“It’s easy to segregate yourself away in a gay enclave like Oak Lawn, but black and brown folks often still live in the neighborhoods where they were born.Īnd isn’t so easy there. “Often times, black folks don’t necessarily have a lot of the privilege in being gay that the white gay community has,” said Kirk Myers, business advisor and lead organizer for Dallas Southern Pride. It is, the three men spearheading the celebration said, a chance for black LGBTQ people to celebrate both sides of their identity in a space where they are valued for both. Tammye Nash | Managing Southern Pride, the organization that presents Dallas’ huge Black Gay Pride celebration each fall, this weekend presents its annual Juneteenth Celebration, three days and more of parties celebrating LGBT Pride Month and Juneteenth, the commemoration of June 19, 1865, the day that slaves in Texas learned that Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, freeing all slaves in the U.S. The men behind Dallas Southern Pride discuss the importance of culturall y-specific Pride celebrations Moton-Poole, left, Kirk Myers, center, and Ahmad Goree.