 Hello, hi, I'm your host Winston Welter and I'm delighted that you're joining us today for this Out and About show where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, and events with the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. As a disclaimer, any views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and not connected with any organization. Joining me today in the studio for the third time, which marks the beginning of our third year anniversary here at Out and About is Francine Beppu and Joe Bach from the LGBT Legacy Foundation. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having us again. Well, it is my pleasure to have you here and you are a wonderful third anniversary for me. I'm so excited that you're here and here to talk about the LGBT Legacy Foundation and the upcoming Honolulu Pride and Festival. So suddenly it's hard to believe that another year has passed, but another year has passed. What a year. Time flies. What a year. What a last couple of years. Time flies. Yes. Whether you're having fun or not, but hopefully we've been having a lot of fun. You guys have been doing a lot of work. I know that because you're working, you're both directors at the Legacy Foundation is that right? Yes. Okay. And you're volunteer directors. You've performed a lot of time and energy and commitment and love into this organization. So tell us about the LGBT Legacy Foundation. So the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization that is run by volunteer board of directors, members across the community. We have a variety of projects that we manage and maintain for the LGBT community. One is the Honolulu Pride, Parade and Festival, which is this year on October 19th, coming up in a couple of weeks. Which is a Saturday? Saturday. October 19th. Okay. Yes. Starts, kicks off at 11 o'clock and then goes down Kalakawa Avenue to the shell where the festival begins at 1130. Yes. Yes. Okay. You know, it's one of those things you want to check because it's easy to get the, you know, you've got 10,000 details bouncing around in your head and sometimes the... There's so many things happening. With the events leading up to Pride, you know, we're in full swing. I'm not sure if anyone's been to Waikiki on Kalakawa, the rainbow flags are lined up there. So we call it rainbows over Waikiki. Every year through our community partners and our donors, we're able to put up colorful rainbow flags during the month of October, which is also LGBT History Month, and symbolizes Honolulu Pride in Hawaii. Rainbows over Waikiki is another project of the Legacy Foundation. We have over 150 flags throughout Waikiki this year. Again, thanks to our sponsors for helping to make that happen. And sponsors, of course, critical to any nonprofit organization, but especially this one. Last year, you had a record number of floats or parade entries. It was over 100 from what I remember. Is it larger this year, about the same, or what are you looking at? It's larger. The last time I checked in, we were at... So last year, we had 105, or almost 150 this year. 150? Yes. Wow. So you've grown under the 50% in a year. We are potentially the largest parade in the state, if not more than the second, but definitely the most colorful. Definitely the most colorful and the most inclusive. Let's just put that out there. This is a celebration of Pride. What is Pride? Why do we have Pride parades? And why has it grown 50% in the last year? What are you attributing this to? Well, a couple of questions there. What is Pride? So this is, again, this has been a spectacular year for the LGBTQ community. This is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, which happened in New York City in June of 1969. So we're actually commemorating that event through our efforts this year and have some special guests from a Stonewall Inn that will be joining in the parade and the festival. That's awesome. Yeah, we're really excited and honored to have them join us. It's 50 years, 50th state, and an extra 50 entries in the parade, so you kept it all up. That's a coup for you guys to get them out here, and for them, they're not going to be the grand marshals, they're just honored guests, is that right? Our grand marshal this year is Kim Coco Iwamoto, but they are special guests, and again, they'll be riding in the parade. They have a classic car. Actually one of the bartenders from Stonewall Inn, his name is Tree, will be joining us. They were there 50 years ago, the night that the uprising or the riots happened. You think about that 50 years seems like a long time ago, and yet we're in a place still where in half the states, if you are LGBTQ, you may be fired from your job. Is that still correct? It sounds correct, I don't know the exact number of states, but I would say going back to the second part of your question. That really is why prides are so important. They raise awareness, one of the part of the mission of the Legacy Foundation is to educate and empower LGBTQ are the community here. So we want to include everybody in that. Our allies here in the state have just gone above and beyond