For the second annual P’town Pride Weekend, the Provincetown Business Guild is unveiling a new LGBTQ welcome center smack in the center to town to “promote celebrations related to the LGBTQ community,” reports the Provincetown Banner:
The Ptown LGBTQ Welcome & Resource Center will be open in May during Pride Weekend at 368 Commercial St. with a series of programs titled “Zero to Equal,” honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which have been called the catalyst for the gay rights movement.
The PBG actually opened its first center, then called “The Shack,” last year on Bradford Street. It served as a trial spot, but having a location in the town center will allow for more visibility and better access, said Mike Kelley, founding chair of the Center and a board member of the PBG. He said the center’s primary functions will be threefold: information and resources, tickets for themed events and branded items for sale.
“Provincetown has been a leader and beacon for the LGBTQ community,” said Kelley. “And celebrating the Stonewall riots is a great theme for Pride 2019 and for Provincetown.” …
Programming for the center is still in the works, but Kelley said events include the “Stonewall Stroll,” in partnership with the Stonewall Museum and Archives of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It will offer 17 poster-size panels that tell the story of the riots. The stroll is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Friday, May 31 and go until the end of day on Sunday, June 2.
The stroll will begin at the center’s storefront and participants will be encouraged to use handheld and mobile maps to navigate around town to see the related displays, he said.
Other plans for pride weekend include the “Stonewall Inn Witnesses to History,” where the center will host interviews with people who were either arrested or who witnessed the riots in New York. Interviews will be held prior to “Sashay to Tea.” The center’s Facebook page will post an updated schedule as events get closer with the event locations and times.
“Like the drag queens who were arrested at Stonewall, we will continue our tradition of sashaying to tea right after the [program] led by our own town’s fabulous drag queens,” said Kelley. “We will show our pride on the way to the daily time-honored tradition of Tea at the Boatslip.”
The center will also host an “LGBTQ 101” series with speakers, and an “Editor Series” with local homeowners like Jeremy Hobson, co-host of NPR’s “Here and Now,” and Ken Kneeland, senior producer at ABC News and “Good Morning America.” There will also be a “Candidate Spotlight Series,” featuring politicians from second homeowner markets such as Florida State Sen. Gary Farmer. The 22-mile-high pride rainbow by artist Yvette Manning will also shine across the sky during the three nights of Pride weekend, May 31 through June 2.
Read the full Banner story here, at provincetown.wickedlocal.com.
