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Pride Community Center Treasurer Heidi Davis said the event – held toward the end of Pride Month – aimed to provide a supportive space for the local LGBTQ community to “experience some queer joy.� The event was held at the Pavilion at Founders Park.

The family-friendly event featured local queer artists, vendors, musicians and drag performers, including the Gypsy Queens. The live music lineup included the JC Jazz Collective, Lucille Klement, Jacob Danielsen-Moore and Girl Scout Kegger, among other artists.

Davis said the event helped remind members of the local LGBTQ community that they “are not alone,� which organizers believe is particularly important today amid the current political climate and continued culture wars over sexuality and gender nonconformity.

“The Rainbow Festival is our big annual fundraising event that helps cover our operating budget for the year. We call it our 'Cozy Pride.' We love to highlight queer artists and musicians and support our local drag performers,� Davis said. “But we also just love giving space to businesses that are truly supportive of our community to meet with the community so people know where their dollars are welcomed.

“Our primary goal with this event is to connect people and to be a visible argument that there are thousands of people in this deep [Republican] red state that love and support you.�

Davis said the funds raised from the event will soon help cover moving costs once the center’s current lease is up in the fall. The organization is also working to build up a library to showcase the work of queer writers and celebrate diversity in literature.

In addition, Davis said, the funds will allow the center to continue its support for other diversity-oriented clubs and social groups that help keep the local LGBTQ movement connected.

“The center is planning to move when our lease is up, and we hope it will make it easier to attend events. We host weekly and monthly events now. We have two game nights each week, monthly book club, and support groups that meet weekly or twice a month,� Davis said, adding that the center gives the community a space for other group meetings, reading groups, baby showers and birthdays.

“Mental health support and a physical safe space to give our community somewhere to exhale in this political climate is important to us,� Davis continued. “Feeling like you are part of a community and that people care about you is life saving work right now. We have to have each other's back.�

While it hasn’t always been easy to raise the funds necessary, Davis said the PCC has still managed to provide supportive spaces for the local LGBTQ community.

“We are an all-volunteer board, and we always need more hands and ideas to make this center what the community needs and wants it to be. We have existed since 2012 as an organization, but it was focused on a capital campaign to get a physical space open. Then we opened in late 2019, and it's been tough, but we're still here," Davis said.

“We're still going, and we're part of the larger network of Pride Centers across the country.�

The festival was met with a handful of demonstrators opposed to the event, with one anti-LGBTQ White nationalist group waving a Swastika flag and telling attendees they “should be ashamed of themselves.�

Davis encouraged the crowd to ignore the group and emphasized organizers and attendees are not intimidated by such displays.

“We will keep going as long as our community continues to support us and trusts us to provide opportunities, like the Rainbow Festival, to connect with each other,� Davis said.

To learn more about the Pride Community Center and other upcoming events, visit