MS CAPITAL CITY PRIDE 2021
Executive Director: Jason McCarty.
Planning Committee: Allen Barnes, Merry Barnes, Jay Barnhart, Kathy Clem, Sherry Cothern, Tyler Griffing, Laura Heller, Stacey Howard, Marissa Maatallah, Kate Mangum, Jess Manrriquez, Fabian Nelson, Dot Norwood, Mark Payton, Ashlee Pitts, Lucas Posey, Kim Robinson, Michael Rucker, Evan Sanders, Cody Shumaker, Wiley Smith, Sam Tremaine, Jaime Wagner.
It’s Pride Y’all 2021: “The City with Pride”
Grand Marshals: Jack Myers and Eddie Sandifer
October 1, 2021: VIP and Sponsor Kickoff Gala at Ecoshed featuring Jerred Price as Almost Elton John, with a silent auction and all proceeds being donated to Grace House Services.
October 2, 2021: Rainbow Run 5k (and Kid's Fun Run) at Smith-Wills Stadium.
October 2, 2021: It’s Pride Y’all Festival at Smith-Wills Stadium, featuring headliner Jaida Essence Hall (Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12), and local drag performers Courtney Cruise, Catastrophe Knight, Deepression Holliday, King London Silver Malone, Chevall Cruise, Onyx Desire, Ariella Da Vinci, J-Mar Tymes, Annie Bellym, Tennia VaTon Tymes Addicktion, Leigh Van Cartier, Romeo Addicktion, Christian P. Steele, Mercedes E. L’Oreal, Latracey Davenport Obama, Willow Showghoul, Azj’n K Tymes Addicktion, Jazielle Noelle Braxton, Tega Prodigy, Shaun L’Oreal Kennedy, Lexis Redd D’Ville, Za’Marion Mason, Ka’Miyah L’Oreal Tymes, Malibu Cruise, Tokyo Dior Davenport Bonet, Josalyn Royale, Gee Lemonade, Betty Essem, Dominique Davenport Mason, Madyson Andrews Steele, Love Latonia, Cora Bleu, Malaysia Black, Brooklyn Alexander Steele, Sasha Black, Areon Houston Bonet, Savannah C. Sanchez, Tara Shay Montgomery, and Sonika Boom.
Music included Scott Albert Johnson, Gena Steele, Assemblers, Witchcake, Shawn Williams, Passing Parade, and BARK.
October 3, 2021: Drag Brunch at Hal & Mal’s and Unity March, featuring headliner Silky Nutmeg Ganache, and local performances by Courtney Cruise, Malaysia Black, Josalyn Royale, Areon H. Bonet, Sasha Black, Brooklyn Alexander Steele, Savannah C. Sanchez, Madyson Andrews Steele, Chevall Cruise, Leigh Van Cartier, Malibu Cruise, Lexis Redd D’Ville, Love Latonia, Cora Bleu, Shaun L. Kennedy, Tara Shay Montgomery, Dominique Davenport, Willow Showghoul, Paula Foxx Royale, Betty Essem, Christian P. Steele, Mercedes E. L’Oreal, Ka’Miyah L’Oreal Tymes.
Other Calendar Events:
March 6, 2021: LGBTQ+ BBQ and Park Cleanup with Keep Ridgeland Beautiful at Old Trace Park in Ridgeland, MS.
April 11, 2021: Drag Brunch at Hal & Mal’s, hosted by Courtney Cruise, with drag performers Areon Houston Bonet, Savannah Sanchez, and Madyson Andrews Steele.
May 1, 2021: Arbor Day Event at Liberty Park in Madison, MS, partnered with Madison-Ridgeland LGBTQ+ (Southern Unity Project) and Madison Parks & Recreation Department to plant trees, support LGBTQ+ awareness, and picnic.
June 13, 2021: Drag Brunch at Hal & Mal’s, hosted by Courtney Cruise with performances by Sasha Black, Josalyn Royale, Paula Foxx Royale, and Leigh Van Cartier.
June 8, 2021: Pride Bowling Night at Fannin Lanes in Flowood, MS.
June 17, 2021: Pride Night at the Mississippi Braves.
June 26, 2021: Homecoming Dance Pride Block Party and Pop-Up Drag Show on Duling Avenue, featuring Madyson Andrews Steele, Courtney Cruise, and Sonika Boom. Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center provided free COVID vaccines and the Apothecary hosted the after party with DJ set by XEE.
July 11, 2021: Drag Brunch at Hal & Mal’s, hosted by Courtney Cruise with performances by Dominique Davenport, Tara Shay Montgomery, Cora Bleu, and Veronica Vonavitch.
July 12, 2021: Meetup at Urban Foxes for Coffee and Chat.
August 2, 2021: Trivia Night at Barrelhouse hosted by Courtney Cruise. This is the first of the monthly trivia nights at Barrelhouse.
August 8, 2021: Drag Brunch at Hal & Mal’s, hosted by Courtney Cruise with performances by Ariella, Ka’Miyah L’Oreal Tymes, Gee Lemonade, Mercedes E. L’Oreal.
November 12, 2021: MSCCP participated in the Fondren UnWrapped Holiday Parade.
December 3, 2021: Capital City Lights Block Party on Capital Street and Congress Street in Jackson hosted by MS Capital City Pride and Courtney Cruise.
