In the heart of Pride Month, the LA Pride Festival & Parade went down in Los Angeles this past weekend. Janelle Monáe made sure to put her stamp on proceedings with their own float, from which they sang some songs from their new album, The Age Of Pleasure. She also took a minute to deliver a rousing speech about celebrating and protecting the LGBTQIA+ community.
first LA pride and i got to see janelle monae up close.
pic.twitter.com/07eKZOsVL4
— joey (@joch3b3d) June 11, 2023
Janelle Monáe celebrating at Pride following the release of their album ‘The Age of Pleasure.’ https://t.co/JjPFJKEkeO
— Pop Base (@PopBase) June 11, 2023
They said, “We are here, we are queer! We are trans! We are the LGBTQIA+ community and we celebrate us right now! We celebrate all that we are from all different walks of life. We protect each other. We use our privilege to protect those who don’t have any. We use our voice. We use and exercise our right to vote to protect our trans family! […] We protect Black folks here. We protect brown and Black. All of us protect each other. We love each other and we create safe spaces for each other, ’cause there’s no pleasure without safety. So thank you for this safe space right now. I love you so much!”
This follows a recent interview in which Monáe said, “You respond by fighting back, by speaking out against, standing with our trans community, my siblings. As a nonbinary, queer, pansexual person, I am proud to be in this community. I will never sit back and be silent about the injustices that are happening against our trans community.”
Janelle Monáe is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.