the twofold mission of stopping abortion and curtailing LGBTQ rights, it looks like the SCOTUS that Trump made is about to give Evangelicals another reason to celebrate.
As of this writing, the Supreme Court seems poised to let Tennessee’s bad-faith ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth stand. U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts feigned helplessness while Brett Kavanaugh wondered if personal choices regarding medical services, important to less than 1.6 percent of all Americans, should be determined by the murderous impulses of the mob … er, majority.
If oral arguments are any indication of what’s to come, Wednesday, December 4th, was a worrisome day for the trans community, women, and just anybody else who might be counting on the Roberts court to defend settled law. It’s an appropriately chilling prelude to Donald Trump’s return to power since his RNC was chock-full of anti-trans rhetoric, and he spent the closing weeks of his campaign blanketing swing states with ads designed to make undecided voters feel anxious about trans people.
So, questioning whether or not Trump can fulfill the worst of his threats by fiat is probably beside the point. The mood is tense, and the stage is set for chaos. Even if you aren’t worried about what comes next, it’s probably a good idea to be prepared.
Chris Davis is a freelance writer and journalist living in Memphis.
Happy Pride month! June is going to be a rainbow party here in the Mid-South, where the LGBTQ community is making their voices heard. In the large overlap of the metaphysical and LGBTQ communities, there are many conversations about the words and terms used to describe energy. This conversation includes tarot, as tarot is a story of the flow of energy in our lives and the cause and effects of that energy and the choices we make.
The artwork of tarot has been evolving recently, with more decks being inclusive of BIPOC people as well as having more LGBTQ images. In a spiritual community, where love should be the law, having representations of queer and BIPOC people is necessary because they are a large part of the community and they need to know that they are welcome and important here, too.
Tarot is historically white. The mass-produced Rider-Waite-Smith deck was illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, a Black woman who ran with the likes of Bram Stoker and William Butler Yeats. It was through Yeats that Smith was introduced to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Arthur Edward Waite, who commissioned her to illustrate his tarot deck. Yet none of the people in the deck looked like Colman Smith. Even with the enormous popularity of what she created, Colman Smith suffered, like so many women, from the exclusionary attitudes towards female talent: She received a small, flat sum for her tarot deck and no royalties. Only recently has her name been added to the title of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
The current push for more inclusive decks has created a whole new genre of tarot. Although tarot is still historically both white and very straight in its imagery, all the new queer and inclusive decks have added a richness and depth to our tarot choices. As a professional tarot reader, I have many tarot and oracle decks — too many if you ask some. And most of them feature nothing but straight, white people. However, over the last few years I have added some new, amazing decks to my collection that include both people of color and queer people in the artwork. I have made the conscious effort to do so. I like to see people of different ethnicities and cultures in my decks. The world is full of people with different skin tones and cultures, and I want that reflected in my spiritual world, too. As someone who reads professionally for others, I want the people I read for to see themselves included in my tarot cards. We have all had moments where we relate to someone on TV, in a movie, a story, or in art that does not look like us or live the same lifestyle we live. But being able to see a person who has a similar skin tone or haircut or presentation that resembles yours is empowering, welcoming, and affirming.
If you are searching for a tarot deck that includes BIPOC and queer representation, I have a few suggestions to get you started. The Light Seer’s Tarot is my current favorite deck and the one I read for clients with. It includes people of various skin tones in different settings. The Modern Spellcaster’s Tarot includes a variety of skin tones and many LGBTQ people in various relationships. Without being a strictly “queer” deck, it is one of the more inclusive decks I have seen. The Modern Witch and Modern Goddess tarot decks feature women of all representations. The Queer Tarot and Pride Tarot both focus on queer representation with many BIPOC people included. Two of my favorite new decks just published are the Fifth Spirit Tarot Deck and This Might Hurt Tarot; both decks are queer and inclusive, for a world beyond binaries.
If you are new to tarot, or a professional like me, I encourage you to check out some of these decks and add them to your collection. They will add a depth to your readings, and may help your clients hear your message and take it to heart easier.
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.
Renee Parker Sekander Photo Credit: City of Memphis
Renee Parker Sekander is the city of Memphis’ new LGBTQ liaison.
Those duties are additional to her role as executive assistant to Memphis Mayor Paul Young. Former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland created the LGTBQ liaison position, a role filled in the past by Dabney Ring and Maria Fuhrmann.
