Rexburg Pride celebration draws large crowd at Porter Park
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REXBURG – The American Flag stood firm among the myriad of pride flags at Porter Park Saturday afternoon as two groups attended the Rexburg Pride celebration.
On the northeast side of the park were hundreds of LGBTQ+ supporters enjoying themselves amid live performances, activities and vendors. In the Beehive Pavilion on the other side of the park, another group stood in respectful opposition to the pride event, offering resources for those who are victims of a perceived political agenda.
The fourth annual event was sponsored by Flourish Point, a local nonprofit LGBTQ+ resource center. Its founder, Joni Hunt, tells EastIdahoNews.com she was inspired to form the organization to give members of this community a sense of belonging.
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She is a nurse who describes herself as pansexual, someone who is attracted to people, not genders. She’s experienced challenges since coming out four years ago.
“Part of the challenge I have is just a lot of internal homophobia that I either picked up from the culture, the church I used to belong to or messages in media,” Hunt says. “I would love to see the conversation in this town change to be more positive, more embracing and more affirming.”
The pride event is helpful, she says, because it creates more unity and “establishes more visibility and safety” for the LGBTQ+ community.
Gaby McNeal agrees. She’s a volunteer with Rexburg Pride who came out as a lesbian during her second year of high school about six years ago.
Although McNeal’s family has been supportive of her in this journey, she says her sexual identity is a source of daily harassment by her boss.
“I’m the only queer person who works there. My boss makes jokes at my expense,” McNeal says. “Most of my co-workers are pretty accepting, but sometimes things get brought up and I’m like, ‘Let’s not talk about this right now.'”
She says her relationships with other people really aren’t anyone’s business and says it would be helpful if people could just be supportive and accepting.
McNeal says it’s rewarding to interact with others at pride events and she’s seen a benefit from having community pride celebrations every year.
For those who feel pride celebrations are unnecessary, McNeal offers a different perspective.
“It’s never been illegal in any country for you to be straight. It’s never been a battle to be accepted by your family for being straight. No one has ever been killed for being a straight person. Pride is all about finding community and people that are like you and knowing that you’re not alone and that you’re loved,” she says.
Both McNeal and Hunt participated in a solidarity walk around the park Saturday afternoon. Watch highlights of the event in the video above.
Sam Edwards was one of numerous people at Saturday’s pride event as a concerned citizen. He and his team had a display set up in the Beehive Pavilion. A banner with the words “Prideful no more” hung across the stage and a TV showing video clips of people expressing regret over a gender transition.
“‘Prideful no more’ is a reference to members of the public who have transitioned their gender and regret that decision,” Edwards says.
Oftentimes, Edwards says people who are part of the LGBTQ+ movement are victims of sexual abuse and coming out as gay or changing their gender is a response to a traumatic experience.
“We’re just here to share love and help people working through a difficult situation have a listening ear and perhaps a direction to some professional help,” he says.
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It seems to be a shift in tone from previous years. Last year, volunteers with MassResistance, a pro-family activist organization, were actively protesting at the event, holding signs with negative messages towards drag performances.
Edwards was part of the protest last year and he explains drag shows are “inherently of a sexual nature” and he and about 40 others showed up to protest a drag performance in a public place.
A public drag performance wasn’t held last year. Pride Director Doug Pawson says this year’s drag performance was held privately last weekend separate from this event.
“We celebrate that. We think that was a great decision,” Edwards says. “We’re here to keep encouraging good behavior (in public). What’s happening over there (at the pride event) is an appropriate public display that’s valuing individuals, valuing rights. It’s the same rights we are taking advantage of here with our (display).”
Doug Staker, whose son came out as gay several years ago, had a dome-shaped cardboard structure at the event called The Sanctuary where people could write messages of support for people in the LGBTQ+ community. It’s something he takes to pride events across the country.
Staker says every human being is looking for the same thing and “too often we let things like this become political.” His message to the public is to allow pride events to be a meaningful and positive experience for the community, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.
“With this project, I really try to take a positive approach … that isn’t about anything political. It’s just saying this is welcoming and we can create the kind of community where we all belong,” says Staker.
