House of Dow

08/12/2026

Are you coming to the cottage? 👀 We’ve got some fun new items in the shop! Stop by this week and treat yourself to something new! ✨

08/11/2026

If you would like to setup out front for the "Rainbow Hop" on Sunday for pride from 1-5, we'd love to have you!

Sorry for the short notice, we only got the info yesterday!

08/09/2026

My fault for not reading the instructions

08/08/2026

Get ready for Toledo Pride with Harbor’s LGBTQ+ Wellness and Connection Group! Join us for DIY for Pride on Saturday, August 8 from 2–4 PM at Handmade Toledo for an afternoon of creativity, connection, and Pride-inspired crafts.

Create your own bracelets, Pride pins, carabiner keychains, bead art, wearable Pride gear, and more! All supplies are provided, and you’re welcome to bring your own clothing for fabric painting.

Come celebrate, connect, and get ready for Toledo Pride, happening August 14–16! For more information, reach out to Cassie Tenorio at [email protected].

08/08/2026

What is House of Dow and why does buying your Pride flags locally make a difference?

House of Dow is Toledo's trans-owned vintage shop with a community closet and a curated list of trans resources in the Toledo area. Learn our story and find local support.

08/08/2026

20% Off storewide at our shop on Adams Street! We've got tons of new stuff in, just restocked the clearance rack, and added even more Pride shirts and accessories!

***rownedbusiness

08/06/2026

The next time someone tells you that elections need to be won by Democrats before we can include trans people in the whole "fight for equal rights", remind them that the incumbent Democratic representative in Michigan tried to use transphobia to win a race, and lost to the trans woman he tried to disqualify.

The hospital chaplain defeated two rivals and is favored in November to become the state’s first transgender legislator.

08/04/2026

We restocked our dresses! ✨☀️ Stop by today and try em on!

08/04/2026

In 1973, thousands of people came to New York’s Christopher Street Liberation Day rally expecting a celebration.

Instead, Sylvia Rivera grabbed the microphone and publicly called out the very movement she had helped build.

“Y’all better quiet down.”

The crowd booed her. They shouted over her, trying to drown her out completely.

Rivera didn’t stop.

She had spent years putting her body on the line. She helped homeless q***r kids survive through Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, alongside Marsha P. Johnson. She had been arrested, beaten, and treated like she didn’t belong. Now she was watching a growing gay rights movement decide that drag queens, trans people, s*x workers, incarcerated people, and homeless q***r youth were suddenly too embarrassing to stand beside.

She wasn’t having it.

“You go to bars because of what drag queens did for you,” she shouted. “And these bi***es tell us to quit being ourselves.”

That was raw frustration boiling over after years of being pushed aside by people who suddenly wanted respectability more than solidarity.

Rivera accused the movement’s leaders of abandoning the people still paying the highest price. While middle-class g**s focused on winning acceptance, trans people were still being arrested simply for wearing the wrong clothes. Q***r kids were still sleeping on the streets. People in prison had almost nobody fighting for them.

She wasn’t asking for a seat at the table. She was demanding that the movement remember who built the table in the first place.

The speech landed like a gr***de.

Many activists dismissed her as disruptive or emotional. Some openly mocked her. Rivera became so disillusioned that she stepped away from activism for years. The movement she had risked everything for had made it painfully clear that some q***r people were considered more acceptable than others.

Sound familiar?

Today, Rivera’s speech is remembered as one of the defining moments in LGBTQ history because it exposed a tension that never really disappeared. Every generation has arguments about who gets centered, who gets left behind, and whether the fastest path to equality requires making some people less visible.

Rivera rejected that bargain outright.

Watch the speech today (it's available on YouTube) and one thing jumps out immediately. She wasn’t speaking like a politician trying to win applause. She was speaking like someone who had run out of patience. Every sentence carries the weight of lived experience. Every interruption from the crowd makes her point stronger.

The folks still spreading respectability dogma under our big rainbow umbrella should watch this speech and heed those opening words, "Y'all better quiet down.”