Sekander is a native Memphian, a University of Tennessee graduate and has worked as an advocate in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, and more. But they weren’t home, she said. Also, she said she’s motivated to create a Memphis that she wants to live and raise a family in.
“I’m a person who is gay and wants to have a family,” Sekander said. “I also have family that’s gay. I have family that’s trans, I have friends who are trans. I have folks who have left Memphis because they say the state is too harsh, that it’s too hard to be trans, it’s too hard to be gay in this community. So they go to Chicago, or Los Angeles, or Boston.”
Sekander went on to say when people leave the city, it’s hard for Memphis to continue to grow and reach its full potential as it’s losing important talent and voices.
Not only is Sekander dedicated to making sure the city is welcoming and inclusive for the LGBTQ community, she also plans on doing outreach work to “bring people back.” She sees this as an opportunity to “rebrand” and “re-educate” the city.
The Flyer spoke with Sekander about her intentions in her role, how her identity impacts her work and more. — Kailynn Johnson
Memphis Flyer:Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Renee Parker Sekander: My name is Renee Parker Sekander, born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. I have lived in several different cities over the last six years, but my wife and I made the decision to move back home to Memphis and make this our permanent home again.
I live in the Midtown area with my fabulous but reactive dog, Fox Cleopatra Parker, and we just have an incredible life here in Memphis. A large part of the reason that I am who I am is because this city built me, and I’m excited to just pour back into it with every bit of me.
That’s the “too long; didn’t read” summary of who I am.
Could you talk more about how your identity and background play a role in the work that you’re currently doing?
I’ll say I’ve been doing this work unofficially for a little while, just as a person who’s very passionate about inclusivity, equality, [and] making sure Memphis is really seen and branded as an inclusive and welcoming city so that we don’t lose out on talent, culture, and spirit to other cities because some people perceive us to not be an equal city, an inclusive city.
My goal is to make sure that people feel comfortable living here authentically being who they are and making sure we are all free and able to contribute to building the city the way it should be built.
I think for me it’s been very important that I continue the work that has been done over the past few years. I’m not the first LGBTQ liaison, there were two prior to me, Dabney Ring and Maria Fuhrmann… I’m excited to continue the work but also expand the work, too.
When I started my work in government, I told Mayor Young I was ready to push his vision forward. For him, his vision really prioritizes making sure that every member of our community feels valued, feels seen. So, the charge that he’s given me is to continue making strides and taking steps to making sure our city is represented as an inclusive and welcoming city.
I’m really excited to think through some creative ways but also build on the work that’s already been done and is being done by different community members across the city of Memphis and also working with them to be innovative, figuring out new ways we can keep our culture here, keep our people here, so that our city can be as safe and inclusive as possible.
How would you describe your role and responsibilities?
In quite a few different ways. I think one of the biggest roles is going to be making sure that people outside of city government understand and have closer relationships with those in it, making sure that we’re constantly present whether that be at events, at meetings, brainstorming sessions, making sure that I’m expanding the table, making sure that more people can sit at it, and more voices can be heard as decisions are being made on how to make our city more inclusive.
It’s also about making innovative ways to grow our MEI (Municipal Equality Index) score which is currently 54 out of 100, according to the Human Rights Campaign. [This is] our equality index, like how inclusive, how safe is our city? I’m thinking of ways to grow that score. So, it’s going to be a lot of ensuring our city resources are accessible to the people who use them and need them, and making sure we really rebrand the city as a space that is safe and welcoming for all.
What are some of the things in Memphis that may hinder people from having an authentic experience and how does having someone like yourself in the mayor’s office help make that experience a reality?
I think being able to come from the perspective of a woman wanting to raise a family here. What do I want my Memphis to look like for my family, for my children? Making sure that we continue to protect our community.
We see a lot of times in national news and statewide news a lot of attacks against the LGBTQ community, things that are putting obstacles in the way of folks from being able to access housing, job equity, protections against discrimination. These are things that a lot of people look at our state, and look at our country and we have to be able to say [that] Memphis is not a part of tearing people down based on who they identify as. We are actually welcoming and we embrace it and overall we want to make sure people understand they can come home to Memphis if they are trans, if they are queer. They can make an impact here.
