‘It makes a difference’ | News, Sports, Jobs – Marshall Independent
Photo by Deb Gau
It didn’t matter whether you ran, walked or strolled, as long as you showed Marshall Pride in a 5K event Sunday morning. About 40 people gathered at Independence Park for warm-up exercises, and then headed out on a route through town.
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MARSHALL — With the music, food and vendor booths, it looked a lot like other summer festivals. But the Marshall Pride celebration also had a deeper meaning. Pride is a show of support for LGBTQ people in the community — and it’s support that is needed, speakers said Sunday.
“It makes a difference to youth. It makes a difference to adults. It makes a difference to all of us,” said Kat Rohn, executive director of OutFront Minnesota. Rohn was one of the keynote speakers welcoming people to Pride events at Independence Park.
“Marshall Pride is so important for helping queer adults and queer youth have a visible reminder that safer spaces exist,” said Julie Walker, one of the organizers of this year’s Pride events.
Between 400 and 600 people attended Pride events on Sunday, and more than 200 attended a sold-out drag show on Saturday night, Walker said. The support from local sponsors and vendors was also very strong this year, she said.
“We heard so often, ‘This is my first drag show. This is my first Pride,’” she said of this year’s event. “It’s amazing when people don’t have to wait until they ‘get out of Marshall’ to be affirmed that being queer doesn’t make them bad or anything other than just themselves.”
Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said being supportive of community members was the point of holding events like the local Pride celebration.
“For our community to be successful, we need to be welcoming to all,” Byrnes told the crowd.
On Sunday, organizers also announced that a tree will be planted in honor of this year’s Pride grand marshals, Jan Knieff and Cathy Hare. Knieff and Hare played an invaluable role in forming support networks for LGBTQ people and allies in southwest Minnesota, they said.
“They moved us forward over the past 30 years,” speaker Sue Morton said.
The lineup of Pride events in Marshall had grown a lot since last year’s potluck at Independence Park.
The festivities on Sunday included a 5K fun run/walk. There were also a range of attractions from vendors and crafts to a performance by the Marshall Area Storytellers and a drag queen story hour.
“It’s really nice to have Pride somewhere close,” Kinsey Moorse said Sunday. In rural Minnesota, it’s not always easy to find Pride events.
There is a serious side to Pride too, organizers said. Pride Month traces its history back to 1969, when a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, sparked an uprising for LGBTQ rights.
There’s still work that needs to be done to increase acceptance and support for LGBTQ people in Marshall, some area residents said. In one example, the rainbow LGBTQ pride flag hanging outside St. James Episcopal Church in Marshall has been stolen or cut down multiple times, said B.C. Franson, a lay minister at St. James Episcopal.
Jade Moorse said the city of Marshall, in creating a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, is working to make change.
“But that change takes time,” she said.
“There’s a lot of concern about the world,” for LGBTQ Minnesotans, Rohn said Sunday. She had heard those concerns voiced at Pride celebrations in Hastings this weekend, too. But at the same time, it was also positive to see communities around the state showing support for their family members, friends and neighbors. “We’re trying to get out to as many community Pride events as we can,” she said.
Walker said the Marshall Pride events show there are supportive people in the area.
“I think there’s been more people here in the area who support queer youth than we may have known, because that’s not the loud voices we’ve heard,” she said. “But with spaces like this we get to see and hear all of the love that’s here in Marshall.”