Louisville Business First interviews Spencer Jenkins of Queer Kentucky and LPF Board Member Xian Brooks about rainbow capitalism. “Pride-related marketing has exploded in the years following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage in 2015,” writes Haley Cawthon, and “it’s usually what drives corporate sponsorship dollars that keeps organizations like [Queer Kentucky] afloat and increases visibility on a national scale.” The article has suggestions for businesses that want to go beyond appearances and be real allies.
David Rae has an article about retirement planning for LGBTQ+ people in Forbes. According to Rae, “More than 3 million LGBT Americans are currently over age 50, and that number is estimated to more than double over the next decade as baby boomers ride in on a rainbow-hued silver wave… There is a retirement planning crisis across the spectrum in America, but many in the LGBTQ+ community are especially at risk of not being able to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Homophobia can hurt the quality of your retirement, whether your net worth is tens of millions of dollars or close to zero.”
Man with no money showing empty wallet
Despite the old stereotype of gay affluence, “When you break it down, heterosexual individuals make more, on average, than LGBT Americans for equal work. This will also mean it is harder for LGBT individuals to participate in wealth-building activities, like properly funding retirement accounts, buying homes, and investing for the future. It may also take longer for LGBT people to pay off student loans. Not to mention, many LGBT students take on more debt after receiving less support from their families after coming out.”
For Pride Month, Becker’s Hospital Review looks at how 7 hospitals across the country are trying to reduce LGBTQ health care disparities.
“More than half of patients in the LGBTQ community report having faced discrimination in a healthcare setting. Seventy percent of transgender or gender-nonconforming patients said they have experienced discrimination in a healthcare setting, and 56 percent of lesbian, gay or bisexual patients reported facing discrimination in healthcare, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s “Healthcare Equality Index 2020.”
Locally, you can read about what Norton Healthcare is doing to be LGBTQ+ affirming.
Republic Bank just made it a lot easier for transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming propel to have their true name on their debit card! According to their press release, “You can proudly display your chosen name and present your true identity with the Republic Bank Mastercard Debit Card with the True Name feature on personal and business checking accounts. Because whether you are buying groceries or out with friends, you should always be accepted for who you truly are. Republic Bank is one of only three banks currently offering a Mastercard debit card with True Name, and the first community bank to launch this feature.”
The Louisville Pride Festival is proud to have Republic Banik as a sponsor! Find out more about True Name.
Brown and white short coated dog wearing sunglasses inside car
The folks over at Bankrate have put together a comprehensive list of the state laws and guidelines on how to change gender on a driver’s license. They verified the information with local groups, including Fauver Law Office of Louisville and the TransKentucky advocacy group.
Applicants must submit one of the following documents:
1. An updated birth certificate showing their correct gender.
2. A court order of gender change.
3. A 10-year passport showing the correct gender.
4. A letter from a surgeon stating that gender reassignment surgery has been completed.
Indiana
Applicants must submit their birth certificate showing a change of gender or a form signed by a physician certifying that the applicant successfully underwent all treatment necessary to change gender permanently.
Here is a great opportunity we are offering to our amazing LGBT+ community partners about our upcoming National LGBT+ Youth Summer Tech Camps. Maven Youth is a national nonprofit which provides LGBT+ Youth to network, organize and educate for social change through technology. We foster a rare safe space for LGBT+ Youth (14-24) to explore careers in tech while learning to code with other LGBT+ Youth across the country.
If you ever looked into sending a young person to a summer coding camp, you will note these camps average a cost of $1000 and up to attend. We do this FREE and our camps are led by LGBT+ Youth.
Below are the three summer camps youth can choose from:
National Summer Camp – LGBT+ Youth 14-19 yrs of age from around the country. Learn game design, game development and game art creation.
National Systems-Impacted Summer Camp – A safe space for LGBTQ+ youth ages 14-19 who have personally been or had their family impacted by one of the following systems:
Foster care / child welfare system
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers
Incarceration / jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers
Job Readiness Summer Tech Camp – LGBT+ young professionals 19-24 yrs of age. Get your digital resume ready, build your interviewing competencies and learn coding to be ready to land a job in tech.
This free virtual Summer Tech Camp is focused on providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth ages 14-19 who have personally been or had their family impacted by one of the following systems:
Foster care / child welfare system
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers
Incarceration / jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers
Black and Pink National, in partnership with Maven Youth, is offering this FREE 2-week virtual summer tech camp for systems-impacted LGBTQ+ youth across the US. This camp is led by amazing LGBTQ+ youth who walk participants through all the coding and digital art workshops.
Black & Pink National is a prison abolitionist organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system through advocacy, support and organizing.
The Sixth Louisville Pride Festival will be September 18, 2021
The Louisville Pride Festival will be returning for its sixth year on Saturday, September 18. The Festival was held every year from 2015-2019. In 2020, the Foundation launched a Digital Pride initiative to deliver virtual programming and organized a Day of Service when the Festival could not be held, due to COVID-19.
The Louisville Pride Festival is an annual street fair and concert that is held on Bardstown Road, in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood, and features food and drink, over 100 vendors, national entertainers and local performers, a Wellness Zone, and a Family Area. Approximately 20,000 people attended the event in 2019. The event is a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and is open to everyone.
The Festival is organized and produced by the Louisville Pride Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to open an LGBTQ+ Community Center. “Moving the Center project forward has been challenging during COVID, but we are currently negotiating a lease on a great location. We hope to cut the ribbon by the time the Festival is here,” said Mike Slaton, executive director of the Louisville Pride Foundation.
“We are grateful to our donors, volunteers, and sponsors for sticking with us, especially Ford and UAW, who have been our presenting sponsors every year,” Slaton said. The Foundation received support from My Financing USA, the Gheens Foundation, Ford Motor Company, the United Auto Workers, US Bank, Norton Healthcare, GE, Republic Bank, Tito’s Vodka, Rounsavall Title Group, Caperton Realty, and JustFund KY.
Established in 2014, the Louisville Pride Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that promotes Louisville as one community that celebrates diversity, fosters inclusion for all, and embraces the LGBTQ+ community. The foundation seeks to promote this unity between LGBTQ+ people and straight allies by engaging in a conversation with the broader community about what makes us one while celebrating what makes us different.