It’s going to take all of us to fix a lot of the problems that we see in our city and we have to make sure that there are no barriers or limits to being able to welcome the folks who want to make an impact here in Memphis to be able to do that. It’s going to take a lot of innovative ideas, a lot of ideas people have been fighting for and working on for years and years, but overall it’s going to take a collective group of voices.
What I’m excited to do in my role is creating that table, making sure that we’re constantly hearing those voices, and that everyone has an active part in the progress we’re trying to make here. It’s going to be some ‘teamwork makes the dreamwork’ for the next few years.
How do you continue the work that’s been done but also expanding so more people can have a seat at the table?
I think the first and most important thing is listening. It means meeting with the folks that have been doing the work and consistently meeting, too, and becoming intertwined in that work.
One of the things I hate the most is the duplication of efforts. I want to make sure that we know what work is already being done, what’s working, what’s helpful, and what gaps are there. Are there ways that the city can be doing more to make sure that people feel seen and heard in hard moments and in strong moments within our community?
Having a presence, too. I’m very excited because our mayor has taken the charge of being a present mayor, an active mayor of being in the community. That’s something that he’s going to continue to do and so making sure that there’s always a presence with our city officials and our city government in those spaces where it’s going to be impactful, where people’s presence might not have been there in the past. We want to make sure we’re filling in those spaces, and that we’re there and that we’re listening.
My first couple of months as the liaison will be learning more about what organizations have been doing this work, meeting with folks and activists who have been doing this work, and making sure they’re at my table as we continue to make these charges and make these changes.
You’ve been in advocacy work for a minute. What keeps you motivated?
I think it’s a combination of “little me” and “big me.” “Little me” was a little girl growing up closeted and gay here in Memphis — scared to come out, scared to be who I am. In that, I was also scared to ever use my voice. I felt like kind of [a] shell of myself sometimes. As I became more comfortable with who I am, who I love, I became more confident in using my voice against the things that are wrong, that are unjust.
For me, I stay motivated by knowing there’s still more work to do. I want to make sure a little Black girl growing up here in Memphis who’s closeted and queer feels more comfortable, more safe, coming out sooner because we need their voice, we need their energy, we need who they are. I think it’s really important we send that message to little girls and little boys.
It’s also about “big me.” I’m not a mother yet, but I want to be a mother, and I always want to be able to look back and say [that] I did good work that’s going to benefit my children’s lives. It’s always about making “big me” proud, too. It’s about doing the work that’s going to be the most impactful, and doing it in my hometown, that really drives me.
Jace Wilder, education manager of the Tennessee Equality Project, says the new law “puts kids at risk of being abused, neglected and harmed again.” (Photo: John Partipilo)
With Gov. Bill Lee’s signature, Tennessee last week became the first state in the nation to establish the right of adults who claim moral or religious objections to LGBTQ identity to foster and adopt LGBTQ kids.
In the days since the law became effective, the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) has shelved a 10-year-old policy that said children in state custody must receive care that “promotes dignity and respect for all children/youth and families inclusive of their gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”
That policy is now “under review and will be updated on the website once the review is complete,” DCS spokesperson Ashley Zarach said. New guidelines for how the state will navigate foster kids’ sexual orientation and gender identity in deciding where to place them are expected to be hashed out in the coming months.
The law’s passage has raised alarms among advocates for LGBTQ youth in Tennessee and elsewhere, who say it upends a central principle of child welfare systems: prioritizing the best interest of a child.
Instead, they say, the law gives greater weight to a prospective parent’s religious and moral beliefs over the need of a child for a loving, safe, and supportive home.
“What’s really sad about this is there’s a really high volume of LGBTQ+ kids in the foster system whose needs aren’t being met now,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. Among the LGBTQ nonprofit’s programs is one that aids 18- to 24-year-old LGBTQ youth facing homelessness, many of whom are former foster kids who faced a tough time in the child welfare system.
“The fact that the state would accept a family that is willing to discriminate into this broken system with such vulnerable kids is difficult to understand,” she said.
Best interests of the child?
The law, formally called the Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Parent Protection Act, was backed overwhelmingly by Tennessee Republican lawmakers, who two years ago also approved a first-of-its-kind law allowing private adoption and foster care agencies that accept tax dollars to reject prospective parents for a variety of religious or moral reasons, including their faith or whether they are LGBTQ.
