Archive

SweetHeat Miami and Other Ethnic-Specific Gay Pride Celebrations Grow in Popularity

Around the time of her third visit to South Beach, Florida’s sun-drenched lady fest Aqua Girl, DJ and party promoter Myah Mustafa found herself noticing a conspicuous trend: Few, if any, of the bikini-clad lesbians around her were women of color. It’s an old storyline in a community united by sexual orientation, but often still divided along color lines. Mustafa felt compelled to do something about it.

“Aqua Girl was fun because it was different … but when it came down to it, it wasn’t for us,” says 25-year-old DJ and SweetHeat Miami creator Mustafa. Mustafa says when she originally attended Aqua Girl, an 11-year-old event with a largely white and Latina following, she was put off by the age-old party divider: music.

“They only played techno and house,” she says. “Not to say that [women of color] don’t like it, but we need a little bit of hip hop.”

Mustafa, who works as DJ Dimples, has used her own money to create a space for black and Latina lesbians called Sweet Heat. Now entering its third year, the May 13-16 event is picking up steam as a tawny counterpart to Aqua Girl, complete with celebrity guests and a four-day slate of sexy South Beach parties designed to highlight women of color.

The event has grown in popularity – Mustafa expects about 3,000 women this year – and flourishes as some promoters say women of color have more money to spend and want to spend it in places where they’re better represented.

 

Mustafa, who works as DJ Dimples, set out to create an event that would cater to the largely hip hop-centered musical tastes of black and Latina lesbians, pooling her own money to host the first SweetHeat in 2008. It was a success, though still a work in progress: Mustafa admits she occasionally sent would-be partiers to Aqua Girl events, going on at the same time, when there were gaps in her own programming.

This year’s SweetHeat lineup includes five DJs, a pool party, poetry event and a scheduled appearance by rapper Trina. “I wholeheartedly feel like they are extra comfortable,” she says of her patrons.

Around the country, interest in ethnic-specific gay pride celebrations has grown in recent years. A listing of 2010 celebrations at the website for the International Federation of Black Prides showed 41 multicultural pride events, including newer celebrations in places like New Orleans and Central South Carolina.

Many women are wanting even more specialization, demanding niche events where they don’t feel overshadowed by gay men, explains Gail Christian, organizer of Dinah in Color. The event, designed to offer lesbians of color a more diverse alternative to the traditional Dinah Shore Weekend, recently drew about 500 women, a big jump from the days when Christian and her partner hosted the event in their Palm Springs home.

“Big events geared toward women of color have come about with women of color and lesbians becoming more financially stable so they could support these events,” says Christian, who believes the trend has been building since the ’90s. “As they became more financially stable, then they had disposable income.”

At the same time, she says white party promoters have shown no true commitment to diversity, a charge that bothers Alison Burgos, founder of Aqua Girl. Burgos, who is Latina, acknowledges some 45 percent of the roughly 4,000 women expected to attend her event this year will likely be white. Still, she says she’s added black headliners and a hip hop/ R&B music night designed to make everybody feel comfortable.

“Part of me is a little disheartened,” she says. “We have worked so hard at Aqua Girl to create a culturally stimulating and diverse, welcoming event.”

But partygoers like Aryka Randall say there’s more to conquering the divide than putting a few Gucci Mane records in rotation. Randall has written about the topic of the race-based pride divide on her blog, TheFabFemme.com.

“I’ve brought white friends to a black club and people just kind of ignored them, so I understand why people don’t want to go to a club of a different race,” says Randall, who says the real task is getting women of all colors to step out of their comfort zones.

Randall says she promotes diversity on her own blog by including news and entertainment bits designed to interest people of all races. The multiracial blogger says while she attends both majority white and majority black prides, she looks forward to a day when there are fewer separate events.

“We’re so divided within our community,” says Randall who plans on attending events in Atlanta and Houston this summer. “Then no one can figure out why the straight community doesn’t want to take us seriously.”

For more information, check out the official sites for SweetHeat Miami and Dinah in Color.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button