Almost as soon as the Delta Foundation announced Iggy Azalea would headline Pittsburgh Pride in the Street on June 13, backlash against both the performer and organization ricocheted across the internet.
But for many in the LGBT community the choice to bring in Azalea, who has drawn criticism for statements that many consider to be racist and homophobic, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Though a Facebook event protesting the decision to hire Azalea had garnered about 300 attendees at press time, “The Iggy Azalea thing was just a last straw for folks,” says Michael David Battle, founder
of the Garden of Peace Project, a local organization that often works with the most vulnerable LGBT people. “Since Delta took [Pride] over, it’s been a white, cis, gay man’s event.
“It goes back to the root of pride and how pride was started — by two trans women of color who were retaliating against police violence,” Battle says of the Stonewall riots. “That type of rebellion of trans women of color is something that has to be celebrated and honored” — something he says Delta has never done.
Joy KMT, who created the Facebook event, echoed Battle’s sentiment: “We are in a time … where there are uprisings all over America. Black trans women are being killed all over the nation. For it to be whitewashed is a destruction of legacy.”
Partly because of Delta’s lack of diversity, Battle is calling for an apology and the resignation of Delta head Gary Van Horn to be “replaced by a black queer and/or trans person.”
Reached by phone, Van Horn would not comment. He asked that questions be sent via email, but did not immediately respond to an email request. We will update this post when he does. Delta came under some scrutiny early this year after it shuttered its own publication, Equal Magazine, without notice after staffers claimed they were not paid consistently.
Harrison Apple, co-director of the Pittsburgh Queer History Project, points out that the speed with which organizational critiques of Delta have been made “tells you they’ve been on people’s minds for quite a while.”
“What I find frustrating every year, is that the foundation describes its mission as ‘to be a vigilant catalyst for change that produces increased opportunities and a high quality of life for the LGBT community,'” Apple responded in a written interview.
Instead, adds Apple, “It’s a social organization better known for paying six-figure booking fees than reforming police practices, supporting grassroots organizations, [than] substantially funding the human services that are so desperately needed in Pittsburgh.”
Update (10 p.m.): In response to specific questions from City Paper the Delta Foundation responded with this statement:
As the leading LGBT organization in Western Pennsylvania we believe in advocating for every member of our community and we do that in many ways. Specifically, the Delta Foundation has:
* featured many African American female artists at Pittsburgh Pride including Kimberley Locke, Jennifer Holiday, Patti LaBelle, and Chaka Khan.
* featured a diverse group of entertainment at PrideFests over the years including trans artists.
* been one of the major financial supporters of TransPride and have worked to gain increased visibility for the trans community in Pittsburgh by attending their events and featuring them on social media and in our magazine.
* assisted with a recent feature story that aired on WTAE-TV and advocated on behalf of the trans community during several radio interviews following the recent Bruce Jenner story.
*continued to be supportive of Pittsburgh Black Pride by attending their various events and featuring them on social media and in our magazine. We are also supporting the first Latino Pride this year.
*been the fiscal sponsor for the Garden of Peace Project, and have supported their events financially through our Lambda Giving program. We have also attended their events and featured them on social media and in our magazine.
If we believed that Iggy Azalea was racist or homophobic, we certainly would not have selected her to headline Pittsburgh Pride. We also don’t believe she would have agreed to come if she was racist or homophobic. Iggy is a highly regarded artist and female entertainer and we have received a tremendous amount of positive messages from members of the community and our allies both locally and nationally that are excited that she will be performing at Pittsburgh Pride.
We believe that the push back is part of a larger discussion happening across America as it relates to race and gender. We believe that same conversation needs to happen here in Pittsburgh and today reached out to several community leaders about facilitating a discussion about race and gender specifically as it relates to the LGBT community. We look forward to being a part of this conversation in the very near future as we work to make Pittsburgh the most livable city for all.
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to clarify Battle’s request for an apology and replacement of Van Horn.
This article appears in May 13-19, 2015.
Iggy has a black boyfriend.
This is a bunch of uninformed angry people trying to start trouble.
It speaks volumes of Delta Foundation that their “leader” isn’t facing criticism with humility, and instead chooses to refer to those pushing back against this harmful choice as “haters.” It does nothing but widen the gap and prove the validity of the backlash by further displaying how little people like Gary Van Horn and the foundation as a whole regard POC. Criticism for the sake of criticism this is not. These are valid concerns about a severe lack of intersectionality within the Delta Foundation and the community at large within the city of Pittsburgh.