In advocating for this year’s bill, Dickson Republican Rep. Mary Littleton characterized it as a necessary safeguard for families who want to offer loving homes to foster and adoptive kids but worry that they would have to compromise their faith or moral beliefs. Littleton also cited an urgent need for more willing families to step forward. Tennessee currently has 4,948 fully approved foster homes, but needs 400 more.
At the end of the day the state should be acting in the best interest of the kids and this doesn’t do this. This puts emphasis on beliefs of foster and adoptive parents.
– Laura Brennan, Family Equity
Littleton stressed that the new law says DCS is not precluded from taking a child’s preferences into account before placing them in a home.
“This bill does not disregard the values and beliefs of the child,” Littleton said, noting state child welfare officials can still take into account “a comprehensive list of factors” before placing any child in any home.
Advocates have pushed back to say that plain language of the law does not require the state to take into account the child’s own wishes.
They also criticized what they call a mischaracterization by the law’s supporters that prospective foster and adoptive parents in Tennessee have been rejected for holding anti-LGBTQ beliefs.
Parents in Tennessee have not been required to be gender- or sexual-orientation-affirming as a condition of becoming approved as a foster or adoptive parent. They have, however, been required to promote dignity and respect of a child’s identity if they take an LGBTQ kid in their home — until now.
DCS: parents preferences already taken into account
According to the Department of Children’s Services, prospective parents’ “preferences” have routinely been taken into account before a child is placed in a home, a spokesperson for the Department of Children’s Services said in a statement.
“Prior to this legislation, the DCS home study process included asking prospective foster and adoptive parents a series of questions to identify their placement preferences,” a statement from DCS said.
“Among those are questions regarding willingness to parent a child who identifies as LGBTQ+. Our goal always is to find the most appropriate placement to meet the unique needs of each child in our care,” the statement said.
Tennessee currently has 8,854 kids in state custody — 6,686 of them residing in foster homes. Up to a third of all foster youth nationwide identify as LBGTQ — often kicked out of home or winding up in state custody as result of mistreatment or rejection based on their gender identity, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Jace Wilder, education manager Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that has vocally opposed the law, pointed to his own tough childhood as an example of the importance of supportive adults in a child’s life.
Wilder, who is transgender, was raised, in part, by a friend’s parents after suffering abuse at the hands of his father, he said. His mother was disabled and frequently hospitalized.
Wilder said the abuse wasn’t solely because of his gender identity, but “it kind of gave him more ammo to use against me, so that did not help.” He was also able to connect with LGBTQ people for support in his teens and college years, he said.
“Without finding people that accepted me and really helped me grow, I think I would have been stuck in the position of being too afraid to transition, too afraid of being out,” he said. “I think this puts kids at risk of being abused, neglected, and harmed again.”
The nature of discourse over LGBTQ youth in Tennessee already exemplifies the need for safe and affirming homes, said Eli Givens, a college freshman from Tennessee who also serves as an advocate for the Tennessee Equality Project.
“It’s been just really unbelievable watching this session,” Givens said. “I’ve had adults telling me I need to go gas myself, that I was clearly molested when I was younger, just a wide array of threats.
“It’s bewildering that the same adults who told me to gas myself can adopt an LGBTQ child. That’s an extremely scary reality.”
Tennessee AG pushes back on proposed federal LGBTQ foster protections
The law was enacted on the heels of proposed new rules currently being considered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services related to the placement of LGBTQI+ youth in foster care. Among the proposed rules for all foster homes is they “establish an environment free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status.”
In November, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a 17-state coalition opposing the rules, saying in a letter to the federal government that they would shrink the pool of available foster families and “further divert resources away from protecting foster children from physical abuse and toward enforcing compliance with controversial gender ideology.”
Laura Brennan, associate director for child welfare policy for Family Equality, which advocates for LGBTQ families, said national advocates are keeping a close eye on what’s happening in Tennessee. The state’s 2022 law allowing publicly-funded private adoption and foster care agencies to exclude LGBTQ parents has seen been adopted by 13 other states, she said.
