Am 26. Oktober ist Intersex Awareness Day – der Tag an dem weltweit auf die Menschenrechtssituation von inter* Menschen aufmerksam gemacht und ihre Sichtbarkeit gefeiert wird. 💜💛
Inter* Menschen haben angeborene körperliche Geschlechtsmerkmale, die von der Medizin nicht als typisch männlich oder weiblich eingeordnet werden. Dies kann zum Beispiel die Chromosomen, die Geschlechtsorgane und/oder die Hormonproduktion betreffen. Es gibt zahlreiche Formen von Intergeschlechtlichkeit. Diese bedarf bis auf wenige Ausnahmen keiner Behandlung. Trotzdem werden inter* Menschen systematisch pathologisiert und medizinisch behandelt.
Wir beim Knutschfleck möchten das Bewusstsein für die Herausforderungen schärfen, mit denen intergeschlechtliche Menschen konfrontiert sind, und Vorurteile abbauen. Wir möchten uns gemeinsam für eine inklusive Gesellschaft einsetzen, in der alle Menschen unabhängig von ihrer Körperlichkeit respektiert und akzeptiert werden.
Knutschfleck wünscht allen inter* Menschen einen empowernden Intersex Awareness Day 2024. 💜💛
Brian Michael Smith attends InterPride Celebrates 40th Anniversary With Inaugural Global Gala at Avalon Hollywood & Bardot on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Steven Simione)
This is a sad day, when an organization who's mission to contribute to visibility of under represented communities, decides to silence Taiwan because of our name. Hypocritical no?
"The final straw that led the negotiation to a deadlock was the abrupt notice from InterPride, requiring the name of the event to change from “WorldPride Taiwan 2025” to “WorldPride Kaohsiung 2025”. This is despite the fact that the name “WorldPride Taiwan 2025'' was used throughout the entire bidding process: From the bid application and the bid proposal evaluation to the voting process and the winner announcement back in 2021."
Full Statement here...
《Statement on Project Termination of Hosting WorldPride Taiwan 2025》
The WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee would like to express our sincere gratitude for all the generous support we have received since winning the bid to host WorldPride 2025 in Taiwan. After months of preparation and collaboration with various government departments and corporate enterprises, it is a great pity to announce that the project of WorldPride Taiwan 2025 has been terminated.
When discussing and negotiating the event contract’s terms and conditions, the WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee (consisting of Taiwan Pride and Kaohsiung Pride) was unable to reach a consensus with InterPride, the event licensor. There were major discrepancies between our stances on the event’s naming, understandings of Taiwan’s culture, and expectations of what a WorldPride event should look like.
In the back-and-forth discussions, InterPride repetitively raised their concerns and doubts about whether Taiwan has the capacity, economic and otherwise, to host an international event like WorldPride. This is despite our team consisting of highly competent Pride organizers who have successfully organized some of the largest Pride events in Asia. Although we have presented past data and relevant statistics to prove our track record, we were still unable to convince InterPride. However hard we have tried to cooperate, our efforts did not result in an equal and trusting working partnership with the event licensor.
The final straw that led the negotiation to a deadlock was the abrupt notice from InterPride, requiring the name of the event to change from “WorldPride Taiwan 2025” to “WorldPride Kaohsiung 2025”. This is despite the fact that the name “WorldPride Taiwan 2025'' was used throughout the entire bidding process: From the bid application and the bid proposal evaluation to the voting process and the winner announcement back in 2021.
We had made it clear to InterPride that there are some significant reasons why we insist on using the name "WorldPride Taiwan 2025". First, the name "Taiwan Pride" is of symbolic significance to the Taiwanese LGBTIQ+ community as it has been used for Taiwan’s first and still ongoing Pride parade since the first edition in 2003. It was not named after the city but the nation as a whole. Second, WorldPride Taiwan 2025 was planned to connect several Pride events and activities across Taiwan, with many cities, in addition to Kaohsiung, participating.
After the winner announcement, upon reading InterPride’s congratulatory letter which mistakenly named Taiwan as a region instead of a country, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) helped organize a tripartite meeting with InterPride and KH Pride on November 16 2021. In the meeting, the three parties (MOFA, InterPride, KH Pride) agreed on using “WorldPride Taiwan 2025” as the name for all the sequential events and activities. However, during the recent contract negotiation, InterPride suddenly made it a requirement that WorldPride 2025 can only be named after the host city rather than the country (“WorldPride Kaohsiung 2025” instead of “WorldPride Taiwan 2025”). This unexpected requirement essentially reneges on the previously made agreement.
