Saturday, June 9th, 7-8pm (PT)
KPFK, 90.7FM/kpfk.org
Planet Pride: Power and Paradoxes, our LGBT Day special, goes around the world to find how Pride is being celebrated – and defended – this year. The highlight will be coverage from Sydney, Australia of the 40th Anniversary Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (including the aboriginal festival Koori Gras) with the indomitable Cher.
Planet Pride tops off KPFK’s 12-hour LGBT programming marathon, starting at 8am, Saturday, June 9th. Don’t miss a minute!
For the first time, This Way Out, the international LGBTQ radio news magazine will be the closing act of KPFK 90.7 FM’s day-long LGBT+ Pride special broadcast this Saturday, June 9 at 7:00 pm with an hour that will take listeners to some of the distant – and not so distant – places where LGBTQ Pride events are making history. Listeners will hear how Pride is being celebrated and defended this year in places like Tunisia, Fiji, Lebanon and Australia. The highlight will be coverage from Sydney, Australia of the 40th Anniversary Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras with the indomitable Cher.
Like Pride festivals in the US, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was born out of a far less joyous occasion. Australia’s own Stonewall happened in 1978 when the first effort to stage a Mardi Gras march for queer rights was met with police violence. Veterans of that melee are heard taking a tour of the landmarks of the incident and reflecting on the experience.
Forty years later, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival has grown to include a broad spectrum of events reflecting many aspects of the LGBTQI community. Indigenous peoples are celebrated at Koori Gras (“koori” being an Australian word for indigenous), and This Way Out‘s Sydney correspondent Barry McKay interviewed several of the participants, including drag stars Dreamtime Divas and indigenous Canadian folk singer Lacey Hill.
In the wake of the controversial national vote on marriage equality and the subsequent victory in Parliament, the glitter and glamour of the Parade itself was not without its political edge. You’ll hear how even Cher found herself walking into a partisan minefield! But nothing could dampen the exuberance in the streets of Sydney — and you can share it!
Planet Pride will also feature news reports from Pride events in Myanmar, Tunisia, Lebanon, Fiji … and a couple of unlikely places in the good old USA.
Join us on June 9th at 7pm — in fact, tune in for the entire 8am-8pm LGBT+ Day line-up — on Pacifica Radio, KPFK-Los Angeles, 90.7fm.