Tag Archives: #Pride

PRIDE Anthem 1998 - "BELIEVE" by Cher.

PRIDE Anthem 1998 – “BELIEVE” by Cher.

“Believe” debuted as the lead single on October 19, 1998. “Believe” was written by Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray, Timothy Powell and Cher, and was produced by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. “Believe” departed from Cher’s pop rock style of the time, adopting an upbeat dance-pop style. It featured a pioneering use of the audio processing software Auto-Tune to distort Cher’s vocals, which was widely imitated and became known as the “Cher effect”. The lyrics describe empowerment and self-sufficiency after a painful breakup. Harkening back to an earlier PRIDE Anthem, by Gloria Gaynor: “I Will Survive.” 20 years earlier.

TRIVIA: The song, recorded and released in 1998, peaked at number one in 21 countries worldwide.[On January 23, 1999, it reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the chart on March 13, making Cher the oldest female artist (at the age of 52) to perform this feat.[Cher also set the record for the longest gap between number-one singles on the Hot 100; there was a gap of 33 years and 7 months between her singles “I Got You Babe” and “Believe” reaching number one.[

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Whoever you choose to be: Cher.

US Department of Labor Raises PRIDE Flag for the First Time

US Department of Labor Raises PRIDE Flag for the First Time

Via Press Release from the Department of Labor:

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month. It was in June 1969 that the Stonewall Uprising occurred, considered by many to have sparked the modern LGBTQIA+ civil-rights movement. Here at the Department of Labor, we rang in Pride Month by doing something that has never been done before in the history of the department — raising the Pride flag at our national office. In this moment in history, when workers are realizing their power in myriad ways — leaving jobs that don’t provide the security, opportunity and dignity they want and deserve, and organizing —often against great odds to improve their working conditions. Here at the department, we recognize and affirm the ability of our LGBTQIA+ sisters and brothers to also realize their power at work and to emerge from the crises of the last two years better than we entered them. When it comes to our commitment to equity, it’s not enough to talk about it or espouse belief in principles. It’s critically important that we work to make them real every single day. By raising the Pride flag at the department, we not only participate in a moment of celebration, we make a commitment: to the beauty of identity and the work we must do to make sure all the diversity represented on this flag is valued.