The colors of the rainbow will shine brightly to celebrate the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community at the third annual Baton Rouge Pride Fest this weekend.
With free food, a full entertainment lineup and a blessing of same-sex relationships, this year’s Pride Fest theme to “remember our past, celebrate our present and believe in our future” will bring a quiet, yet large group of people together.
“We’re looking back at all the milestones that our community has achieved,” said Maureen “Mo” Wilkinson, the fundraiser of the Pride Fest planning committee. “[Pride Fest] allows us to celebrate how far our community has come. We still have not received our whole civil rights, so this process is very important to us.”
Wilkinson said this Pride Fest is an important one because it will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which were a series of violent confrontations between the police and gay rights activists outside the Stonewall Inn in New York City on June 28, 1969. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the gay liberation movement.
“[Pride Fest is] a great way for our community to reach out to the community in general and break down any negative stereotypes,” Wilkinson said. “They see the joy that we share. Once you put a face on hate, you can’t hate anymore.”
Tom Merrill, chair of the Pride Fest team, said Pride Fest is accepting of anybody and everybody. He said GLBT couples, their children, family and friends come out to show support.
“Baton Rouge has never particularly had a great sense of the GLBT community,” Merrill said. “We have different groups doing different things. Our intention is to bring a lot of different groups together in one place to get to know one another.”
The Metropolitan Community Church of Baton Rouge is the main coordinator of Pride Fest. Other coordinators are the Krewe of Apollo Baton Rouge, Krewe of Divas, Forum for Equality and Gamma Alpha Psi.
George’s Place is one of the sponsors of the event, and owner Richard Dykes will be honored on Saturday as the Grand Marshal of Pride Fest. George’s Place is one of the oldest GLBT-targeted establishments in Baton Rouge.
“It’s our honor to recognize Richard Dykes for the pivotal role he’s played in our community for so many years,” Merrill said in a press release.
Friday’s big event is “Drag Bingo” at the Metropolitan Community Church of Baton Rouge from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday’s events include the Pride Picnic and Community Resource Fair at BREC’s Magnolia Mound.
According to Rev. Keith Mozingo of the MCCBR, 32 vendors have signed up for Saturday’s Resource Fair. He said last year’s Pride Fest attracted about 500 people, and Mozingo hopes that number will double this year. The picnic will have free food, entertainment and Mozingo’s blessing of relationships.
“Last year we started the blessing of relationships … of same sex relationships,” Mozingo said. “It involves same sex couples renewing their vows … We’re doing it again by popular demand.”
Mozingo said the non-stop entertainment is an improvement from last year’s Pride Fest. The entertainment will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and will end just before 2 p.m. Some of the entertainers include Coco’s Karaoke, The Krewe of Divas, Miss Capital City Pride Amanda Rose Andrew and many more singers, musicians and comedians. Saturday night’s entertainment will feature a performance by the New Orleans Gay Men’s Chorus at 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge. Tickets are $18 at the door. At 11 a.m. on Sunday, MCCBR will have its Pride Worship Service and an afternoon of movies.
“One of my goals was for [MCCBR] to become the hub for the GLBT community,” Mozingo said. “Not just a church to worship, but for different groups in town to have a place to meet … the GLBT community center.”
Upon his arrival to MCCBR in January 2007, Mozingo found many members of his church split between different GLBT communities. He noticed there was nothing in Baton Rouge uniting the different GLBT groups, so he and Merrill had the idea for Pride Fest.
“It’s amazing how much [Pride Fest] is helping to unify the GLBT community and the community at large,” Mozingo said. “What I hope will happen with this one is that the community at large begins to see who we are and that every year it grows.”
This will be Wilkinson’s first Baton Rouge Pride Fest since she’s moved to Baton Rouge from Philadelphia, Pa. She said she was concerned about moving to the Deep South, but that she and her partner have found only acceptance and tolerance here.
“It’s been a good experience for me as a lesbian woman to be here and see how people have been very tolerant,” she said. “We’ve come a long way in 40 years … People are just becoming more comfortable that there are GLBT communities here. Acceptance is the heart of everything … We are all part of the great patchwork that is America.”—-Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]