Post Pride Party!

/

Join us for the OFFICIAL Post-Pride Party of Reading Pride Celebrationafter the festival on Sunday July 19, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza Goodnights Lounge in Reading, from 6pm until midnight! This year we will have a drag show with Alexxus Kane, Miss Gay Pennsylvania America 2000, Victoria Robinson Miss Gay Pennsylvania America 2014, and the dancing diva herself, Fauxie DeFauxie De-Glamouré! We will also have a light food menu and drink specials! Cover charge is $5. This is a 21 and over event!

Genesius Theatre Presents: “RENT”, Opening June 17th, 2015

/

Tickets available here!

1996 Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award – Best Musical! Winner! 1996 Pulitzer Prize! An inspiring musical about friends and artists struggling with addiction, poverty, AIDS and most of all, love.   “What makes Rent so wonderful is not its hipness quotient, but its extraordinary spirit of hopeful defiance and humanity.” – The New York Times

Queen & King of Pride 2015

/

It's time, once again, to choose a Queen and/or King of Reading Pride Celebration!


This year, we have moved away from a standard run-of-the-mill pageant and put the decision of our next Miss/Mr. Reading Pride Celebration into the hands of our community. We hope you are as excited as we are to see the new contest format!

Please read all of the enclosed information carefully and return all signed forms and an electronic or paper copy of your valid state ID before May 27th, 2015. When submitting your application, please make sure to include your required information for Round 1. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Miss/Mr. Reading Pride Celebration liaison, Kim Kalbach, at mustbekimmie@yahoo.com

All submissions for the contest should be sent to the contest coordinator at rpccontest@gmail.com. In addition to electronic submissions, all required submissions may be done by giving physical copies to any Reading Pride Celebration committee member, sent by mail, or dropped off in person at a Reading Pride Celebration general membership or subcommittee meeting. When providing physical copies, please make sure it is on an unscratched CD that is clearly labeled with your contestant name and which round it is for. If mailing your application, it must be sent early enough to be received by June 26th, 2015. Any mailed applications received after this date will be refused.

To mail you application, please send it to:
Reading Pride Celebration
PO Box 15242
Reading, PA 19612


Reading Pride Celebration reserves the right to refuse any application.

Download the application here!

 

 

 

LGBTea Dances PRIDE Fundraiser

/

Fundraiser for the LBGTQ+ community in Chester County:

“Join us in June for our inagural Community-Wide “LGBTea Dance” Fundraising event. We are in the process of establishing a non-profit to foster a safe and supportive environment for the LGBTQA community through social fundraising events. Our goal is to partner with organizations, corporations, and current community inititiaves to develop and grow LGBTQA community programs that help our kids, friends, and family members get the support they need right here in Chester County.
This June, we will host an event at Fellowship Hall in Phoenixville. All profits from the night’s event will be used to fund the nonprofit start-up costs and support the GSA (Gender & Sexuality Alliance) Club at our local Phoenixville Area High School. The kids are ecstatic to have community support and have agreed to create the decorations and programs themselves with our assistance.They have decided to use the money raised to fund programs at their school and pay for a field trip to New York to learn more about the LGBTQA history and culture, including a visit to Stonewall.
Join us for a night of fun and dancing!! Enjoy music by DJ Sal, an appetizer and dinner buffet, desserts provided by Marly’s BYOB and Bridge Street Chocolates, FREE goodie bags from local businesses and organizations, silent auctions, 50/50 raffles, and MORE!!
Tickets will go fast, so purchase soon. If you are interested in becoming a corporate sponsor, please contact Rachel Stevenson at lgbteadances@gmail.com for 484-447-0089.
Thank you in advance for ALL of your support. We are blessed to live in such an amazing community and look forward to create this new non-profit right here in town.”
— LGBTea Dances

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

/

Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown PA with PRIDE PICNIC at Knoebels Grove will feature a FREE SCREENING of the rock musical film HEDWIG and the ANGRY INCH as part of the college’s DIVERSITY FILM FESTIVAL on Monday April 13th 2015. The film screening will lead by an introduction and then discussion by Dr. Colin Helb, Asst. Professor of Communication.

HEDWIG follows the story of a transgender person who wants to be a rock star. Great music and costumes along with truths about finding ones “other half” will inspire. The film stars Hedwig creator John Cameron Mitchell who is currently starring…

HEDWIG follows the story of a transgender person who wants to be a rock star. Great music and costumes along with truths about finding ones “other half” will inspire. The film stars Hedwig creator John Cameron Mitchell who is currently starring on Broadway in the musical production of the film. 

The film screening is FREE and starts at 7 PM. The film will be shown In the Gibble Auditorium on the Elizabethtown College Campus in Elizabethtown PA.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Mike Escobar at 717-572-9111

Make your voice heard!

