Baton Rouge Pride Fest held its sixth annual festival alongside other pride events across the nation this past weekend. Baton Rouge’s Pride events may have been on a smaller scale than other metropolises, but organizers said that this local event was just as important. Tom Merrill, Baton Rouge Pride Fest’s chairman, said the festival began back in 2007, and this is its sixth straight year. He said the fest has grown exponentially over the years, and it needed more space for expansion. Merrill said this year BR Pride Fest worked with the University’s student organization, Spectrum, and it was able to host its annual event in the Student Union. Merrill said the event started as a quaint outreach picnic hosted by the Metropolitan Community Church. The fest originally only had 16 resource sponsors; that number has now grown to more than 50, according to Merrill. Merrill said the resource fair is an integral part of the festival. Resources consisted of support groups, political affiliates, local businesses and medical services, such as HIV testing. “We want people to be able to find what’s out there and what’s available to them,” Merrill said. “I think that the growth of these resources really speaks to the importance of this event.” Aside from the resource fair, the fest also supplied many other supportive services. Merrill said this year is different because they offered more family-friendly activities, such as a bounce house and a mixer for children with LGBT parents. “We’ve always tried to make this a family-friendly event. I want kids, grandparents, gay friends and straight friends to all feel welcome,” Merrill said. The festival also featured live music, drag shows, giveaways and Southern cuisine. One unique event that takes place at Pride Fest is the blessing of relationships. According to Metropolitan City Church Reverend Keith Mozingo, a relationship blessing is a public forum for a couple to declare their love and commitment to each other, and he said it’s fairly similar to a wedding. Mozingo shared that, much like the festival as a whole, the relationship blessings have increased tremendously. “The first year we offered relationship blessings, only six brave couples came forward to proclaim their love,” Mozingo said. “Last year we had more than 80 couples register for a relationship blessing.” Along with the fun, Pride Fest also advocates issues in the LGBT community, namely equality. The BR Pride Fest was preceded by an equality march, hosted by volunteer organization Capital City Alliance. Elaine M. Maccio, associate social work professor and CCA chair member, spoke about the march. “This was our first-ever equality march. The idea for the march began a mere three months ago,” Maccio said. “The majority [of CCA] was on board, so we went for it.” According to Maccio, the march aimed to exemplify three main issues: employment non-discrimination, legalization of second parent adoption and domestic partner benefits. Maccio said the turn out for the march was somewhere between 200 and 300 participants. She said she felt the community had come together for the cause, and they are already planning a march for next year’s Pride Fest.
 
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