every year. That's why I think pride has grown so much, because we are becoming more of a community both internally and then also a more vocal and important part of the larger community. Do you think this has anything to do with our national scene of what's going on? Because things relatively in Hawaii are, you know, we're sort of living in a bubble here that's nice. Or is it just people's consciousness or that they're just able to be more expressive or they just want to join in to be more supportive or all of the above? No, I think it's all of the above. I think we're a lot more connected and through social media or media partners, I think more people are becoming aware and educated about what's going on in other cities. This year we were able to go to New York City and actually join in the pride and world pride festivities. It was amazing. You know, there were almost four million people there, the parade there, I think it was over 12 hours. It was intense. But it was amazing to see Manhattan, all the skyscrapers lit up in rainbow lights. It was just the whole city really kind of came alive and came to support the LGBTQ community. That's awesome. That would have been such an exciting and fun thing to see. But we're having our own exciting and fun version here. Now, for people that are watching, where did they go to get information about this before we go to a break so that they can follow along as we're in our second half? For a full list of events and tickets, you can go to HonoluluPride.com. That's at HonoluluPride.com. That's an easy one, OK. There are dozens of events happening throughout the month that are held by schools, community partners, other nonprofit organizations. It's our goal really to support all of them, which again ties back to the mission of the Legacy Foundation really is to support all of the LGBTQ organizations in the state. So it's a clearinghouse and a supportive network that you've got there. And this is also your largest fundraiser of the year, is it not? Correct. Which funds go to support the other organizations? And then also another of our projects is the LGBT Center Waikiki, which is open to use by any LGBTQ organizations for you. Just to touch on that, you mentioned it's the LGBT, Hawaii LGBT Legacy Center, but you use LGBTQ. What's the queue added on there for now? So we've added the queue in all of our kind of language. We haven't updated the names of the organizations from a legal perspective yet. But we've added the queue to represent the queer and questioning part of our community, which has not always been or felt included in the previous acronym. So that has been kind of our stances to include the queue for an all inclusive. And I think different organizations do that differently. Some might, when you go back in time, it was a simpler era, like the HGLCF, the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Cultural Foundation. But its mission is obviously much broader, but they decide to stick with the acronym just for marketing and branding purposes. But their main offering is the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival. So the rainbow sort of becomes a little bit more encompassing. Of course, and same with the business, the Hawaii Rainbow Chamber of Commerce. And our theme for the past couple of years for Honolulu Pride has been celebrate the rainbow, really just to underscore that fact that we are here to support the entire greater LGBTQ community. And we have, of course, a very historic and native population that doesn't fit into specific categories as well. So I think it includes that also, and I think we need to be aware of that as well, in Canada, I notice they had an LGBTQIA2S, which was for Twin Spirit. So they do it a little bit differently in Canada. Sometimes there's an I, and sometimes there's an A, but you know. Or plus. Or plus. Or down with the plus. Down with the plus. Yeah, and I think I read something that the preferred one is move, added the Q, and then now adding the plus. So we're changing and we're evolving as we realize, we do need to be as inclusive as possible. Certainly, and again, we are a completely volunteer organization. So anybody who is a part of the community or a different aspect of the community that would like to be represented, we would love them to participate. Again, they can go to honolulupride.com to check out our website for volunteer opportunities or just to send us a note and let us know what they think. And that could be for any of the projects that you have at the center. Any time, okay. And if people are watching this and saying, boy, our company should have a float in the parade, is it too late? Or can they still join? I believe the parade, I think that we're still taking entries. I would act very, very soon though. And sweetly, we will have to close it off soon. I think the official registration deadline was at the end of September. But we've been trying to do as many as possible because I have a lot of people who are interested and have not had a chance to register. In fact, that increase is huge. I think you were the largest parade last year in the