The Metropolitan Community Church held its first gay pride festival this weekend at BREC’s Forest Park. Rev. Keith Mozingo, pastor at MCC, said many organizations wanted to be a part of the event to show support for the LGBT community. Organization representatives wanted to promote unity between themselves and Baton Rouge as a whole. “We’re here to promote brotherhood between the gay community and everyone else as well,” said John Deshotel of Baton Rouge’s Krewe of Apollo. “I think everyone at the event wants to send out a message that there is more available for people in this community than they would expect, especially for the gay community.” According to Mozingo, unifying the LGBT community with the rest of Baton Rouge was the main point of the gay pride festival. “We cannot be a totally in the closet, invisible community,” he said. “We are about bringing unity to Baton Rouge. We believe it is time for Baton Rouge to not just open their arms, but to recognize what’s right under their nose.” Traditionally, gay pride weekend takes place world wide on the final Sunday in June. Many major cities hold marches or parades on the last Sunday in June in honor of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. Mozingo said MCC was already planning to hold their annual picnic over the weekend and decided to turn it into a gay pride weekend because June is recognized as pride month to many across the nation. He said this is not the first pride celebration in Baton Rouge, but he thinks the weekend-long celebration may be first festival of its kind. Mozingo said the city is more progressive than most people realize. He sees the city slowly becoming more accepting, and that was visible in their church’s pride weekend. Bobby Beaird is the vice president of GBLSU, a LGBT social group at the University. “I am hoping that this event will raise awareness, both for those within and outside of the [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, supporter] community,” the physics graduate student said. “A major goal of the events is to provide a friendly environment where people from outside the GLBTS community can come, have a good time, learn a little bit about GLBT people, and walk away with a fresh perspective on who we are as individuals and as a community.” Picnic guest Matthew Green moved from California to St. Francisville. He thought the move would be a culture shock for him, but he in turn shocked the small town. “I came here from California openly gay, and I find the people are very accepting of me,” Green said. Andre Monte, MCC volunteer, said the church wants to make the festival annual but “there are no guarantees right now.”
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