Pride Connection

Episode Notes Blind Pride International and Pride Connection have brought our community many deeply meaningful conversations in the last year, and  this Tuesday  we want to celebrate our newest Community Call. Every other  Wednesday night new BPI member Desiree hosts our Sexual Health Community Call. Let’s get to know her and the Journey to bring this fascinating series of conversations to the BPI...

Episode Notes In 1987, the United Nations declared December 1 as World AIDS Day, a day to unite in the fight to end the HIV epidemic, support people living with HIV, and honor those who have lost their life. Join Gabriel, Leah, Anthony, and special guest, Tom Babcock in a discussion about the history and significance of the HIV epidemic. The LGBT community was and continues to be strongly impacted...

Episode Notes Blind LGBT Pride Int. Launched Pride Connection just a month before the plague known as COVID-19 ravaged its way into America and changed life as we all knew it. Over these 10 months we have presented many informative, introspective and forward thinking conversations and this week is no exception. Is there room at the table this year for sides of joy and gratitude? Has the fatigue of...

Episode Notes Please join us on Pride Connection this evening. We will engage in a lively discussion surrounding the news concerning 2 COVID-19 vaccinations that apparently, if press releases can be believed, have an over 90% rate of protection against virus infection. If you had the opportunity to participate in final testing trials, would you do so? Is the risk worth it? We will open a Zoom line...

Episode Notes The Election is over and the ballots have been counted (or at least most of them have) leaving us with a clear winner. Pride Connection wants to hear from all BPI members on their voting experiences and election feelings.  Join Gabriel, Leah and Anthony as they share their opinions on the outcomes, what’s next and what this change in power means for our community. The lines will be o...

Episode Notes Our exceptional ally and affiliate member Cheryl Cumings interviews Brandie Sendziak, supervising attorney at the Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco. As the Covid 19 pandemic continues to adversely affect all facets of our society, the discussion revolves around "standard of care" guidelines for hospitals and other medical facilities. Early on in the pandemic, much f...

With the participation of special co-hosts Richard Marion (British Columbia, Canada) and Tom Babcock (Orlando, Florida)! Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorad...

Many of you may remember a historic resolution presented by Blind LGBT Pride International (BPI) this past Summer to the Resolutions Committee and to the Advocacy Team of the American Council of the Blind. Drafted in a collaboration between BPI and Kim Charlson and Paul Edwards, this resolution gained immediate action thanks to the tireless efforts of BPI LifeTime Member, Terry Gorman. BPI’s origi...

Join Pride Connection this evening at 10 PM EST, 7 PM Pst on ACB Radio Mainstream. We continue our discussion of COVID-19 and its effect on employment in the visually impaired community. This week, we speak with 4 women who were gainfully employed as the COVID storm hit but found themselves abruptly uprooted early on in the crisis. How does one cope with such sudden life changes that were unantici...

Episode Notes Pride Connection Presents: Working through the Pandemic Join Gabriel, Leah and Anthony as they welcome Tim Cummings, Mark Hanohano andByron Lee to discuss the changing landscape of the workplace since the beginning of this pandemic. Working from home, furloughed and subsequently laid off, work from home to returning to the office and a ACB intern are a few of the perspectives we will...

As President of Blind LGBT Pride International (BPI), I would like to invite you to be a part of our on-going conversations around Racial Justice. Pride Connection has had the honor of conducting 2 in-depth conversations with Will Burley, a Black activist and Cultural Humility leader, and Cheryl Cummings, a member of ACB’s Multicultural Affairs Committee. We’ve held conversations around the histor...

Pride Connection is always bringing informative, community-building conversations as well as fun experiences. During the last few weeks we have been focusing on racial justice, and decided to take a week of entertainment before we continue that series of conversations. So, we reached out to Ian who has been working the entertainment industry in various capacities for decades. You may know him from...