Take heed, Delta, more than the city of Pittsburgh is watching.
being in a partnership with someone who is a POC does not make you any less capable of bigotry holy crap how do people not understand this by now?!
A black boyfriend does not recuse her from racism and or bigotry
I’m sorry I’m not paying 45 dollars to see Iggy lipsing songs that she claims to wrote but can’t even spit a few bars of a free style and he blk boyfriend is a farce. No thanks to Iggy. They wonder why there are two pride events. This one and blk pride.
There are SO MANY queer artists out there. Why was she even considered in the first place?
“Iggy has a black boyfriend.
This is a bunch of uninformed angry people trying to start trouble.”
You can’t fuck your way out of white supremacy. Sorry.
Let’s be clear. As the Founding Director of Garden of Peace Project, I have a few things. We were forced out of Delta Foundation’s fiscal sponsorship after never receiving an account balance; a separate account for our donations and contributions; were told we were going to receive $3,000 from Lambda Giving to support an event and received a check for $1,075 four months after the event. After our event, i was left $2,000 in the hole. Additionally, when attempting to leave the Delta Foundation and hold them accountable for the funds that we had knowledge of, we were not given full access to the funds that we had in the Delta PNC account and were forced to spend almost all of the money in the account to reap any benefit from the funds that were contributed. All funds that were contributed to GPP last year through check that went directly to Delta Foundation were NEVER reported to me or anyone else at the organization. Additionally, our agreement to have online giving through the Delta Foundation’s website was never actualized.
For anyone who would like to see proof, all emails and written correspondence can been screenshot and submitted to this page.
Delta: How about we pay twice as much as we’ve given to the community for one night with a racist homophobe headlining. Buy our tickets!
LGBTQ Pittsburgh: No, we don’t want racist homophobic pride performers.
Delta: Some of my best friends are black.
Where is all of this money going Delta? You brag about all the sponsorship you acquired over the year and yet you charge for every event you partake in. Take a look in how many chair members resigned from Delta this year. Were you aware that Delta purchased a brand new F150 without a meeting/vote. I know a handful of gay youths who were kicked out of their house, or had everything taken away from them because they are gay. They couldn’t finish school or find housing. Shouldn’t money be better spent there? If you take sponsorship away from the GLCC there is only so much they could do.
I watched Margot ball her eyes out after working for 3 days straight last Pride after GVH called her useless. There was a whole magazine staff incorrectly paid (not to mention 2 bar staffs). Stop chasing out people wanting to make a difference in this community.
Iggy is not what we are mad about. Its so much more. We need a representative who should invest in the people of the community vs. the commercialism of it. We should celebrate the older members who fought for equality, back when people turned their head when people where beaten for being gay. We should teach our youth that its okay to be them. That there are people who will love them even when everyone they love turned their back on them. This should be the focus of Pride. Not concerts and pub crawls.
If you are trying to find someone to properly represent Pridefest, have you ever tried someone like Sara Barielles? You do realize that her cover song “Brave” is a song that she wrote and sang about one of her friends that was homosexual.
Oh, sorry. That would just make sense. Let’s invite Hitler to a Bat Mitzvah while we are at it.
The same people accusing someone they’ve NEVER met in their lives of being “racist and homophobic” due to alleged tweets of random stereotypes posted like 5 years ago on social media saying you can be racist and publicly state their love for a black guy whom she’s been dating for years now lol. She will be fcking 50 married to her boyfriend with a bunch of kids, performing regularly at LGBTQ events and showing support and people will still post those screencaps of her tweets from when she was barely 20 years old as proof she’s “RACIST!!HOMOPHOBIC!!11” or mention a random old line from a song she’s quickly apologized for. Go to basically any 20 year old that’s had an active Twitter account for a few years and you’ll find something as “problematic” if not worse. Do you know people grow up and educate themselves? DAMN. And it’s funny how she’s targeted for this so much for ages now, basically BULLIED virtually.. yet realistically no one cares THIS MUCH about basically most other rappers “problematic” interviews/tweets/lyrics and ACTUAL actions in their entire career as much as they do for this girl. No one is perfect. Leave her alone already, if you don’t want to attend the event, DON’T. Last year she headlined the Dinah Shore Weekend White Party and it was so much fun, I bet everyone had a great time as well and there was no point in any “backlash” like this either so sit down Pittsburgh and go fight for REAL causes worth fighting for in the REAL world. No wonder our world is effed up and the Internet is literally the WORST representation of our society ever.
