The five-year-old Pride in the Pews organization has a new name, Powering Institutions Toward Pride (Toward Pride) which officials announced at its A Celebration of Our Next Chapter event April 23 at Gary Comer Youth Center, 7200 S. Ingleside Ave., in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood.
Founder and CEO Don Abram said the new name “more fully encompasses the totality of the work that we do and the ways we want to ultimately impact the entire community.”
Toward Pride “equips institutions to advocate for the holistic health and wellness of Black LGBTQ+ communities,” further envisioning “a world where LGBTQ+ communities are embraced by social, civic and faith-based institutions that insist on our freedom and full flourishing,” according to its website.
Abram said that, in the next phase of Toward Pride’s work, the organization will take its work making Black churches affirming, welcoming and inclusive spaces for Black LGBTQ+ people and officially expand it to other communities.
Other groups and organizations have already invited his organization in as a resource, he added, noting that Toward Pride has already trained clinicians, doctors and social service workers and is in conversations with principals and teachers.
“We know that Black LGBTQ+ communities are under attack across this country,” said Abram. “We are seeing our rights roll back, stories erased from the history books and folks silenced and marginalized in ways that are deeply disturbing. Wherever those attacks are we need to be too.”
He likened the expanded scope to being the “second draft” of Toward Pride’s work—telling a clearer, sharper and more accurate story to become “the one you meant to tell all along.”
The first draft of Toward Pride, Abram said, “laid the groundwork for what we have done. We did that first draft under the name Pride in the Pews which was really important … because it was us responding to the ways in which Black LGBTQ+ communities aren’t welcomed, affirmed or advocated for in Black churches, so that name did a lot of work.”
Board Vice-Chair Tyrone Dobson said Toward Pride’s work is “sometimes tough. It’s hard and gritty, but it’s worth it.”
Program Manager Jyrekis B. Collins described the health programming, noting that a new research initiative, My Story, My Song, centers Black LGBTQ+ lived experiences and “translates them into actionable data.” He added, “The insights we share with health care practitioners, clinics and public health professionals will come directly from that research, helping them improve care, strengthen practices and better meet the needs of LGBTQ+ communities.”
Collins also teased Toward Pride’s future events, among them Bag Lady, Put It Down: The Weight and Wisdom Women Carry on Tuesday, May 26, which is a “virtual, candid restorative conversation about what it truly means to care for women in leadership- across every dimension of health and wellness.”
There will also be a collaborative event with other Chicago nonprofits, Black August, that will “honor Black freedom fighters, political prisoners and the history of resistance against racial oppression in the United States,” according to Collins.
My Story, My Song Advisory Council member Cynthia Smith said the name change amounts to both a celebration and a “refusal to disappear, to remain divided or to be made anything other than whole.”
Entertainment at the April 23 event was provided by Drag Queen Victoria LePaige, who wowed the crown with her signature performance of the songs “I’m Every Woman” and “Through the Fire” by Chaka Khan.
DJ Dapper Diva spun tunes throughout the evening’s festivities. Artist Travis Sewell showcased his artwork and also painted an original work during the event.
