A large crowd donning rainbow flags and brightly-colored outfits gathered for the second Glenwood Pride at Bethel Plaza Saturday night.
The celebration featured speeches, live music and performances as well as local and regional organizations handing out resources and connecting with community members.
The event was an opportunity for many to celebrate community and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
Local advocate Kaleb Cook helped organize this year’s Glenwood Pride, as well as the inaugural event last year, shortly after moving to the Roaring Fork Valley.
“We're just so thrilled that so many people are here,” he said. “I have tears coming to my eyes just thinking about how many people are here.”
Cook is the founder of Cook Inclusive Company, which provides therapeutic recreation services to the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities.
“I think this year, more than any other year, pride is important,” he said. “It brings representation, visibility, and diversity to a community that is really diverse, but sometimes hides those diverse people.”
Cook says organizers worked to make the celebration as accessible as possible with things like sensory headphones for people with sensory needs as well as Spanish and American Sign Language interpretation.
With the Club Q shooting last year and ongoing threats to queer communities in Colorado and across the country, Cook and his fellow organizers also worked closely this year with local law enforcement on safety measures.
“I know in the past that pride celebrations typically don't have a police presence, but in these past few years it's been so important,” Cook said. “A lot of families are looking to make sure it's safe.”
In addition to police in uniform, there were also some plain-clothed officers walking around.
Over near the main stage, Beque Hernandez and Chip Carey were hanging out with their group of friends.
Hernandez said she was feeling safe and affirmed at her second-ever Pride celebration, something she didn’t always feel growing up in Rifle.
“Seeing people just like me going through the same stuff as me, I feel connected to the community more than ever,” she said. “You know, growing up in a small town it's so hard to feel like you belong somewhere.”
While Rifle doesn’t have its own pride event, Hernandez said she is grateful that Glenwood Springs finally does.
“I went to my first Pride last year and I fell in love with it, so I promised myself to go every year after,” she said. “Now I try to go to wherever is the closest Pride possible.”
Carey, who lives in Carbondale, has been to many pride events before, but wanted to share the experience with Hernandez and another friend who had never been before.
“I wanted to come to Glenwood Pride with him so he can experience it,” he said. “Whether you're in the closet or you’re out and proud, just to see a community like this gives people hope that they can one day be their true selves.”
Carey, Hernandez and their friends headed into the crowd to enjoy live music from the local band Party Party and a bilingual performance from the local drag group, The Roaring Divas.
The crowd cheered wildly as Zen Fatale, Ramona Chingona, Edward Scissoring, and several other members took to the stage.
“Last year’s Pride was only our second performance ever together so we’ve come a long way and you’re going to enjoy the show,” Roaring Divas co-founder Zen Fatale said in both Spanish and English.
Fatale led with a solo performance of Tina Turner’s rendition of the hit song, “Proud Mary.”
A wide range of speakers including LGBTQ+ advocates as well as state and local leaders also took to the main stage.
The speeches kicked off with pre-recorded remarks from Governor Jared Polis, Colorado’s first openly gay governor.
“Hello Glenwood Springs, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to be here virtually at this fantastic Pride event,” Polis said, who was not physically there. “As governor, I’m committed to building a ‘Colorado for all’ where everyone is respected and valued regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Democratic Representative Elizabeth Velasco of Glenwood Springs also spoke, in person.
“It's so important that we're celebrating our queers, you know our LGBTQ community,” she said in an interview with Aspen Public Radio before taking the stage for her speech. “I am a proud bisexual and I'm the first LGBTQ member to ever be elected as a state representative here on the Western Slope.”
Velasco emphasized that Colorado is not part of the growing number of states passing anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and instead is focused on protecting the rights of queer people.
“We have access to gender affirming care, we have access to a lot of things that right now are at risk in many parts of the country where our LGBTQ community is not safe,” she said. “We are happy to be a haven for people to come and be safe and be who they are and love who they love.”
Velasco promised that she and other state lawmakers will continue to protect things like gender-affirming care and reproductive rights, and work to pass more legislation that prevents gun violence.
Other local speakers at Glenwood Pride included lead-organizer Cook, recently appointed Glenwood Springs Mayor Ingrid Wussow, Mountain Pride Executive Director Madison Partridge, and AspenOUT Executive Director Kevin McManamon.
In his speech, McManamon told his own story of coming out as gay and starting a family in the 1990s.
"I am a parent, dog-dad, son, brother, skier, snowboarder, interior designer, senior citizen, mediocre tennis player, executive director and I am a proud gay man," he said.
He also highlighted the need to support LGBTQ+ youth in the valley, especially after the recent loss of local teenager, Jack Raife, who grew up in the Roaring Fork Valley and died by suicide in April.
“It's super sad, unfortunate, and unnecessary,” he said in an interview with Aspen Public Radio after his speech. “So the work that AspenOUT is doing is just to support young people and the rest of the LGBTQIA community as best we can.”
McManamon also cited several statistics from the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people.
“The suicide rate for the transgender community is four times the national average,” he said. “When gender-affirming care is offered and supplied, that rate is reduced—it is literally saving lives.”
McManamon asked the crowd to consider giving to several initiatives working to save young people’s lives, including the Jack Raife Memorial Fund and the Francesco’s Foundation, which is named after another teen who died by suicide on the East Coast in 2021.
“I think you just have to walk around Pride here to see the three-year-olds, five-year-olds, seven-year-olds, 10-year-olds that have already transitioned,” McManamon said. “There's just support and care and those kids are thriving—it's the kids that are denied that affirming-care that lose.”
A wide range of local and regional organizations including PFLAG Roaring Fork Valley, Mountain Pride and Gay 4 Good were also at Glenwood Pride connecting with community members and sharing mental health resources and information about support networks and events.
More information about community resources and events as well as contact information can be found on each organization’s website.
If someone is in crisis, reach out to the Trevor Lifeline online or call 866-488-7386.
Colorado Crisis Services also offers a 24/7 support line, 844-493-8255.
