East Side Pride Stands With JCPenney, Ellen, and Equality!

JCPenney recently changed their branding and logo, and introduced Ellen DeGeneres as their new spokesperson.  Almost immediately, the anti-gay hate group, One Million Moms, launched a a JCPenney boycott in an effort to have Ellen fired.  From the One Million Moms website...

“Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families.  More sales will be lost than gained unless they replace their spokesperson quickly. Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful.”

Yesterday, over thirty PROUD East Siders came out to JCPenney at Northlake Mall to show their support for equality and to thank JCPenney for doing the right thing and for standing by their new spokesperson, Ellen DeGeneres.  Many more participated by shopping JCPenney online, and well over $1,000 was spent. 

We really want to THANK all who participated.  It was a fun job, well done!  Also, congratulations to Cherry, Carlos, and Jamie for winning the JCPenney gift cards, and the Trilogy Bookstore gift certificate in the raffle. 

Finally, we want to encourage everyone to shop locally and smartly.  If you have a smart phone, take a minute to download HRC's  free "Buying for Workplace Equality" app, so you can easily decide how to best spend your LGBTQ-friendly dollars! 

We're Loud. We're Proud. And, We're Just East Of The Perimeter!

Our 2nd annual East Side Pride Picnic was an awesome success!  Over 200 East Siders and friends came out to celebrate the LGBT Pride and the beautiful diversity of our East Side communities.  This has been a great first year for our group, and we're looking forward to an even better second year - with more events, more fun, more friends, and more community-building.  Stay tuned...the East Side's got a lot going on!

A very, very heartfelt THANK YOU to DJ Duck for keeping the positive vibes flowing all day long, and the Trilogy Bookstore gang for providing readings, massages, henna, and all sorts of LGBT supplies and rainbow necessities.  THANK YOU to Maud Baker Flowers for a beautifully arranged donation.  Also to the folks from AID Gwinnett and Molly Simmons from Human Rights Campaign for educating and collaborating, and to Tony Nastri from Keller Williams Realty for being our official greeter and donating a Savage Pizza gift certificate for a door prize.  And, THANK YOU to everyone who came out, pitched in, potlucked, cleaned up, and got down.  You're all AWESOME!

And, a BIG THANK YOU to the City of Clarkston for hosting.  We'll see you next year! 

And, of course, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Hailey and Meredith!  Thanks for celebrating with us.   We hope you both had a fantastic day!

*  For photos of the event, just click here, or check out "Ready For Our Close-Ups" on the right side of this page.