In the face of many uncertainties such as InterPride’s inconsistent attitude toward the event naming and doubts about our team and the Taiwan market, we have to make the painful decision to terminate the project of hosting WorldPride 2025 in order to strive for the best interest of the LGBTIQ+ community in Taiwan. The WorldPride 2025 Preparation Committee will also resign to take responsibility for failing to host the event.
We would like to express our most profound appreciation to everyone who has supported us. We are especially grateful for the continuous assistance and resources provided by Taiwan’s Presidential Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We promise that the termination of hosting WorldPride Taiwan 2025 will not undermine our motivation to serve the LGBTIQ+ community. We will continue to promote Taiwan’s LGBTIQ+ culture worldwide.
Taiwan’s WordPride Preparation Committee has withdrawn from hosting the global pride event in 2025 after Taiwan's sovereignty was dismissed.
On top of the probable in-your-face lesbophobia I’d have to deal with at Mardi Gras, this is another reason I got my reservations about going this year. This year the Gay and ‘Lesbian’ Mardi Gras are joining with InterPride to host Sydney WorldPride 2023. Which is all well and good and will probably be a huge event, since both Mardi Gras and WorldPride are by themselves the biggest LGBT events internationally. Where I got an issue tho is with the very strange choices InterPride have been making irt to the upcoming WorldPride in Taiwan. I would think that, as an LGBT organisation, InterPride would probably not want to be seen as picking sides against a country that is the vanguard of LGBT rights in the otherwise notoriously homophobic Asia-Pacific region. But here we are with them, from the look of it, trying to stay on China’s good side by dismissing Taiwan’s independence. Like, why don’t you just come right out and say you’ve been paid off by China and that’s more important to you than, oh, I dunno, the LGBT rights you supposedly stand for?
georgette_midler: It was an absolute honor to be featured in Pulse magazines October edition! There is nothing more important than a stacked closet! Stay fabulous darlings! Oh and happy autumn!
Sweater: @ralphlauren_
Sneakers: @nikewoman
Ball Cap: @nyyankees_
Boots: @Tecovas
Thank you to all my favorite local Swynlake hotspots for providing a fabulous back drop for this spread! @moon-yeongjun @alana-the-brilliant @davidhatter @whereforart-thou-kovu
HEADQUARTERS: Swynlake, England
OTHER LOCATIONS: London, England; Rome, Italy; Paris, France; St. Petersburg, Russia; New York City, Los Angeles, USA; Mexico City, Mexico; Nairobi, Kenya; Cape Town, South Africa; Karachi, Pakistan; Toyko, Japan; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
FOUNDED: 1957
FOUNDER: Geoffery Lyons (Simba’s grandfather)
PAST CEOS: Geoffery Lyons (1957-2000) Mufasa Lyons (2000-2013), Taka Lyons (2013-2017), Simba Bonfamille-Lyons (2017-2018)
CURRENT BOARD: Simba Bonfamille-Lyons, Sarabi Lyons, Nala Calame...other NPCs.
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES (locally): 325
MAGICK/MUNDUS EMPLOYEE RATIO (locally): 51% Magick, 49% Mundus
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES (globally): 10,000
MAGICK/MUNDUS EMPLOYEE RATIO (globally): 55% Magick, 45% Mundus
COMPANY HISTORY
InterPride was founded in Swynlake, England at first as a modest real estate company, repurposing Lyons Real Estate which owned several properties in the Magic-Friendly town of Swynlake. While it retained these assets, the company turned its focus on community outreach, assisting in refurbishing Swynlake’s Town Hall and preservation of several of the town’s significant historical landmarks.
Within several years, the CEO and founder, Geoffery Lyons, had expanded practices to London with the intention of helping to preserve historical magic landmarks. He also wanted to establish affordable housing for Magicks. Working with legislators in London, InterPride purchased several apartment buildings and created anti-discrimination policies. These apartment complexes are still in use.
Within 20 years, InterPride had expanded their locations to include: Rome, Paris, St. Petersburg, New York City, Los Angeles. In 2000, when Geoffery Lyons unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack, his eldest son, Mufasa, took over the business and further expanded it to offices in Nairobi, Cape Town, Mexico City, Karachi, and Toyko. By this time, in 2010, InterPride was a multi-million dollar international corporation.
Tragically, in 2013 Mufasa was killed in a car accident, orchestrated by his younger brother, Taka Lyons. For several years, Taka Lyons capitalized on the tragedy, taking up position as CEO and using the company to front for an illegal organization. In the summer of 2017, this deceit was exposed and Taka was disenfranchised and sent to prison.
Simba Lyons, Mufasa’s only child, stepped up as CEO and opened another office in Rio de Janeiro, before working to convert InterPride into a nonprofit organization. Although he was only CEO for a year, Simba successfully steered InterPride through this difficult time.
The organization now assists and collaborates with Magicks and magical communities on every populated continent.
