‘A great respect for Iowa City’: Pride celebration returns with community march, 50-year milestone – Iowa City Press-Citizen
Downtown Iowa City will be the site of an important celebration Friday and Saturday, one that is both a reflection of the city’s history and a space that creates community.
It’s Iowa City Pride 2021, returning in-person after being canceled last year and limited to virtual events because of COVID-19.
Iowa City Pride is also celebrating 50 years, a milestone that was reached last year but couldn’t be fully celebrated due to the pandemic.
It’s important to recognize the significance of 50 years, said Anthony Sivanthaphanith, president of Iowa City Pride, who told the Press-Citizen that small-town Pride festivals aren’t often visible in the media, not like those in Los Angeles or other large cities.
Yet Iowa City Pride has been around for decades, a feat partly owed to the University of Iowa and the students there who first organized an early iteration in 1970 and who continued to be involved in advocacy efforts, Sivanthaphanith explained.
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That longevity makes Iowa City Pride stand out among peer cities in the Midwest.
“Not very many Prides in Iowa, in the Midwest, especially the smaller towns, have been (around) more than five years, from my understanding,” Sivanthaphanith said. “It’s pretty cool and a great respect for Iowa City to allow us for the past 50 years to do that.”
Joe Reilly, co-festival director, added that Iowa City Pride is like “a beacon” in Iowa.
“For 50 years we have been, and it’s important to just keep that light on and keep going forward and bigger and stronger, and casting a wider net and growing this family we’ve created here and making sure everyone is seen and heard and represented,” Reilly said.
Why Iowa City Pride is holding a march alongside other entertainment
Instead of a parade this year, Iowa City Pride is leading a unity march starting at College Green Park and ending at the intersection of East Washington Street and South Linn Street.
The march will begin at noon Saturday.
The purpose behind the march is to show the community that Iowa City Pride and those participating are prepared to continue fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and others, organizers said.
Other Pride festivals transitioned to hosting marches this year as well, Sivanthaphanith said, which encouraged Iowa City to follow suit.
Sivanthaphanith pointed out that the Iowa Legislature had 15 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in 2021. These bills are tracked by One Iowa Action, an organization that advocates and preserves the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
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That fact that this legislation was introduced, Sivanthaphanith said, worried the community. The march is a reminder that there is still more work to do.
The performers at Pride this year, aside from the headliners, are predominantly local artists, entertainment director Blake Shaw said. Saturday’s entertainment will begin at 1 p.m. near Studio 13 on Linn Street.
Festivities include the Iowa City Pride All Stars Drag Show from 7-9 p.m. Friday at the Weatherdance Fountain Stage at the Ped Mall.
Before that, attendees can stop by Pride’s Downtown Vendor Fair. It will feature legal services, medical services, Iowa-based LGBTQ+ organizations and more.
Tracing Pride and LGBTQ+ history in Iowa City to the 1960s
The Gay Liberation Front was founded at UI in 1970, making history as the first “officially recognized queer student group” at a public university in the United States, according to David McCartney, an archivist at UI.
The student organization participated in a UI Homecoming parade that year, marking the beginning of Pride in Iowa City.
McCartney, co-curator of the online exhibit and timeline “LGBTQ Life in Iowa City, Iowa: 1967-2010,” explained how the students at UI were the source of the “first truly visible activism in Iowa City.”
But it also started before 1970.
In 1965, an event held at the Iowa Memorial Union featured a representative from the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian rights advocacy group.
That representative was invited to speak to a “faculty wives’ organization,” McCartney said, showing that even then, the university contributed to the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community.
In the decades since, there have been countless important moments in LGBTQ+ history in Iowa City. A few, as documented in McCartney’s timeline, include:
- 1973: The Lesbian Alliance is formed
- 1975: The Midwest Gay Pride Conference takes place in Iowa City
- 1977: The Iowa City Council passes the first anti-discrimination ordinance in Iowa, which included prohibiting discrimination on sexual orientation
- 1991: UI extends domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples employed at the university.
- 2006: Pride Alliance Center opens, then known as the UI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center
‘Feel loved at home’: The importance of Pride in local Iowa communities
It’s particularly meaningful to experience Pride in person, Iowa City organizers said.
Shaw said that, from an artist’s standpoint, performing virtually means losing the live reactions from audiences. It makes the experience challenging, so the performers at Iowa City Pride are excited to return to a stage.
For the Iowa City Pride community, Sivanthaphanith said that the event is an opportunity to see friends and their chosen family.
It also provides a sense of safety.
“That’s what Prides around the nation offer, is a safe place, and particularly in the Midwest in places like Iowa, Nebraska,” Sivanthaphanith said. “Small towns don’t get to experience this, and so we do get a lot of people from small towns just outside of Iowa City.”
Across Iowa, more towns have organized Pride celebrations, such as Coralville, which is hosting its first Pride festival in November.
These local Prides are ways to create visibility and connection, just like Iowa City Pride did years ago and continues to do now.
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In Sioux County in northwest Iowa, the small, conservative town of Orange City had its first Pride event in 2017.
Mike Goll is one of the founders and organizers behind Orange City Pride. He told the Press-Citizen how the first OC Pride was a small event, mostly hosted in a coffee shop in the town square.
Goll said that, in Orange City, most opportunities to connect with others are found in church. For those that don’t identify with faith, it’s harder to connect.
“Through Pride, we’ve been able to meet a lot of new people, and that’s been really positive, I know for ourselves, but also for the queer identified folk in this town,” he said.
At the next year’s event, OC Pride had a bigger venue and hosted a drag show as part of the festivities, Goll said.
But OC Pride faced backlash.
The Des Moines Register reported in 2018 that an Iowa man burned library books that contained LGBTQ+ themes in response to one of OC Pride’s activities.
To Goll, it’s a reflection of a community experiencing culture shock and realizing that the queer community exists and is “bigger than they thought.”
Goll said that often in the past people who identify as LGBTQ+ from Orange City or Sioux County have moved.
“I think we have such a beautiful town, and such friendly people, (so) that’s sad that all the LGBTQIA folk feel like they have to leave,” Goll said.
He added that part of Pride existing is “to feel like you can belong or feel affirmed and loved at home.”
How the delay of Pride in Iowa City created an opportunity for UI students
Iowa City Pride’s move from June to October ended up aligning with an important population: students at UI, who often return home in the summer.
According to Reilly, there will be a larger conversation after Iowa City Pride about having opportunities for the students to be present at its festivities in the future.
But Iowa City Pride expects the student population to add to the numbers this year.
Sivanthaphanith added that student groups at UI are excited to volunteer, help and be at Iowa City Pride.
“I know it’s something everyone on the board agrees across, at least that we want to make sure our students are being more included with events we’re doing,” Sivanthaphanith said.
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Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or (319) 519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.