“At the end of the day the state should be acting in the best interest of the kids and this doesn’t do this,” she said. “This puts emphasis on beliefs of foster and adoptive parents.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
The best thing about Emma Seligman’s 2020 film Shiva Baby is the intimate connection between director and lead actor. Rachel Sennott’s Danielle is a college senior facing adult life by making a bunch of questionable choices, like the secret sugar daddy whom she uses for financial support instead of getting a job. Shiva Baby is one of those rare films that earns the “dramedy” moniker. Yes, it’s an extraordinarily well-done cringe comedy, but you actually end up caring about what happens to these (admittedly obnoxious) people.
Seligman and Sennott re-teamed for Bottoms, a completely different kind of comedy that hints at a deep well of potential for this duo. This time, Sennott stars as PJ, a would-be Ferris Bueller at Rockbridge Falls High School. The problem, as she and her best friend Josie (Ayo Edebiri) express it, is that they’re not the talented, charming kind of gay kids, but rather the sarcastic and abrasive kind. Sure, the Gen Z high schoolers are not nearly as uptight about sexual orientation as they were when John Hughes was making his teenage dramedies, but that doesn’t help PJ or Josie get laid. Nor does it help that they set their sights impossibly high. No matter what gender they are, losers of PJ and Josie’s caliber have no shot with the pair of cheerleaders as radiantly perfect as Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber). Josie’s plan is to patiently wait until their 20th high school reunion and hope Isabel has been ground down enough by life to settle for her.
PJ convinces her that the long game is not viable, so they go to the school’s opening weekend carnival determined to shoot their shot. It’s an unmitigated, but incredibly funny, disaster. Josie’s opening lines include “I like all the holes in your pants” and “Oh look, you’re skinny, too!”
As they’re leaving in humiliated defeat, they witness a parking lot fight between Isabel and her quarterback boyfriend Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine). When they offer Isabel a safe ride home, Jeff tries to stop them from driving away, and flops at the slightest contact between the bumper and his precious QB knee. His teammates (who always dress in full football pads and uniform) rush to his aid. The approaching homecoming game against arch rival school Huntington High means this delicate flower must be protected at all cost. As rumors spread that PJ and Josie spent the summer in juvie, they are called into the principal’s office (Wayne Péré, deliciously slimy). Frantically BS-ing to keep from getting expelled, Josie claims their altercation with Jeff was part of a women’s self-defense club. As their infamy spreads, PJ sees an opportunity. They’ll start a fight club, get the cheerleaders involved, then, hopefully, nature will take its course.
Bottoms stars Shiva Baby’s Rachel Sennott and The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri as teenage fight club leaders looking to get laid. What could go wrong?
It is, of course, a terrible plan, but that doesn’t stop their burly coach-turned-social studies teacher Mr. G (NFL legend Marshawn Lynch) from signing on as faculty sponsor. PJ’s attempt to become high school Tyler Durden are hilariously pathetic — and made even more hilarious by the fact that they actually work in attracting not only their fellow losers like Hazel (Ruby Cruz), but also Isabel and Brittany.
Sennott and Edebiri are on fire in Bottoms. Josie is the mistress of the rapid, spiraling meltdown. Sennott slowly reveals the desperation lurking below the surface of PJ’s cynical bravado. Fight Club, David Fincher’s classic of male fin de siècle ennui, has long been ripe for a good skewering. Seligman and Sennott gleefully subvert Brad Pitt’s famous speech to the new recruits; the first rule of this fight club is “be punctual.” But the camaraderie of violence works just the same for awkward high school girls as it does for disaffected office workers. As PJ and Josie get lost in “body contact exercises” with the cheerleaders, the group drifts into low-level terrorism. In true Heathers fashion, the adults are so clueless and self-involved that they paper over every new, absurd event.
Seligman’s direction is razor-sharp. Even as she’s hanging Fincher’s pretensions out to dry, she learns from his strengths. There’s no lazy, flat comedy lighting here, and her image composition belie a Kubrickian precision. She honed her lead duo to perfection but didn’t neglect her supporting characters — who knew Marshawn Lynch had such great comic timing? Bottoms is the best high school comedy since Booksmart, and, for my money, an instant classic.
Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) catches the eye of Tomas (Franz Rogowski) in Passages.
If you’ve heard one thing about Ira Sachs’ new film Passages, it’s probably that it earned an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association. Many have pointed out that the film, while frank about matters of love and intimacy, is neither prurient in intent nor really, in the big picture, all that racy. What the ratings board seems to have found so objectionable is that about half of the film’s sex scenes involve a gay couple.