state, weren't you? Not quite, no. And actually, we're not sure yet, but it's shaping up to be that way. I would like to point out also that it is free to enter into the Honolulu Pride parade, so all you need to do is register. As long as registration is open, there's no charge. Of course, you don't have to provide your own vehicle or colored t-shirts or costumes or whatever you want to do, but it is open to the public. And it's really a celebration. It's a celebration of being fully who you are, fully who we are as humans. And celebrating that diversity. And then the festival itself, is there a charge to get in there or is that also free? It is free. We do ask for a suggested donation just because it costs a lot of money too. We rent the entire shell, the Waikiki shell. And this year, actually, we're activating the entire space. Typically, it's just kind of been around the backside. But now there's a whole Ohana area supported by our sponsors that is going to be open for families, family-friendly activities, more food vendors. Bouncy tent? I don't know that we have a bouncy house. Not quite the bouncy tent, so we return and go around that. But there are magicians, there's a stage area set up in the Ohana family and kid-friendly area. It's going to be on the lawn area of the Waikiki shell. Two stages. Something for everybody. Two stages. Two stages. Okay, not the main shell stage, but a smaller one, a temporary one. But it's going to go all, so you obviously got to expand to meet the need. But it's a totally family-friendly event and also a beer for sale for those people that like to have beer. Yes. There's an area that you can have by drinks and dance and have fun. And then there's also more of an Ohana area. So I think there's really something for everyone. Okay, and so the parade again starts at Alamoana Magic Island about 11. Yes. On Saturday the 18th. The 19th. I'm sorry, the 19th. That was an intentional mistake. Saturday the 19th of 2019. They can find information. People can go to your website, which is HonoluluPride.com. HonoluluPride.com, very easy. And then the parade will continue down Kalakawa, finish up at the shell. And the festival itself will open up at 11.30. Correct, doors open at 11.30. And it continues all day. Until 6 p.m. 6 p.m. Okay, so you are hearing it here live on Out and About. I'm Winston Welch. I'm your host here at the Think Tech Live Streaming Network Series. We'll be back in a minute, so stay tuned for more of the story. Aloha. I'm Keisha King, host of At the Crossroads, where we have conversations that are real and relevant. We have spoken with community leaders from right here, locally in Hawaii, and all around the world. Won't you join us on ThinkTechHawaii.com or on YouTube on the ThinkTechHawaii channel? Our conversations are real, relevant, and lots of fun. I'll see you at the Crossroads. Aloha. Hey, aloha everyone, and welcome to the ThinkTech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Pretty Matters Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Aloha. We are back and we're live. I'm Winston Welch, and this is Out and About on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network Series. We are, again, talking with Francine Beppu and Joe Bach, who are directors at the LGBT Legacy Foundation here in Hawaii. We're coming up on, well, this is our third show with these good folks, and so thrilled to have you. So thank you again for being on the show. Thanks for having us. And we've got this whole month, this Pride month, where the highlight of it is going to be the 19th Saturday, right, 2019. Sticking off at Magic Island with a parade, you got 150 entries. Super huge number. Biggest festival in the state, biggest parade in the state, standing at the shell, starting at 11.30 in the morning and going till 6. You've got a whole bunch of events going on. There are a lot of booths of all kinds. What else do you have going on this month to celebrate? I guess it's our Hawaii Pride month, isn't it? Or, yeah. It's also National LGBT History Month. So that's another reason why Honolulu Pride was moved to October a few years ago. This is the fifth Honolulu Pride managed by the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation. So we took the two groups that were originally doing the two different prides, brought them together, and to create a more comprehensive and cohesive community-driven event. And so that end, we really support all the different organizations in town to create events for education, cultural, arts, community, really all kinds of stuff. It's a lot of fun. The calendar on our website, honolulupride.com, has a list of events for all. Have we already started with events this month? Yes. So this past first Friday, October 4th, we collaborated with the Hawaii State Art Museum. And they put on a fantastic drag fashion show. The first act that came out actually performs an Ali X song. And she's one of our headliners this year. OK, and this is on the music stage. Yes, well, this, our headliner at the festival will be Ali X. She's amazing. She was a songwriter for a choice of Mawn, Katy Perry. She's