People in colorful tutus and other rainbow paraphernalia hovered around a gentlemen wearing a dark shirt with vile text that hurled a very specific insult at the queer community.  He stalked around with an antagonistic gait and two companions, cell phone at the ready to record any Pride goers who might take the bait by launching a verbal attack. My new queer friends in Soldotna pointed out this person hiding behind his beard, dark sunglasses and cap as a business owner of one of the largest breweries and restaurants in town.  Darn … my list of dining options for gluten free burgers just got slimmer with scratching the apparently homophobic business owner off my short list of allergen friendly restaurants in town. 

A new photo project friend and his companions were amongst the group I will call the “rainbow fairies.”   Well, they are really Queen’s Guard volunteers, but calling them guardian rainbow fairies feels fitting to me.   The nonprofit’s overarching mission is to nurture acceptance, joy, community and safe spaces for LGBTQ+ Alaskans, and one way they help do this is by sending out members/volunteers to gently guard safe spaces for the queer community.  In this case, the rainbow fairies loosely milled around the antagonistic town members, while tactfully steering and redirecting the attention of disgusted looking Pride participants away to more joyful parts of the celebratory event. 

Pride as a Protest and being Protested

The rainbow fairies also inserted themselves into the line of 20-30 protesters who stood at the park entrance … just to diffuse the more queer-phobic messages and create some confusion amongst passing drivers trying to figure out what the overarching message was.  When I saw a second group of a dozen protesters greeting the finale of the 1.7 mile march, I wondered aloud if I should give them any more attention by photographing them. A person listening next to me urged “yes – do it! Look at all the joy passing in front of them compared to …” they trailed off waving their hand, not sure what to call the small group devoting several hours of their day to making their intolerance known.  What were they protesting??  Our queer existence?   I guess, go for it… Pride in itself is really a protest against oppression, and they were feeding right into the reason why Pride events are still needed more than ever.  

This Pride event in itself was almost a triumphant protest.  The event was being held after a debate that lasted over the winter amongst local citizens and city council members who considered passing an ordnance that stringently defined what could be non-permitted lewdness & “lascivious” behavior.  This would have effectively created a new rule to justify not giving Pride event organizers a permit to use the city’s park. 

The next day there was an entire counter event being held in the same park.  I ended up walking through the sparse event to meet with a Larping/cosplay group for photographs on the other side.  I couldn’t help but smile a little … the trickle of people supporting the counter-event was certainly loud, but all the effort put into organizing it resulted in a small fraction of the attendees and businesses that had turned out for Pride.  Maybe our society is making some progress towards acceptance of all. 

The Queer Joy I Found in my First Alaska Home

This was the first town that drew me to Alaska for a park ranger job the summer before, and it was part of what drew me back again.  I experienced so much joy just being myself both in my work and in my new community that I knew I needed to come back here again after I started brainstorming All the Genders.  It was disheartening to see the small and loud group of community members putting their time and effort into protesting a Pride event, but more encouraging to see the overwhelming number of people turning out for the small town’s 1.7 mile kick-off mark march down the main highways.  Wow, wow, wow … so many hundreds of people turned up in support, creating a looong stretch of humans strolling down the highway waving to smiling, honking drivers, and just being here. I grew up in a town that was the same size as this one, and not near as geographically isolated, but as a child in my hometown could not have imagined seeing even three people marching down the street for LGBTQ+ rights, sending a signal that it was okay to be me. I’m grateful to have been part of the wonderful community in Soldotna in some way, and for the organizers going through such great lengths to host Pride events in their town.

Don’t forget to check out some of the stories of wonderful people I met at Soldotna Pride!

My Pride Weekend Epilogue

I started writing about a nerve-wracking encounter with irresponsible gun owners after I left the Soldotna’s Pride events for the day, and it turned into a longer reflection on the impact that gun violence has had on my own communities and journey. So, my next article is perhaps less oriented toward LGBTQ+ specific issues, but was tied into my celebratory weekend and affects us all with violence disportionately affecting LGBTQ communities and people of color.  This piece is not a political statement, but just a recounting of events and odd interactions related to gun usage and violence that have shaped my own journey.  So please check it out in the next article … thanks for being on this crazy ride with me! 

To continue this Alaskan journey north with me, head another 90 miles up the road to some unconventional Pride events and photoshoots in Seward, Alaska.

June 2023