Welcome back everyone! Becca Petunia here once again, to announce my absolute favorite time of year: Pride Month! This June, ToughPigs is once again pulling out all the stops to celebrate LGBTQ+ people all over the world.
Last June, we ran so many amazing pieces. I highlighted trans and nonbinary puppeteers in Pride Month Profiles. We wrote about queer interpretations of The Dark Crystal and the whole Muppet family, and discussed the importance of media bans.
And of course, most of all, through buying Pride Month merch and entering our Pride Month giveaway, you all raised $2500 for Equality Florida and the Campaign for Southern Equality.
Because that’s what Pride Month is about: coming together to celebrate what makes us all special while helping people in need.
So let’s jump right into it, because you KNOW we’re doing even more this year than last year!!!!
We’ve got a lot to announce, so keep reading!
1. This year, ToughPigs will be supporting the following three charities:
- True Colors United, which works with homeless LGBTQ+ youth
- The Trevor Project, which provides mental health resources to LGBTQ+ youth
- Advocates for Trans Equality, which helps trans folks fight legal battles against unfair policies
Because so many Henson properties are targeted at youth, we decided to focus on charities that are as well. Kids deserve to live happy, healthy lives, and we’re excited to help support that! (Plus, how could we not donate to a charity named after a song Janice sang on Muppets Mayhem?)
So how can you support these charities? From now until 12:00 PM Eastern on June 29, all proceeds from queer-related ToughPigs merch designs will go to these charities. These include the following new designs, available only this month.
- Alphabet Character pronouns shirts (available in he/him, she/her, and they/them). They’re your pronouns! Do we have to spell it out for you?
- ToughPigs: Out and Proud Since 2001. We’ve been queer since day one, and you can show the world!
Plus old favorites:
- Kermit Pride
- A Person in Your Neighborhood
- Whatever
- Whatever (nonbinary colors) (Back from the vault!)
- Whatever (rainbow colors) (Back from the vault!)
All of these designs are available on shirts, mugs, stickers, and more!
But here’s what you really wanted to hear. Yes, we are doing a charity giveaway once more…and folks, this year’s prizes are amazing. Just for donating to one or more of the above charities, you are eligible to win one of the following 26 prizes:
- One of three replicas of Sarah’s plush toys from Labyrinth! These were lovingly made by the incomparable artist Kristi O. We’ve got Ludo, Didymus, and a Fiery, all looking exactly like they do in Sarah’s room at the beginning of the film!
- This Muppet-esque puppet, made by the amazing Richard Gomez!
- Your own Muppetational Mosaic t-shirt, from the legendary Jamie Caroll’s secret vault. He designed the shirt, and it’s no longer available on Threadless, but he’s got it available in whatever size you want…
- One of three signed art prints from Muppet fan artist extraordinaire Dave Hulteen Jr.! Pepe in Squid Game! Jim, Walt, and Stan! Or a very familiar logo…
- One of two cross-stitched ToughPigs Pride logos, made by our fearless leader Joe Hennes!
- A copy of “THE TOME” (Fraggle Rock: The Ultimate Visual History)! Now you can be your own Fraggle Talk Classic episode! I’ll throw in some of my Fraggle fan art with this too…
- Plus, one of fifteen character magnets made by me, Becca Petunia! You’ve heard about these things when they were Hubba-Wha?! prizes…now win your own! (Magnet selection is still being decided, but here’s two from last year to give you an idea of what they’ll look like….)
That’s 26 fabulous prizes you could win, just by doing the right thing and donating to charity!
Here’s how this will work:
- You donate to one of this year’s organizations:
- You’ll forward the original confirmation email to contest@toughpigs.com.
- In your email, you will tell us the top three prizes you’re interested in. If you win a prize, we will do our best to get you one of your choices!
- For every $10 you donate, we’ll enter your name into our contest once.
- For example, donating $10 will allow you to enter your name into the contest once.
- Donating $100 will allow you to enter the contest 10 times.
- Donating $10,000 will get you 1,000 entries.
- You can give as much as you’d like to any of these organizations! Just let us know!
- Don’t forget to let us know the prizes you want most so we can try to get them to you!
On Saturday, June 29, we’ll be announcing the winners on a ToughPigs Pride Livestream that will begin at 7:00 PM Eastern. We’ve got some fun stuff planned for that, including special guests and games, so you’ll want to check it out either way! Follow us on social media for updates regarding that!
We will also email the winners, in case they are unable to attend the stream.
A little fine print: Only one prize will be awarded per winner. Donations must be dated from May 28, 2024 to June 29, 2024 at 12:00 PM Eastern. Only US-based entrants will be able to win a prop replica, puppet, t-shirt, Fraggle tome, or cross-stitch. However, all entrants will be able to win a print or magnet. We will attempt to give everyone a prize from their list, but there is no guarantee that you will receive the prize you want. Prizes may be mailed any time over the weeks following the contest.
Thank you to everyone who considers donating. You’re all winners to me.
Stay tuned for more exciting features throughout the month!
I’m so excited to see how much good Muppet fans can do this year. Spread the word, and let’s make a difference!
Click here to show your true colors on the ToughPigs Discord!
by Becca Petunia
