OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — June 1 kicks off Pride Month, a time to celebrate the LGBTQIA + community and their history.
"Pride Month really means that we are celebrating the Black, the indigenous, the Latin queer and trans people who said 'Listen, we should not be criminalized for who we are, we deserve to love one another, we deserve to have jobs and housing and the basics of life that make life better.' So it’s really great to have a month to celebrate that, to celebrate the history, to tell the stories, our history, our present and to think about and start to invest in our future," said Dominique Morgan, Executive Director of Black and Pink.
Every year Sweet Magnolia's Bake Shop chooses a local organization that supports the LGBTQIA+ community to donate to. All the profits from their pride pastries, including the fan-favorite pride bars, are given to the organization they choose that year.
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"I knew when I opened the bakery that I wanted to run a business with a social purpose and this is something that is near and dear to my heart so we get really excited about Pride Month in particular but it just feels really good to give back to the community. I want to be an active part of the community," said Katina Talley, owner of Sweet Magnolia's Bake Shop.
This year they have chosen to support Black and Pink's Opportunity Campus initiative.
Black and Pink is a national organization based in Omaha that strives to support LGBTQIA + people who live with HIV and AIDS and who have been impacted by the carceral system.
"Opportunity Campus is our initiative to address the experience of LGBTQ+ youth. Youth who identify with living with HIV and AIDS who are in our United States. We often talk about the ways LGBTQ+ people experience difficulties who are adults. We don’t talk enough about how in a society young people already don’t have the power to make choice and we don’t support autonomy in many ways. Trans and queer youth are actively experiencing harm in our country," Morgan said.
Happy Pride Month! 🏳️🌈Today I got the honor to sit down with @TheDominiqueM, Executive Director of @BLACKandPINKorg. We spoke about what the month symbolizes and how amid an ongoing pandemic, the LGBTQ community can still celebrate their joy and history. pic.twitter.com/ie56wgmXrX
— Alyssa Curtis (@AlyssaNCurtis) June 1, 2021
Morgan says she was humbled to learn that they had once again been the chosen organization by Sweet Magnolia's. The bakeshop also supported them during Pride 2020.
She says when companies who have a wide range of audiences and who may not be LGBTQ + based support the queer community, it can create pivotal change.