“As the leading LGBT organization in Western Pennsylvania”… What are you leading in, Gary Van Horn, money in your own pocket?! This conversation is simply about doing the proper thing for the GLBT community here at home. You have not had OUR best interest at heart, you’ve have YOURS.
What racist or homophobic comments has Iggy made? She’s a white female rapper – seems pretty diverse to me. Odd that she would accept to even perform at Pride if she was homophobic or racist…. She’s a great artist with current music that will draw a lot of people to come together and I’m sure she has other venues she could play, but she chose to play here. I’m personally very excited to see her, and know a lot of others are too.
I find it amazing that the LGBT Community is not sensitive to race and gender issues. It all comes from the same place. Just hide in a bubble and stick with your own? Black Appropriation is just as bad as Gay-Bashing to me.
I worked as a photographer for Equal magazine for 9 months. I have never seen the pay that was promised to me.
while I think it’s an awful awful idea to have Iggy here for Pride I think it’s even more irresponsible to have Michael Battle give his self-serving two cents on the issue. he is not someone to speak for the community.
If POCs and the LGBTs say Icky is racist and homophobic, maybe you should listen. Especially if you’re white and hetero.
as others have said, it’s about so much more than iggy herself. it’s about the decision delta made with no input from the community. not that it matters. all delta gives a fuck about is rich white cis men anyway. they’re the ones with all the cash, and cash is all GVH cares about. pride was once about standing up against heteronormativity & police harassment, taking the streets without permission, and supporting each other. now it’s about getting shit faced, getting free shit from booths (most of who are just promoting their businesses that don’t give a even fuck about queers) and signing petitions for shit like gay marriage (the most heteronormative BS ever). the queens who started that riot in front of stonewall are turning in their graves.
It seems like some of the people commenting are just as narrow-minded and hateful as the evil rich white cis male strawman they’ve created. You won’t get any support from people who aren’t like you if you treat them like devils.
It’s seems like stupid phonies hate this stupid phony for stupid and phony reasons.
One way Delta Foundation could help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered and queer people is to donate POSTAGE MONEY to Spring Grass Book’Em so that we could afford to fill our orders for books from LGBTQ prisoners in the U.S.-! It would cost so little and do so much. Christian churches are not supporting us the way they should…let’s show them the way to love! –Rose for SGB, 2421 Perrysville Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15214 412-251-7302 rcat32@gmail.com
If an artist is going to garner this much negative press, drop ’em. We have issues enough without hiring someone people dislike on the basis of discrimination. You must hire people with a pristine clean rap sheet. No exceptions. It’s that simple.
If an artist is going to garner this much negative press, drop ’em. We have issues enough without hiring someone people dislike on the basis of discrimination. You must hire people with a pristine clean rap sheet. No apologies No exceptions. It’s that simple.
If an artist is going to garner this much negative press, drop ’em. We have issues enough without hiring someone people dislike on the basis of discrimination. You must hire people with a pristine clean data sheet. No exceptions. It’s that simple.
On behalf of the QTPOC Pittsburgh co-founders, ww thank you for covering the beginning of Roots Pride Pittsburgh’s protest of Iggy Azalea! You have been a huge part of affirming that we must take responsibility for creating the environment we wish to see.
Roots Pride is an inclusive celebration. A celebration of our unified joy and struggle. The Stonewall Inn was a rare place in America at the time. It was an integrated community of LGBTQ (mostly GT) people who created a safe space for ALL the members of our community.
Since your article we have raised over $1,300 towards making Roots Pride Pittsburgh a reality. Please see our campaign page to get details about our plan. https://www.gofundme.com/FundRootsPridePgh…
When we look at the facts such as only $15,000 out of an over $800,000 annual budget directed towards local LGBTQ service providers, or $150,000 leaving our community to go to an international anti-advocate, the answer is startlingly clear. A power shift is not only necessary, but non-negotiable.
This is not to say that The Delta Foundation shouldn’t cancel Iggy Azalea. They should. Because it is the right thing to do. And they can do that. And they can have their regularly scheduled Exclusive Pride. That’s okay. I hope they do. In fact, it is important for them to proceed with business as usual. We need to know who wants an inclusive community and who does not. In this way, we can direct our energies to those who wish to build a community based on love and respect.
Thank you again for your wonderful article. We hope you’ll join us in keeping pride political.
Huh, interesting that the “Iggy has a black BF, ergo she can’t possibly be racist” theme is the same one that keeps repeating on the organizer’s Twitter.
HI GARY!
Let’s bring in Shamir!
http://youtu.be/Lp9GgdCgMXk