great. A-L-L-I-E, space X. A-L-L-I-E, space X. So you also have something I noticed. Coming up this month, at the University of Hawaii, there's a, I guess it's a fair, an LGBTQ fair, that's going on. Will you all have a presence there, just to let people know about your organization? Yes, every year we support National Coming Out Day. And it's a youth day celebration at UH Manoa. This year, really special. We are screening a movie by YouTube influencer and activist Raymond Braun, called The State of Pride. It's a documentary featuring the Stonewall Uprising. And then we'll have a panel discussion after with the Stonewall guests that we just mentioned, along with Raymond Braun, with a Q&A. Is that part of the Hawaii International Film Festival, or is that something separate? It's separate. Okay, but you do help, you host, or maybe it's the film festival, co-hostings with the International Film Festival. Yeah, I think that's the reason. And if groups wanted to use your space, is that a possibility? Of course. Okay, it's just, go on there and see who's not using it at certain times and connect with them. Sure, we have a community calendar. You can check out when the space is available and then just contact us and request. Now, will this also be broadcast like it was last year? Yes, well, actually last year, through our partnership with KHON, it was live streamed the parade. But this year, going one step further, building on that success of last year, we are going to be live broadcasting the parade as well. So live stream if you're unable to join us from anywhere in the world, KHON2.com and then also live broadcast on KHI, which is channel five. What's the, excuse my ignorance, what's the difference between broadcast live and... Live stream would be online. You could use any, your web browser or your phone to watch. The live broadcast is actually gonna be on broadcast television. I see, and you were a co-host of that last year with Justin Cruz, right? Justin Cruz, yes. Is that gonna happen again this year? Yes. Okay, so you'll be out there probably, I don't know, 11-ish or something like that, maybe a little bit later, because you're sort of at the Duke statue, aren't you, or something like that? Oh, I think, so actually the live stream and the live broadcast will begin at 11, the noon. Okay, now, I just had a question, though, is about the increase in numbers. Are you, is this mostly like millennials and zinnials or is it business groups or is it all kinds of different groups? Because it's just interesting that it's grown so much. It's all kinds of groups. It's nonprofit groups, it's corporations, both that want to support as allies that have employee groups that request to be a part for their company to be a part, so they're proud for their company to support. It's churches, it's all kinds of schools, anybody you can think of probably. Okay, and are you doing anything in concert with the other islands this month or do they all have their own different events in different months? They have, well, some actually happen, so Maui Pride is actually coming up this weekend and Kona Pride had theirs last month. Hilo Pride, I can't remember exactly when theirs is. That was in June. It was in June. June or beginning of July, yeah. So not during National Pride Month, yeah. I'm looking at the first year that Kawhi. Well, that's right. Holds did a pride this year. They had taken a little hiatus on Kawhi, but I think they're back. Oh, yeah. So every island, more or less, has something going on, or at least County has something going on. And we support them however we can, either through help with their fundraising efforts or to the marketing support, but really, if they ask us, we're happy about it. What do you want people to know that maybe we haven't touched upon about LGBT Legacy Foundation pride or the state of things in our city, state, nation, world today? We actually have a lot of events that happen throughout the year. I'm not going to talk about some of the things, but we do a lot of things for Pride. I would say even after the parade and festival, we do an annual pool party, which will be on Sunday, October 20th at the Alohi Lani Hotel. We have a lot of musicians, DJs, performances, and that will be co-hosted by Layne Stonewall, a fundraiser for Honolulu Pride. And then the weekend following that is we have Work for Mother Earth, which is hosted by the House of Malico on Saturday at the Hyatt Central Hotel. And then on Sunday, the Food and Wine Festival, the first drag appetite brunch at the Blue Note. Sorry that, I mean, we have a long list of events. First time, the Hawaiian Food and Wine Festival is participating in our Pride Month, so we're excited about that. So you're seeing a lot of sort of coming together of the wider community in support of diversity and inclusiveness. Is that reasonable to say? Absolutely, our allies and friends. Whether it's broadcast media, or something like the Food and Wine Festival, or banks and your other large corporate sponsors that maybe had been, you know, just now coming on board with some of these things. Yeah, some things