/

Important information about Kutztown! A lot of people need your help. Here's why ~ 
Except for about 30 some cities including the City of Reading, towns, counties, and various municipalities in PA it is legal to discriminate against anyone who is LGBTQ. Including Kutztown. LGBTQ people can be discriminated by being denied housing, employment (fired or not hired), and public accommodation and services.

A group of Kutztown Students are trying to end discrimination making Kutztown more LGBTQ friendly. They are tying to get the Town Council to listen to them. They are proposing a non discrimination ordinance based on the Doylestown model. 
They are getting no where. The town council keeps giving them the big brush off with excuses as to why they won't even listen to the proposal. Frustrated, the students at Kutztown reached out to Equality Pennsylvania.

EQ PA reached out to me, along with some others. I am reaching out to you. Here's how you can ensure nondiscrimination in Kutztown.

1. Please, contact the Town Council at Kutztown. Tell them you want to see an Equal Nondiscrimination Ordinance in Kutztown protecting all people from discrimination, including LGBTQ people.

2. Please, send this off to people you know. Get them involved so their voices are heard as well. Perhaps you know religious leaders, or business leaders and shop owners in Kutztown. Perhaps, someone who lives or works in Kutztown. Their voice needs to be heard.

3. Please attend a meeting and make our presence known.
March 10 at 7:30 p.m.
The Public Safety Committee 
Borough Building
45 Railroad St.
Kutztown, PA 19530

Please help end legal discrimination in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania needs people like you.

Thank You,

The Rev. Barbara K. Peronteau (Barb is a member of Reading Pride Celebration)

The Spectrum is looking for volunteers

/

Planned Parenthood Keystone sponsors The Spectrum, a program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, asexual and allied youth (LGBTQA ages 14 to 21.

The Spectrum meets every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 48 South 4th St., Reading, PA. 

Interested in making a positive change in the life of a young person in our community? Please contact Amber at spectrum@planitpa.org

Companies/Organizations Can Be On Our Resource Page

/

You can still participate in the Initiative for Diversity Equality now by going here: http://www.readingpridecelebration.org/resources/.

 Read the Statement on Diversity and if you agree, provide us with the information and we will link with your site and make sure you receive a static cling sticker for your door or window to signify that your establishment welcomes all and employees are treated  equally.

Only the business/organization leaders can sign up. Thanks to all those who have already participated by signing the statement.



Reading Pride Celebration President appointed as Commissioner on the Human Relations Commission

/
rich.png

Reading PA – Richard L. Spangler, President of Reading Pride Celebration was appointed by Mayor Vaughn Spencer of the City of Reading and approved by City Council (7-0) on November 24th as Commissioner on the Human Relations Commission.He was sworn in on December 9th in City Hall by City Clerk Linda Kelleher.

Comm’r Spangler will be seated on the Commission on January 14th, 2015.

“I hope that an openly gay presence on the Commission will help to reflect the cultural make-up of the City while allowing furtherance of justice over discrimination.”

Comm’r Spangler views his appointment as an extension of his role as President of Pride when he advocates for equality for the LGBT Community. The City of Reading has laws that protect people from discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodation since 1955 and in 2009 an amendment was passed (6-1) adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the law which Spangler helped fight for as President of Pride. His term on the Commission expires on February 14th, 2018.

Linda Stein: The Fluidity of Gender January 15 through March 5, 2015 Exhibit opens Jan. 15, 2105

/

Artist and activist Linda Stein, New York City, presents her exhibit The Fluidity of Gender, a collection of sculptures, many wearable, that suggest androgynous armor meant to empower and protect the wearer to help dispel stereotypes based on gender, sexuality, and other marginalized groups.

 

On January  21, 2015 at 7 p.m. presentation by Ms. Stein:

“A Chance to Be Brave, The Courage to Dare,”

a tour-de-force multi-media lecture that includes over 100 hundred video and still images encompassing stark truths and funny anecdotes about masculinity and bigotry, extending from the local to the global. Following the presentation, a reception and performance will be held in the gallery.

 

 

For more information or to arrange group visits, please contact: Marilyn J. Fox, gallery director, phone: 610 396 6140 or email: mjf14@psu.edu

Lady Valor on Friday, February 6 at 7pm

/

In Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story, former U.S. Navy SEAL Christopher Beck embarks on a new mission as Kristin Beck. Kristin's journey in search of the American ideals that she protected have a whole new meaning as she lives her life truthfully as a transgender woman.


First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County at 416 Franklin Street, Reading, PA 19602 (610-372-0928) will be hosting a showing of "Lady Valor" on Friday, February 6 at 7pm, free and open to the community - with a general sharing of reaction/responses to the film afterward.  


Reading Pride Celebration wishes to thank the First Unitarian Universalist Church for the invitation to the community for this showing and conversation of a film dealing with transgender issues, so important to our LGBTA+ Community.