Trying to Make LA Pride not Suck

Los Angeles Pride/Christopher Street West will be taking place June 8-10 here in West Hollywood. Which means it's currently in the planning stages. In fact, they are currently accepting applications for entertainers who would like to perform on the mainstage (Due March 5 and available for download at the LA Pride website). This is super important, because LA Pride has a pretty strong reputation for being mainstream and superficial and all gay men and celebreties and divas as performers, so some of us are working to get much more diversity on that main stage, particularly trans and genderqueer artists who could use the exposure. The fabulous Ryka happens to have the ear of some folks who are doing the booking, so what we need is to get applications from the genderqueer and trans artists out there who are capapble of and/or interested in drawing a crowd and performing on the mainstage. So trans and genderqueer (and other superfabulous) artists out there, APPLY TO PERFORM AT LA PRIDE. And then let me know that you've applied so that we can push them to take you on the mainstage. These are uncompensated spots that are still open, but with huge exposure and plenty of opportunity to sell CDs. Please, please pass this on to people who may be interested and encourage them to apply.

In other news, the Empowerment stage (one of the sidestages, yes it's a dumb name) is specifically looking for cool trans and genderqueer musicians and spoken word artists for short sets. So if you know awesome genderqueer or transgender performers, tell me, please.

I'll be listening to a bunch of CDs and trying to see more shows and reviewing them here on this blog and hopefully passing some of the performers on for consideration for the empowerment stage, but in the meantime, tell cool people to apply for the mainstage!