“It’s a warning to other artists and filmmakers that if you create certain images, they will be punished,” says Sachs. “It’s a legacy of the Hays Code, directly created in the late 1920s by and for the Catholic Church to limit what is available to the public and what art is created.”
During the days of the Hays Code, Memphis was notorious for the strictness and arbitrary nature of its censorship board. But what’s so frustrating to the filmmaker about the whole affair is that he never intended for Passages to be a film remembered for its sex scenes. “It’s not about sex,” says Sachs. “I mean, sex is part of the story. But I wanted to make an actor’s film — a film that, for me, recalled certain kinds of cinema. I think particularly of [John] Cassavetes, and also of the French New Wave, which were actor-driven and really about what happens between people in the moment. I think about [Cassavetes’] A Woman Under the Influence, but I also think about [Jean-Luc Godard’s] Contempt. It’s just this kind of thing that is monumental, which gets lost in the kind of neutered space of contemporary American cinema, where there are no humans. I mean, the number-one movie in America is about a doll!”
When we first meet Tomas (Franz Rogowski), he is working with a difficult actor on the set of a new film he is directing. He is demanding of the people around him, but also seemingly unsure of exactly what he’s looking for. These are recurring themes for Tomas as he navigates his relationship with his husband Martin (Ben Whishaw). When a young woman Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) catches his eye during the wrap party, Tomas sends Martin home and hooks up with her. The next morning, he returns home to Martin, exclaiming, “I had sex with a woman last night!”
This will not be the last tone-deaf moment from Tomas, who spends the rest of the film ping-ponging between his two lovers, wrecking lives in the process. “I recommend to your readers to go on YouTube and type in ‘Franz Rogowski Chandelier,’” says Sachs. “You’ll see a karaoke performance that you’ll never forget. That was, to me, the inspiration to write a film for Franz. He’s a purely cinematic form who takes great risk and great danger and isn’t scared to make himself look bad. We talked a lot about James Cagney making the film because I think, similarly, he’s someone who creates a performance of a man behaving very badly, but done so beautifully.
“I wrote the film for Franz, and then I needed to find actors who were similarly brilliant and also alive and comfortable with risk and failure. That’s what I found in Adèle and Ben. Failure is really important in the creation of an interesting piece of work — the possibility that you’ll get a pie in your face. I think what this film is for me is, you’re given the opportunity to see people who are comfortable sharing some part of themselves that is the most personal and the most vulnerable. Interestingly, Adèle said the most difficult scene for her was not either of the sex scenes she’s in, but the moment when she sings a song to Tomas, which was a moment where she felt very, very exposed.”
Tomas is the latest in a long line of Sachs’ characters who could be described as toxic narcissists, such as Rip Torn’s indelible performance as a Memphis music producer in 40 Shades of Blue. “I resist those terms, which have become too generalized,” says Sachs. “It’s a character who’s not uncomfortable with taking up space, and also who believes that the rules of society are not necessarily made for him. … I think that there’s been a continual interest since I started making work in trying to understand what men with power do with it and what are the consequences.”
A Saturday-morning power-washing erased the hate at Cooper-Young’s Rainbow Crosswalk last weekend. A hateful someone scrawled a hateful word on the street in white spray paint. The act was all over the MEMernet and local television broadcasts. Jerred Price, the principal mover to get the crosswalks installed, and others washed the word away.
“But this small act of hate was trumped with the outpour of love today from all those who helped clean it up,” Price wrote on Facebook. “Thank you [Memphis Police Department] for your help and investigation into this as well as to all those who helped clean this mess up.”
Sarah Galyean put beer — Wiseacre’s Tiny Bomb, to be specific — in her hair. The TikToker was testing a conditioning method used by Catherine Zeta-Jones, mixing beer with honey. The two-part post had Galyean joking as she mixed the ingredients in a NutriBullet before pouring the mix in her hair in the shower. Verdict?
“Does my hair smell like the floor of a Dave & Buster’s? Yes,” she said. But, “this is the first celebrity beauty secret I might actually do a second time because it really does work. I’m shook.”
Ja 2K24
Posted to Instagram by @jujueditzzz on NBA Showcase
Not official or anything. But who are we to argue?