Blind Pride, being the diverse organization that we are, began an on-going conversation with our Past President, Will Burley, and member Cheryl Cummings last week on pride connection focusing around the ever widening national conversation regarding the state of Social Justice and where BPI fits in this important dialogue. The idea that one can be either a ALLY OR CO-CONSPIRITOR or both was raised...

This evening on Pride Connection, we emphasize that black lives matter. Will Burley, who has recently been appointed to co-facilitate the Cultural Humility workgroup at Disability Rights Texas will join in on the conversation and share history and personal stories from a Black activist perspective. We will also be joined by other black members of our community who will share their realities and st...

This evening on ACB Radio Mainstream, Pride Connection goes a little bit gray. Byron Lee is no stranger to ACB. Over the years, he has helped with live streaming at national conventions. His weekly comedy music program, The Fun Zone, kept the ACB Radio audience laughing. In June, BPI benefitted from his brilliance when he produced and edited our Pride month music celebration. But who is the guy be...

Please join Pride Connection tonight as we hear the voice of one of BPI’s newest members, Randy Reed. Randy invites us into his journey of self-discovery. He shares the confusion and misunderstanding he went through until he was able to find a word that described his sexual orientation- Asexual. This candid and open conversation educates us on the term “asexual.” we hear from this real-life expert...

The ACB 2020 virtual convention burned brightly along with all the 4th of July fireworks, and now it is behind us. We've had a week to recover from the magic, the momentum and lightning speed of workshops, presentations and discussions. BPI successfully hosted an array of events as part of the ACB 2020 conference. Let's discuss perceptions, observations and thoughts. What were your favorite moment...

You won’t want to miss this candid and compelling conversation with Rosemary Ketchum, the first trans woman to become an elected official. Rosemary is the Councilwoman for Ward 3 in the city of Wheeling, WV. Rosemary opened up her life to us. From growing up in Ohio; realizing she had to transition; the role of her family during her transition process; her thoughts on inclusive language and pronou...

New BPI member Laurel joins us live this evening on Pride Connection to share his journey from a child growing up in Syria to his days spent working on the most recognizable hill in the world. He is a proud supporter of homeless advocacy, a champion of human rights, and an eloquent speaker. As we navigate through these turbulent times, his impactful story will intrigue us all and will motivate us...

Dear ACB Family. Please join BPI on Pride Connection on ACB Radio Mainstream as we continue with our special programing for Pride Month. Co-hosts Anthony Corona, Leah Gardner, and Gabriel Lopez Kafati engage in a candid and open conversation around LGBT Pride. We share personal experiences; the challenges of coming out; reactions of loved ones. We compare also compare notes on the specific challen...

Pride Connection Proudly Celebrates Pride Month We begin with a fascinating show recounting the early days of our beloved organization. Blind Pride started as a small meeting of like minded people just meeting, hanging out and supporting each other at conventions int the late 1990s. Fire, passion and dedication led to the eventual forming of Bflag the family who eventually became BPI!! We were hon...

Pride Connection Proudly presents... Working Blind in a Sighted World! This week we have a dynamic panel of Blind Pride members who all work or have worked in diverse professions,. What they have in common is - working among and alongside sighted people. Hosts Anthony Corona, Leah Gardner and President Gabriel Lopez Kafati are joined by... Jessica Kell- A social worker in the addiction management...

Grasp a dream and run with it; see where the flight takes you. This week, Pride Connection features Sarah Chung, a Korean-American Paralympic athlete who identifies as a queer person. Sarah discusses growing up with a foot in 2 worlds, her education, her leap in to competitive judo in her early '20s and her conception of the term "queer". When dreams are not deferred, even the most impossible ones...

On this week's episode of Pride Connection, join us as we gain insight in to the makings of a riveting documentary about sight loss that mixes the personal and the educational. Joseph Lovett of Lovett Productions, an acclaimed medical journalist and documentary film director, released Going Blind in 2010. The movie was based on his exploration of vision loss as glaucoma encroached on his limited s...