San Francisco-based drag icon Juanita MORE! is gearing up to throw her annual Pride Party at 620 Jones, with this year’s proceeds helping secure and safeguard trans rights.
In what felt like the longest month in recent memory — years… it feels like literal years have passed since January 20th — LGBTQIA+ rights that were won through generational advocacy have been eviscerated. They’ve been outright erased on a federal level. (Statehoods, like California and New York, have [thankfully] taken it upon themselves to enshrine gay and transgender rights in state constitutions.)
Any mention of “transgender” or “trans” has been eliminated from the National Park Service’s page for Stonewall — considered the place where the modern-day gay rights movement began, a crusade started by trans folk. Bans barring trans people from competing in sports outside of their assigned gender at birth are now signed into law. Transport renewals will now not recognize trans identities. Resources for trans youth are busily being gutted.
Suffice it to say trans rights now more than perhaps any other time in the past few decades need support. Juanita MORE!, San Francisco’s serial philanthropist and nightlife fixture, has announced the benefactor of her iconic Pride Party as the Transgender Law Center (TLC) — a decision MORE! made after hearing about work TLC was doing amid the newest Trump administration.
“When I heard about the great work the Transgender Law Center was doing, especially its direct legal expertise, strategies to keep transgender and gender-nonconforming people alive and thriving, and the committed fight for liberation, I knew that I had to support them. So, in 2009, I named TLC my annual Pride party beneficiary,” she says in a press release, highlighting how the present state of the federal government is “distressing” for queer folk, particularly for transgender individuals. — “the growing movement against transgender rights nationwide made me choose the Transgender Law Center as this year’s beneficiary.”
MORE! is set to host her annual Pride Party, which she’s organized since 2012, at 620 Jones. Like past iterations, the venue will feature a crowded kaleidoscope of happenings and dance spaces, oscillating between indoor and outdoor groups; four bars, two levels, and an expert sound system will make sure every corner of the venue is a party, in and of itself.
Tickets will go on sale May 1st, with the proceeds going to TLC and its mission to protect trans rights.
“Now, more than ever, our transgender and gender-diverse families need our allyship and support,” MORE! writes in the same release. “Advocating for those most vulnerable to recent legal restrictions must be a priority, as members of the transgender community are currently experiencing multiple barriers to success at an alarming rate.”
To stay up to date on ticket sales (including the in-person locations they’ll be sold at while supplies last), performers, etc., visit juanitamore.com/pride.
