Whidbey Queer Pride Parade expands to three-day showcase of love
Published 4:23 pm Friday, August 5, 2016
What began as Langley’s small 30-minute Whidbey Queer Pride Parade in 2014 has morphed into an entire weekend of celebratory demonstrations of pride and acceptance.
Queer Pride on Whidbey, the new moniker under which this year’s pride festival is named, has expanded to encompass three days from Friday, Aug. 12 to Sunday, Aug 14. Pride will overtake the Village by the Sea next weekend with a slew of options for entertainment and open-ended discussion about personal experiences.
All events are free.
An all-ages open mic night and poetry slam, a new addition to the festival line up, will kick off this year’s festivities at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 12 at the Whidbey Children’s Theater Blackbox space. Youth organized, the open mic night will be hosted by Whidbey Youth Support and Empowerment and South Whidbey High School Equality Club. Pride organizers wanted to further involve youth in this year’s festivities, and went to the youth organizations for event suggestions before they brought the idea of a poetry slam to the table, co-organizer Kathryn Lynn Morgen said.
“Our pride festivities are absolutely a lot smaller than the major cities that have pride parades, but as you can see we are primarily volunteer powered and crowd funded,” Morgen said. “We don’t have any major sponsors, and we’re not a nonprofit, just a group of people that want to make this happen.”
The pride parade remains the same as last year’s, after it expanded due to high attendance in 2014. The parade begins its takeover of Langley at the Whidbey Island Center (or WICA) for the Arts, before marching down Sixth Street to Anthes Avenue. The typically colorful crowd will then turn on First Street before making its way back to WICA via Camano Avenue.
Also returning is what organizers are calling an open space “unconference” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13 at the Langley United Methodist Fellowship Hall. According to Morgen, the idea of the unconference is to allow attendees to create their own content by having an open floor discussion rather than an organized keynote speech or workshops.
A newly added Saturday night soirée at 8 p.m. at the WICA main stage enlists both on-island and Puget Sound area entertainers for a night of drag, burlesque and cabaret performances for mature audiences. The show is taking the stage to benefit the families affected by the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, as pay-what-you-can donations will be accepted at the show. This year’s parade will follow an event fair, which will include food and art vendors in Choochokam fashion, as well as educational booths.
“The LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community is coming into its own and we’ve been struggling to be seen for years, and when Washington signed the gay marriage law it represented a step in the direction of making everyone equal,” said Langley City Councilman and past organizer Bruce Allen. “We want to be like everybody else, just like you.”
In an effort to create an event that is more inclusive for the entire island and mainland populations, organizers have selected Oak Harbor City Councilwoman Tara Hizon as this year’s Queer Pride Parade grand marshal due to her work with youth, LGBTQ communities and as a leader of the LGBTQ community here on Whidbey. Hizon praised the parade’s fun, family-friendly atmosphere that encourages nothing but love, but most specifically singled out the accepting nature of Whidbey’s residents.
“At a time when it seems like we’re constantly being confronted with ignorance, it’s important to gather together in the spirit of love and acceptance — especially in small communities like ours, where people may feel somewhat isolated,” Hizon said. “Queer Pride on Whidbey is a great way to showcase just how inclusive and supportive the people of Whidbey Island are.”
