New Pride Collective Enters Partnership With GALAEI; Former Pride Director Honored In Harrisburg

By Jason Villemez, Special to the Capital-Star, Pennsylvania Capital-Star

October 31, 2021

The PHL Pride Collective, which formed in June 2021 in the aftermath of the disbandment of Philly Pride Presents, has partnered with the nonprofit GALAEI as they work to organize and fundraise for next year’s Pride event, Billy Penn reported.

Ashley Coleman, GALAEI executive director, told Billy Penn “We as an organization sat down and said, ‘We need to be part of the foundation of this new Pride.’” Coleman also told Billy Penn that she hopes that funding for the 2022 Pride event (which she estimated could cost around $1.5 million) will come from “independent donors, grant funding, and state and federal agencies.”

The partnership, which sets PHL Pride Collective as a program of GALAEI, will initially be for one year, with 6-month and 12-month evaluations.

The collective has also created a new web site — which houses the group’s Points of Unity, contact forms and donation information — as well as Facebook and Instagram pages. The Points of Unity include “treating each other and our community with love, respect, honor, and care;” uplifting the experiences of Black and Brown LGBTQ people; prioritizing the local community over big corporations; making Pride accessible to disabled communities; and not communicating or collaborating with police.

Members of the collective gathered over the weekend for an internal retreat “focused on team building and imagining what Pride 2022 could be,” according to the group’s Facebook page. The in-person retreat was hosted at GALAEI’s offices, with some members joining virtually.

For those looking to get involved with the collective, organizer Abdul-Aliy Muhammad told Billy Penn that the group will host a public event in early 2022 to get feedback from community members.

“We want to talk about who we are and share our plan for what we want to see happen in 2022,” Muhammad told Billy Penn. “That’s going to be for the community, and we’re also interested in seeing if potential funders can come to that meeting to learn more about us.”

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