December 4, 2021: Third Annual World AIDS Day Gala at Hal & Mal’s benefitting Grace House Services, and hosted by Courtney Cruise, Miss MS Capital City Pride 2021, with drag show for entertainment.
2021 GRAND MARSHALS
Jack Myers
Jack was born in Pelahatchie, Mississippi in 1944. His father owned a logging and lumber business, and later a small engine repair shop. Jack’s mother came from sharecroppers who later switched to raising poultry. In this community, Jack came to learn the value of hard work and education. The whole town of Pelahatchie had one school: Pelahatchie High, which ran K-12. After Jack’s graduation in 1963, he enrolled at Hinds Community College, where he realized that his entire education to that point had been in segregated schools. Jack later trained to become a radiologic technologist at University of Mississippi Medical Centers (UMMC). Jack worked in this field for several years before reaching the conclusion that at heart, he wanted to create places where gay people like himself could congregate. Shortly after his 21st birthday, Jack and a business partner opened Mae’s Cabaret. He continued to work as an X-ray tech during the day. Mae’s was the first of several ventures that Jack would own over a 50-year stretch, including Jack’s Saloon, the Star Restaurant, Jack and Jill’s, People’s Café, and JC’S (Jack’s Construction Site). At first surprised by Jack’s choice of profession, Jack’s parents got on board and worked the doors for years at Jack’s establishments – becoming well known as Mama and Papa Jack. During the 1980s, Jack witnessed firsthand the wretched intolerance of some Bible Belt Christians towards people with AIDS. His own cousin’s death affected him deeply. Jack found countless ways to combat the epidemic, including raising money to open a home for local men rejected by their families. The home was named Sandifer House after Eddie Sandifer, a gay activist known throughout the South. Jack closed the last of his bars, JC’S, in 2016. Around that time, the Washington Post dubbed him “the patron saint of Mississippi’s gay scene”. In a state where gay life often plays out in don’t-ask-don’t-tell fashion, Jack’s drinking establishments have saved dozens of lives. He is warm, soft spoken, perceptive, and always looking out for those in need.
Eddie Sandifer
Mississippi’s pioneering gay rights advocate Eddie Sandifer has died in 2016. The son of a fire-and-brimstone preacher, he began working at a nursing home in Jackson caring for patients and became one of the first licensed nursing home administrators in Mississippi. During the Korean War, the Army drafted him. Because he made no secret of being gay, the Army forced him to stay stateside. In 1958, he traveled to New York to attend the National Convention for the Mattachine Society, established to promote gay rights. When the hotel refused to allow African-Americans to join the convention, he said the society threatened to picket. The hotel changed its stance. Upset by the mistreatment of the elderly, he started the Jackson branch of the Gray Panthers and challenged federal agency officials. Moved by his words, some recruited him to help found the Coalition for Nursing Home Reform. When AIDS became an epidemic, Sandifer began driving in the dead of night into rural areas of Mississippi, this time to rescue those suffering from the new disease. "I'd have to go to places and bring them out — so the neighbors wouldn't know anything," said Sandifer, who began heading the Mississippi Gay Alliance in the 1970s. "I'd have to find housing for them when they came home to die." In 1987, the alliance began the Sandifer House, which had a dozen beds for AIDS and HIV patients, he said. The patients included male and female, black and white, he said. "I had files on over 600 people with HIV, most of them in Mississippi. They came from Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas." The house operated until 1992 when funding ran out. Two years later, Sandifer became part of the Southern AIDS Commission, now known as the Southern Health Commission. In 2014, he was still working out of an office he kept in his south Jackson home that needed fixing up. "I'm going to be working till I'm gone," he said. Asked what he would want his headstone to say, Sandifer replied, "He did his best."
Sponsors of It's Pride Y'all 2021: "The City With Pride"
A huge "Thank You!" goes out to these 2021 sponsors!
Festival Sponsors: Absolut * Avita Pharmacy * Baker Donelson * Barrelhouse * Burns & Associates, PLLC * Crawdad Hole * Discount Trophy * Eagle Express Federal Credit Union * Ecoshed * Genoa Healthcare * Gilead Sciences * Good Samaritan Center * Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System * Hal & Mal's * Hank Aaron's Sports Academy * Highland Village * Human Rights Campaign - Mississippi * Jackson Area Federal Credit Union * Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health * LGBTQ Fund of Mississippi * Mangia Bene * MH Ventures * MS Black Women's Roundtable * MWB * My Brother's Keeper * Nouveau Hair * Origin Bank * Planned Parenthood Southeast * Property Addicts LLC * Rivertrust * Safe Harbor Family Church * Salon David Joseph * Scoopdeedoo * SelectEdge Realty * Southern Poverty Law Center * St. James Episcopal Church * St. Philip's Episcopal Church * Summerhouse * The Beacon * The Spectrum Center * Timothy Land Designs * Urban Foxes * Vicki Slater * Visit Jackson! * Walker's Drive-In * WBA Architecture * Women's Foundation of Mississippi * Y'all Means All Natchez
Rainbow Run 5k Sponsors: Eagle Express Federal Credit Union * Gilead Sciences * LGBTQ Fund of Mississippi * MS Votes * Two Rivers Realty
Children's Area Partners: Jackson Zoo * Mississippi Museum of Art * Mississippi Natural Science Museum