take time, but we're really happy to see the groundswell of support from across the community. So if you're maybe a young person, or even an older person, who has been, you know, you're afraid to come up for whatever reasons, a background, what advice would you have for folks that are looking to find activities to get into, or maybe to come down, or is it just come down and sit on the, cheer people on, or can they join in the parade? Well, people are welcome to join in the parade if they have someone they know that's an entry, whether it's a company or a group of friends or whatnot. There are ways to participate and walk in the parade, but I definitely would encourage people to come down to Waikiki Shell on the 19th, to see all of the festival vendors that are there. A lot of them are companies or nonprofit organizations that will have booths there and can talk about what their initiatives are, what their activities are, everything from sports leagues to, again, churches, schools, dance groups, we have just a lot of diversity represented at the festival this year. That's a great point, like you said, churches, sports groups, educational institutions, companies, so you can find your tribe, whatever your tribe inside of the tribe as it were. And if you're not LGBTQIA2S+, or just LGBTQ+, absolutely come out and support the parade and folks down there, right? Definitely, and we have musicians performing food, everybody eats food, you know, Aliex, she's our headliner. We have Tim Rose, Isaac, a lot of local acts. It's gonna be a really entertaining, fun-filled day. Entertainment fun-filled day, educational fun-filled month. Really important that we celebrate pride because we have been traditionally, have marginalized LGBTQ population. And so we're just bringing that and saying, no, you're bringing your whole self to life and this is the one day of the year when we can say, and we're celebrating us for who we are as human beings and bringing our fullness to the festival and a parade. Is that fair to say? That sounds great. Okay, and so for folks that are looking for more information, they can go to honolulupride.com, is that correct? Okay, the main event is going to be on Saturday, October 19th, starting off at Magic Island at 11 a.m. and those mental lapses are intended. So there you have it, the graphic from it. We've still got the Flying Musubi and people can also go on your website and buy T-shirts, merchandise. VIP passes. VIP passes? Yeah, pass passes. Pass passes to let you go into the faster security line. And you could also get into the after party at Hula's after the festival's over. And maybe the swimming party. And a special area, drink area. Right, and then special drink oasis. The pool party is actually free of charge. It's just a suggested donation, all 100% of which goes back to the Legacy Foundation. Okay, so VIP pass is just a great way to support the organization. And to cut the lines. And to cut the lines, okay. Well, it sounds like it's going to be a terrific event. You've got the celebrating the 50th state and 50th anniversary of Stonewall here in Hawaii. We've got some really special guests. If there are anything like my very special guest today, Joe Bach and Francine Beppu from the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation. And this is going to be a smashing success. You guys are terrific. You inspire me with the work that you do, giving back to the community, upholding the vision for folks just to be free to be themselves and celebrate, celebrate the rainbow and celebrate our full humanity. So thank you for what you both do for this organization and for our community. Well, thank you. I know that you do what you can to give everybody a voice. And I think that's much appreciated and very important in our society. Well, I think we all got to stand up in the way that we can and, you know, I'm happy to, if you guys want to come on my show and you have an issue that's great. This one is right at the top of my heart. And I hope that you will come out and support the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation and the Honolulu Parade Festival on the 19th of October. Come down and cheer everybody on, come to the festival, spend some money, donate some money if you can't come. But unfortunately, we are out of time today. I'm definitely going to see you back here next year, hopefully, same month as we celebrate LGBT History Month. We are out of time. I am sad to go, but that is what we have to do. I'm Winston Welch. This is out and about on the Think Tech Livestreaming Network series. And we have been talking with Francine Bebou and Joe Bach of the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation. Thanks for tuning in. We welcome your feedback and thanks to our broadcast engineer and today also our floor manager who is combined as Eric Calander back from the mainland and to Jay Fidel, our executive producer who's all together. I look forward to seeing you here every other Monday at 3 p.m. We hope you're inspired by the show. Welcome for comments you're on out and about and for Think Tech in general. Aloha everyone.