This year, the Twin Cities Pride (TCP) Festival isn’t just about celebrating LGBTQ+ people, it’s about honoring the community that got us to where we are today. While the festival’s grand marshal is usually a single person, this year, it’s the community.
The bulk of the planning behind the festival, which takes place this weekend, typically happens in January and February. This year, those efforts coincided with the peak of Operation Metro Surge (OMS).
After the festival’s organizers selected the year’s theme of “Our Voice, Our Future,” they felt that no single person “really rose above what everybody collectively came together to do as a community” in response to the heightened federal immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities, according to Kelsey Alto, TCP’s director of programming.
“So we finally were like, you know what? Everybody deserves a pat on the back,” Alto told Courier Minnesota. “We all deserve the recognition, whether or not you could help or you supported silently, it does not matter. Everybody deserves to be a part of this.”
The decision meant some logistical changes had to be made. Because the festival’s grand marshal is usually only one person, they typically ride on top of a TCP float. This year, instead, TCP has invited community members to carry their banner in front of the float. Alto says the community members will also carry “signs to honor those we’ve lost,” like Renee Good, who was a lesbian, and “to honor people in the community who have stepped up” in response to the federal occupation. She pointed to Little Roos in Chaska as an example.
Little Roos is a children’s boutique, but Alto said they–-like other local small businesses at the time—also acted as a hub for donations during OMS. “There were some days that the only reason we had food on our pantry shelves was because they had driven a carload up from Chaska,” Alto said.
TCP needed the donations, because it doesn’t just act as a Pride celebration team, it’s also a nonprofit offering year-round community resources, programming, and events for LGBTQ+ folks and the annual festival serves as a fundraiser to keep this work going.
Proceeds from the festival go toward specific initiatives like housing artists at the Pride Cultural Art Center and gifting new, free, gender-affirming clothing through their Rainbow Wardrobe, an initiative Alto said is for “those in the community who are either questioning their identity and wanna try something on in a safe space, or have gone through a transition and it’s really expensive to replace your wardrobe.”
For many queer people, it isn’t safe to go to the store and try on gender-affirming clothes, let alone be publicly out of the closet. That’s why Alto said it’s imperative that the festival and organization continue to grow and foster community.
“Somebody left a comment on our Facebook the other day that said, ‘I can’t wait. This is my favorite event. A few years ago, I brought a youth in my life to Pride, and I’m happy to report back that they are now 17 years old. They are out, and they are living their best life. And it is because they came to Pride, they saw what their future could be, and they, like, fully stepped in and embraced their authenticity.’ And that’s all we want. We want you to come here and look around and see that you’re not alone, and know that you can be yourself. And there is an army of people waiting to welcome you and support you and be there for you.”
Twin Cities Pride Festival will be held in Loring Park in Minneapolis from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday, June 28, with the Pride Parade from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. Additionally, Taking Back Pride’s 10th annual march will take place in front of the Pride Parade at 10 a.m.
