Laramie PrideFest kicks off Friday
Amid rising national vitriol, nearby violence and legislative threats, Laramie’s queer community will gather to protest, celebrate, remember, and show the world what they’re really about.
Laramie PrideFest is returning bigger and bolder than ever. The annual celebration, protest and remembrance for the local LGBTQ community is entering its seventh year.
PrideFest board chair Kevin Rossi said the calendar of events has something for everyone — adult or child, drinker or non-drinker, community member or ally. The goal, Rossi said, is three-fold: showing that the community is here and won’t back down in the face of threats, dispelling myths about the community being pushed nationwide, and — most importantly — providing a space for LGBTQ+ Laramigos to remember, defend and celebrate their community.
“We are here to make sure that Wyoming and Laramie still have a huge pride scene, and that Laramie continues to be a town that is friendly to the LGBTQ+ community,” he said. “That it’s seen as friendly to outsiders, to folks who are passing through, and so that the community who does live here can feel safe and welcome to go downtown and be visible in the community of Laramie being their authentic selves.”
PrideFest events: From knowing your rights to reading banned books
The events kick off Friday and run for a week — with at least one event every day and often more.
The week starts on a somber note, with a candlelight vigil Friday night, honoring Matthew Shepard, as well as all the others who have been killed for being queer. Rossi said it’s important to start with that reminder of why Pride is important.
The next day, the Wyoming ACLU is hosting a “Know Your Rights” training, equipping attendees with the knowledge they’ll need should they ever find themselves arrested. Given the queer community’s uneasy relationship with law enforcement, knowing how to conduct oneself during an arrest could be an invaluable skill for avoiding further legal troubles, or even just surviving the encounter unscathed.
The day carries on with a relaxing sewing workshop at Cowgirl Yarn and a more upbeat adults-only drag show at the Gryphon Theatre. That balance between relaxing, all-ages events and the more raucous, imbibing variety of events can be seen in pairings throughout the week — such as on Thursday when an alcohol-free trivia night at the Grounds is immediately followed by a karaoke night at the Great Untamed meadery.
“This is basically to have one event for folks who drink and one event for folks who don’t drink — so they can get out on the town and have a social event as well,” Rossi said.
There will be no Drag Queen Story Hour during this year’s PrideFest — despite public commenters recently demanding that the county “defund” the library for allegedly planning to host such an event.
But that doesn’t mean PrideFest is shying away from controversial topics. On Monday, at Night Heron, there will be a reading and discussion of Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir — last year’s “most challenged” book, according to the American Library Association. Across the country and throughout Wyoming, school boards have faced pressure from angry parents seeking to ban this and other LGBTQ-centric books from school libraries.
“We’re basically going to be reading some banned books because banned books have been in the spotlight in the last year or so,” Rossi said. “We’re going to have a big reading of it and also make sure that people understand what it is that’s in the book and the actual context that it should be read in.”
On Tuesday, PrideFest is partnering with Tales at the Taphouse to host a storytelling event. The theme is “queer adventures.”
“We are still looking for a couple storytellers,” Rossi said. “It should be really affirming. People come and talk about their own experiences and the audience usually relates to it more than they expect to.”
On Wednesday, the University of Wyoming Art Museum will host a flag-making event, providing materials and space for attendees to craft their own pride flags.
And an unofficial bar crawl Friday will see Pride-themed drink specials at various bars downtown (Front Street Tavern, Coal Creek Tap, The Great Untamed, The Ruffed Up Duck, The Library, Crowbar and the Grounds). Proceeds from those drink specials will support Laramie PrideFest.
Saturday: The morning march and Pride in the Park
The week will culminate Saturday, June 17, with this year’s largest events. By mid-morning, likely hundreds will have gathered at the First Street Plaza downtown, adding affirming messages to the ground with sidewalk chalk while preparing to march.
“As is tradition, in the morning on the last day, we have our march and that will precede our Pride in the Park celebration,” Rossi said. “In years prior, that has seen a pretty big group of folks. It’s a pretty brief march itself, but it’s a pretty big one, being right downtown and along Grand (Avenue). It gets a lot of attention and a lot of folks go to it.”
The march only goes as far as the Albany County Courthouse before turning around, Rossi said. But it’s not meant to be disruptive, as some other demonstrations are.
“Making it a march instead of a parade is part of keeping our focus on the history — on why we’re doing this,” he said. “It’s a very nonviolent, very peaceful march. This year we will also have some legal observers and some security. We generally stick to the sidewalk, we don’t take up Grand or get in the way of traffic or anything like that.”
Shortly after this march, the entire community is welcome to gather in Washington Park, where musicians will perform in the bandshell, food trucks will be selling refreshments, and various organizations and institutions will set up booths.
“If you choose only one event this year, please make it Pride in the Park,” Rossi said. “That’s the big, awesome day that we have to celebrate, to be ourselves, to appear however we want — and to just hang out. There’s no agenda. There will be food and music; it will be a wonderful time.”
Pride in the Park is not just a celebration by the community for the community. It’s also an outward facing demonstration of what the community is and stands for. Rossi said he hopes Pride in the Park, alongside the other events hosted throughout the week, dispel some of the lies and misconceptions being spread about the queer community.
“To anyone who is not in the LGBTQ+ community, these events are for everyone and you are just as welcome,” he said. “There’s been a lot of recent vitriol and false statements around the term ‘groomer’ and around transgender people. And we would love the chance to just peacefully come to the table and talk and come to an understanding. There’s been so much propaganda in the news around our community and it really isn’t fair and isn’t accurate to what’s happening.”
