As Chicago heads into Pride weekend, a coalition of producers, promoters and personalities from the city’s queer nightlife scene released a video message today aimed at the LGBTQ communities in both Chicago and Orlando. In the video, prominent art– and party-makers talk about the importance of queer spaces while expressing solidarity with Orlando’s community in the wake of the Pulse nightclub massacre two weeks ago.
Those featured in the video include Kristen Kaza and Audio Jack of Slo ’Mo; BURLY's Joe Erbentraut (aka DJ RoboJojo); The Lesbifriends Cartel’s DJ All the Way Kay; Salonathon curators Jane Beachy, Will Von Vogt, Joe Varisco and Bindu Poroori; and Queen! cohost and Chicago legend JoJo Baby. Monica Raymund, the grand marshal of Sunday’s Chicago Pride Parade as well as an organizer of Clandestina Chicago and an actor on Chicago Fire and onstage in Lookingglass Theatre Company’s Thaddeus and Slocum, talks about her keen feelings for Orlando as a queer Latina from Florida. Watch the video above, a reminder of why expressions like Pride remain necessary and powerful.