Big or small, Pride gatherings bring June to a colorful close

Anchorage’s Pride Month festivities pulled attendees to two distinct hotspots on June 29. Anchorage PrideFest brought dozens of partner organizations and sponsors together with vendors and performers for a parade and open-air festival that spanned the length of Delaney Park. In Spenard, a group of volunteer organizers along with the Writer’s Block Cafe hosted another open air market and special performances from live DJs. Though the difference in scale of the two annual events is on the level of city blocks, their core purpose is similar — closing Pride Month and publicly celebrating Anchorage’s LGBTQ+ community.

A procession of rainbows began on ninth avenue at 11:30 a.m. An organized mass of marchers, trucks, cars, and floats snaked along Ninth, through F street, and across Seventh Avenue.

Crowds gathered and moved ahead of the parade, dressed in multicolored pride regalia. Some attendees adorned themselves with flowing feathers, rainbow gowns and elaborate cosplay, while others draped their shoulders with flags or opted for varyingly-subtle festive street clothes. Regardless of outfit, all of the day’s participants took it upon themselves to bring cheers, applause, and shouts of encouragement at the litany of organizations, businesses, and groups that walked the parade route.

A big tent of entities made their presence known on these streets, beneath the shade of downtown highrises and the watchful eyes of thousands of paradegoers.

Among the many government and political groups that participated were members of Anchorage’s Assembly, mayor Suzanne LaFrance, a jeep-mounted delegation of LGBTQ+ policy makers from Alaska’s State Legislature, The Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service, a group of wide-brimmed-hat-wearing rangers from the National Parks Service, Queers For Palestine, the Party for Socialism and Liberation Anchorage and the Alaska Libertarian Party.

Some nonprofit and community groups included JBER QueerCouncil, the local ACLU chapter — driving a convertible ferrying Laura Herman dressed as Lady Liberty — the flowing purple gowns of Utopia Alaska, Four A’s, Identity Alaska, the Red Cross, and Rage City Roller Derby.

Businesses shared in the festivities too, such as a convoy of luxury convertibles from Anchorage’s BMW dealership, groups from Walmart and Fred Meyer, GCI and Alaska Pipeline Services.

Religious groups such as Congregation Beth Shalom, St. John United Methodist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship also joined.

Some of the commotion was accompanied by music and the boisterous voice of the equally boisterous drag artist “Daphne DoAll LaChores” — the retro-inspired persona of electronics repairman, Mad Myrna’s drag host, and political activist Scott Koeller. Koeller broke from the provided scripts multiple times to pay homage or converse with groups present at the parade. Koeller acknowledged that this was the first year both sitting members of the assembly and a mayor elect were present at the parade, and directed the crowd’s attention towards this delegation.

Some took this opportunity to entertain the crowd, such as Rage City Roller Derby’s circuitous line of roller skaters winding through the center of the main intersection.

Atwood Building and Dena’ina Center, booth attendees on the Park Strip sold wares and represented their respective organizations and businesses while the stage buzzed with music, speeches and performances. Multiple members of these communities commented on the importance of PrideFest to their outreach goals.

“We handed a ton of pride flags, they disappeared,” said volunteer Bruce Wheeler at the American Red Cross’s booth, “I think [attending Pride] makes people aware of what we’re doing.”

“I think it’s important to be all inclusive,” said Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Diversity Committee and Board of Directors member Jin Chen. “Workforce is an issue across the board at all businesses, and if we can make employees feel included, then [businesses] can retain employees as well.”

Congregation Beth Sholom President Roy Mitchell spoke to The Northern Light and said, “We’ve been [at pride] several years.” Mitchell said Beth Sholom’s message of “All are welcome” is reflected by having a presence at the event.

Some booths provided services and information to attendees.

“Our role here at Pride is to provide free STI testing and free pregnancy tests to keep everyone safe,” said Ashley Sheets, who oversees communications for the Anchorage Health Department. “Not only do we have our sexual health clinic, which is what we’re out here supporting right now, we also have our disease prevention and control unit.”  

Director of Prevention and Education at the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association Venus Woods said, “We’re really here to spread awareness to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”

PrideFest’s foot traffic was also a boon to vendors, who sold goods, food and drinks to the park’s crowds.

“You can really feel the love in the community every year,” said UAA alum and Opinions for Peace owner Sara Rollins, who stood next to her mother, Sandy Rollins. She said the nature of her wares are a perfect fit for Pride, “We have things like ‘Trans Rights’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’ on our merchandise, and we want to bring that to Pride, we bring it to Pride every year.”

Far from the only UAA connection at the event, the campus also extended an official presence toward PrideFest.

“It’s important for UAA to be out in the community and show that we care, because we do,” said office of admissions events and recruitment coordinator Matt Burgoon. Burgoon said the University has had a presence at pride for “at least as long as [he has] been working here.” Burgoon also advocated for the Pride Center and its services, such as providing gender-affirming clothing for transgender students.

Roughly 2 1/2 miles away from the festivities of Spenard , an event with a smaller footprint brought pride-goers to a modern local cafe. The Writer’s Block Bookstore and Cafe opens its warmly-colored interior every year to visitors of its annual Pride Block Party. It also repurposes its own parking spaces for vendors, an outdoor bar and a DJ booth, which is the centerpiece of the event. Identity Alaska’s event listing describes it as a “collaborative effort presented by members and allies of Anchorage's BIPOC and LGBTQ communities.” Like the downtown event, this is a gathering that features activities for all ages to participate in. Unlike PrideFest, however, this event’s list of partners and sponsors has an intentionally smaller makeup.

“This is put on by [the event’s] committee, who are just queer/trans people in town,” said event organizer Jessi Saiki, who is also an Engagement and Belonging Coordinator at UAA and director of the campus’s Pride Center. “We just meet on Zoom and talk over facebook, and here we are!”

Saiki oversaw the “kid’s corner”, a section of the event where children could play, get face paintings and fill in coloring pages while their families visited the cafe or shopped at other booths.

“[The Writer’s Block] feeds us all day and makes sure that we’re fed and not thirsty,” said Saiki, “There’s like a partnership where [vendors] don’t have food out here so people go into the Writer’s Block and support their business too.”

Saiki is also an artist, and expressed appreciation for their design being chosen for the events’ official t-shirts, which they said were sold on a “pay what you can” basis. This theme of accessibility has been extended to the rest of the event. Saiki said this was the first year where the full cost of booth space was covered by event organizers. The purpose of this was to ensure local business owners didn’t need to take a loss in revenue from renting out spaces. .

In one of these vendor booths, Lynn Johnson sold handcrafted soaps and other cosmetics to visitors.

“All the vendors, we just kinda figured out together who fits where,” said Johnson, seated next to a box she set aside for a raffle. She said the key difference between this event and PrideFest was the bookstore and cafe itself — which was not only lined with a variety of books and sitting spaces, but also sold food and drinks. “Their food is so yummy,” said Johnson, “The actual business that’s hosting this is phenomenal.”

Some attendees seen at the Writer’s Block could also be seen at PrideFest earlier, such as Andrei Jacobs, who sat with some friends in the bar area. A visitor from Philadelphia, Jacobs made a point to visit both events on the same day, and said both were an important part of bringing the community together.

Both festivities held on Spenard and at Writer’s Block Cafe provided an inclusive space for community members to express themselves as Pride Month came to a colorful close.