History: A work in progress
Rossi said his organization has turned down interview requests with national media outlets looking to paint Laramie as a hateful place. Laramie is, of course, known internationally for the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student.
But anyone familiar with the modern Laramie community knows it’s experienced a significant cultural shift in the past 25 years. The town is known as something of a safe haven for young gay Wyomingites — where protests are common and acceptance is the expectation.
“It’s an extremely positive and affirming experience to be able to walk downtown in Laramie and see almost every shop window have a pride flag in it,” Rossi said.
Still, the threats are real, and the legislative assault on gay and transgender rights are gaining steam. Last year, members of a right-wing militia were intercepted on their way to disrupt Pride Month events elsewhere in the Mountain West. A few months later, a shooter killed five people at a gay bar in Colorado Springs. Amid this backdrop of violence, anti-LGBTQ agitators ramped up their activities at the University of Wyoming, disrupting multiple student events.
“These events really shake us to our core,” Rossi said. “Nothing quite so harmful has happened in Laramie in recent memory but there very much has been this history in Laramie. So we want to be extra safe and we want to make sure that people can show up and can still have a good time and that they don’t have to worry … We really don’t take a step in any direction anymore without considering physical safety. This is one of the reasons we’re trying to lock down security for some of our bigger events.”
It’s also one of the reasons for Pride Month itself. In the public imagination, Pride Month is frequently characterized by large-scale glamorous parades in major cities like Denver, complete with floats backed by major corporations.
But, of course, that’s not what it looks like in Laramie. And it’s not what Pride Month has been historically.
Pride Month takes place in June in memory of the Stonewall Uprising — a major turning point in the fight for gay liberation. Resisting authoritarian laws about how they could dress and act in public, members of New York’s queer community fought back against the police. A June 26, 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn transformed into a spectacular display of solidarity and resistance against unjust laws when someone threw the first brick at the police.
It would be many decades before even same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, but the Stonewall Uprising stands as a significant historical touchpoint for the community — an event that ignited the powder keg and empowered an entire generation of protest and action.
Bigots lost the fight against same-sex marriage with the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015, but the fight for equality is far from finished. The queer community at large, especially its transgender members, are still oppressed and derided to this day.
In Wyoming, state lawmakers passed the first anti-LGBTQ bill in a generation, instituting a blanket ban on transgender women and girls from competing in high school sports. Every other anti-LGBTQ bill introduced this session died or was defeated, but they’re likely to be tried again in the future. Those include a bill restricting what teachers can discuss in the classroom — modeled on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill — and multiple attempts to outlaw or prohibit gender-affirming healthcare for children and teens.
In Laramie, the University of Wyoming campus became a hotbed of anti-LGBTQ activity in the late fall, when several queer events were intentionally disrupted and a preacher publicly targeted a trans student by name. An ongoing federal lawsuit by members of a UW sorority chapter are seeking the removal of that same trans student from their organization and an outright ban on transgender membership.
Rossi acknowledged all of this was in the background this Pride Month, but said it doesn’t change Laramie PrideFest’s main goal.
“It doesn’t change the mindset around accomplishing what we want to do,” he said. “Ultimately, no matter how you feel, no matter what your personal politics are, what we’re trying to do is very innocent, very harmless. (We just) want a positive relationship with the rest of the town.”
Laramie PrideFest 2023 Schedule
Friday, June 9
Prideluck: A University of Wyoming Pride Potluck
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Location: Prexy’s Pasture at the University of Wyoming campus
Matthew Shepard Candlelight Vigil
Time: 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: Matthew Shepard Memorial Bench, A&S Auditorium, University of Wyoming campus
Saturday, June 10
Know Your Rights Training with ACLU Wyoming
Time: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Location: The Collective, 100 S. Second Street
Pride on the Patio
Time: 1-3 p.m.
Location: Cowgirl Yarn, 119 E. Ivinson Avenue
PrideFest Drag Show (18+)
Time: 7:30-10:30 p.m.
Location: Gryphon Theatre, 710 E. Garfield Street
Sunday, June 11
LGBTQ+ Affirming Yoga Fundraiser
Time: 10-11 a.m.
Location: Washington Park
Dungeons and Demis: RPGs and Board Games
Time: 1-4 p.m.
Location: Accelerated Dragon and Phoenix Rising, 615 S. Second Street
Monday, June 12
Book Club Night (Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe)
Time: 6:30-8 p.m.
Location: Night Heron, 107 E. Ivinson Avenue
Tuesday, June 13
Tales at the Taphouse: Queer Adventures
Time: 6:30-8 p.m.
Location: Laramie Railroad Depot, 600 S. First Street
Wednesday, June 14
Craft-a-Flag
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Location: UW Art Museum, 2111 E. Willet Drive
Thursday, June 15
PrideFest Trivia
Time: 6-7:30 p.m.
Location: The Grounds Internet and Coffee Lounge, 171 N. Third Street
Karaoke Night
Time: 8-11 p.m.
Location: The Great Untamed, 209 S. Third Street
Friday, June 16
Rainbow Road Bar Crawl
Time: 5-11 p.m.
Location: Downtown
Saturday, June 17
Laramie PrideFest March
Time: 9-11 a.m.
Location: First Street Plaza, intersection of First Street and Grand Avenue
Pride in the Park
Time: Noon-5 p.m.
Location: Washington Park
PrideFest Boogie
Time: 6-8 p.m.
Location: The Collective, 100 S. Second Street
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