COMPANY MISSION
To provide support to magical communities in the form of infrastructure, education opportunities, legislation, and historical preservation. To center the voices of Magicks in their fight for equality.
WHAT WE DO
InterPride Incorporated works with magical communities across the globe in the fight for equal rights. By providing grants to financially support magical organizations, InterPride lifts up the voices of Magicks in threatened communities. They assist in preserving important historical and cultural locations and objects, assist in community reparations, and fund legal research and campaigns to pass pro-Magick legislation.
InterPride past projects: funding several magic-focused museums, opening schools, funding scholarship programs for Magicks, managing pro-magic real estate development in underfunded communities, protecting magic lands, attending conventions to give speeches on magic-friendly work spaces, and funding campaigns to pass pro-magic legislation.
InterPride also owns all the commercial buildings on Main Street and is the landlord for all of them.
CAREERS
Financial Department: become a financial analyst and work closely with our grants department to budget for grants, or work with donors.
Grant Department: approve grant applications and create new grants with allotted funds.
Preservation Department: liaison with communities in analyzing historical locations/objects for conservation and travel to communities to advise on conservation practices.
Legal Department: research pro-magic and anti-magic legislation on the local and federal levels to assist in campaigns to pass/block legislation.
Real Estate Department: manage InterPride’s various housing developments.
Magick Sensitivity Policy Coordinators: Magicks who work to keep InterPride’s policies up to date on all sensitivity issues. They will review important emails for you, go over all company policies/grants/legislation to make sure that they are complying with proper magic terminology/aren’t being assholes on accident basically. They work especially close with the grant department, the preservation department, and HR to confirm claims (like if someone says they’re being discriminated against as a fairy for x/y reason the Magick sensitivity coordinator can be like “yeah, that’s a thing, let me explain.”)
Human Resources and Information Technology Departments: self explanatory.
DESCRIPTION OF SWYNLAKE OFFICES
InterPride International is one of the biggest buildings in Swynlake. At seven stories, it rises above all the other buildings on Main Street. More modern in design, the building was constructed in the 1920s when it was originally Lyons Real Estate. The first floor is a spacious lounge with a front desk at the front, but also contains the employee cafeteria and conference rooms for onboarding or meetings with people outside Swynlake. It also has an onsite daycare for young children on the first floor!
Each floor contains a break room, all gender restrooms (all restrooms equipped with comfortable, private spaces for pumping milk/breastfeeding for nursing mothers :) ), an open floor plan with cubicles, a few offices for managers around the outsides of the floor (with doors opening onto the cubicle area), and conference rooms for team meetings. Managers and employees are allowed to decorate their offices/cubicles to their heart's content.
First floor: Reception, Cafeteria, Conference Rooms, Daycare Center
Second floor: IT, Magick Sensitivity Coordinator, and Human Resources Departments
Third floor: Financial and Grant Departments
Fourth floor: Preservation Department
Fifth floor: Real Estate Department
Sixth floor: Legal Department
Seventh floor: Board Member Offices
COMPANY EMPLOYEE POLICIES
InterPride is HUGE on its anti-discrimination policy. All employees undergo a uniform, rigorous sensitivity training, including watching videos about different religions, cultures, and magic societies/species. If anyone is found to be using social media to say stupid shit or is found harassing or commenting on any of their coworkers for any reason, they will be fired. (In some instances, they are allowed to participate in sensitivity training refresher courses, depending on the severity of the offense.)
InterPride applications ask for pronouns and differentiates name from legal name. If you write down a name that is not your “legal” name, it will not appear on any company paperwork besides your original application that is filed with HR.
Dress code in the office is business casual. Any religious or business-casual cultural-equivalent clothing (headcoverings, sorcerers in fancy capes, etc.) are to be respected. All hairstyles/colors are allowed. Tattoos are allowed. Piercings are allowed. Obviously offensive imagery or clothing/tattoos/etc are not allowed. There IS casual Fridays, and they are extremely encouraged.
All religious and culturally significant days are automatically noted when you sign on and you get them off, PAID. No questions asked. Maternity/Paternity leave is granted for up to six months paid, no matter where your offices is. (YES, even in America because this is a fantasy world and I do what I want.) Paid vacation amounts vary from office to office, but there is definitely an expectation that you WILL be taking all your paid vacation time.
Sometimes Simba just wanders around InterPride chatting with people. Everyone is warned to just be chill because if you’re acting weird around him because he’s the big boss, he will call you out on it (gently.) He will just show up in the cafeteria for lunch sometimes and sit with different people and discuss stuff with them. People who have been working at InterPride for a long time have known him since he was a kid and he calls everyone older than him auntie/uncle. Newbies find this very weird, but you get used to it after a while. :)
