Outright International kicked off Pride month with its annual Celebration of Courage gala on June 1st, supported by notable attendees including Laverne Cox, Cyndi Lauper, Vote LGBT, and Levi Strauss and Co.
Founded by Julie Dorf, the fundraising program partners with organizations in more than 100 countries and provides funding and support to LGBTIQ-focused initiatives worldwide. This year’s annual dinner centered on the theme, ‘”Creativity and Innovation in a Time of Disruption: Showing Up for Everyone, Everywhere”.
(Courtesy Outright International)
Multi-Grammy Award winner Cyndi Lauper accepted the Outspoken Award and spoke with The Knockturnal about her music career and advocacy efforts, saying, “You’re supposed to write about something. You’re supposed to sing about something. I always believe if you’re going to work hard to climb to the top of the mountain, make sure by the time you get there, you’ve got something good to say. That will lift people up and bring people together.”
Executive Director Maria Sjödin reflected on the event’s theme and this year’s honorees, telling The Knockturnal, “for me the celebration of courage means that we are always celebrating with a group that has done something extraordinary. This year we’re here with a Brazilian group called LGBT. We’re fighting for democracy in Brazil.”
(Courtesy Outright International)
Sjödin continued, “and really making the whole LGBTIQ community more visible. That, I think, is really important. And of course, this is also a fundraiser. We’re raising funds to support groups around the world who are fighting every day against new laws being passed, persecution, discrimination; and in order to fight back, we need the funds to do it, but we also all need to just come together and celebrate and have joy. And that’s what we’re doing here tonight.”
Vice President of Global Design Innovation Paul Dillinger accepted the Outstanding Award on behalf of Levi Strauss & Co. and spoke with The Knockturnal about the recognition. “Levi’s have a long history of being in this space and working on social justice issues. This one is really important to me personally. I’m the executive sponsor for our employee resource group for the LGBT community,” he continued, “so I’m here representing all those people who’ve collectively been discounting the better part of the last 150 years in a company that believes in the same clauses as outright and as they’ve been a partner for outright for over a decade.”
Community was a central theme of Outright International’s Celebration of Courage gala, which concluded with $1,473,971 in donations raised.
