‘Proud To Be Me’ | News, Sports, Jobs – Jamestown Post Journal
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (right) and his wife, Gisele, mingle and take photos with visitors at Warren County Pride 2021 Saturday at Betts Park.
Photo by Brian Ferry
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WARREN, Pa. — As many as 1,000 people turned out to show their Pride on Saturday.
The northern end of Betts Park was jammed with visitors at Warren County Pride 2021 – Proud to be Me.
People were socializing, dancing, shopping, and generally having fun.
Many carried or wore Pride flags to show their support.
Natalie Baxter of Warren had a non-binary dripping painted on her face by artist Troy Lapskey.
“It’s my first Pride and it’s really cool,” Baxter said.
“The amount of people that came out… the show of love and support is amazing,” Drag Performer Jessica Rabbit of Warren said.
“It’s a good turnout,” Ashley Carpenter of Warren said. “It came together really well.”
Carpenter’s dog, Thunder – called Rainbow Pride Fairy for the day, took second place in the pet costume contest.
“There’s a huge turnout, there’s lot of things to do… it’s been wonderful,” Julie Swanson of Kane said. “It’s nice to see in a small community that they have something like this.”
“It’s about people who love each other,” Heidi Kreckel of Warren said. “It doesn’t matter who they are.”
There were dozens of vendors at the event.
Fine artist Cecelia Price out of Niagara Falls, N.Y., spent the day in Warren instead of at the Fine Arts Festival “in my home town,” she said.
She said the Warren event rivaled a Cleveland Pride event she had attended. “I’m so glad I came here.”
Dr. Tyler Titus was one of the guest speakers.
“Dr. Titus is the first transgender person to be elected to public office in the commonwealth,” Hearn said.
Titus is running for Erie County Executive and, if elected, would be the first openly transgender identifying person elected to such a post in the nation.
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman showed his support for the event. He and his wife, Gisele, mingled with the crowd before and after their keynote address.
“I am a huge ally of the gay and trans community,” Fetterman said. “I’m just honored to be at this event.”
“It’s amazing for a county the size of Warren to have an event like this of this size,” he said.
“It’s affirming. It demonstrates how important it is to have events that reflect the diversity of the community.”
Fetterman said he has repeatedly hung Pride flags from the balcony of his office at the state capitol. And, those flags have been taken down – with the backing of a 2020 law that prohibits any flags except the American flag, the Pennsylvania flag, or a flag honoring missing soldiers.
“Every time I hang a flag, they come and seize them,” he said. “Guys, it’s really easy to get rid of my flags – pass equal protection legislation.”
Hearn was not involved in the inaugural Pride Day in Warren 2020.
“When I saw the picture of Logan Johnson and his sister and his mother celebrating Pride… when I was that age, if I could have had that kind of support, I wouldn’t have gone through a lot of the things I went through,” Hearn said.
“Back in the lat 60s, early 70s, I would go to the library to look up things about who I thought I was,” he said. “It was hard.”
“Now that I’m the age that I am, I don’t want young people to have to experience what I experienced,” he said.
The event exceeded his expectations, especially in a pandemic year. When he was first brought on, he said, “If it’s 50 people, that’s good.”
Jill Sumner was the other co-organizer. “This is the type of event that the Warren County LGBTQ and allied community needed and have dreamed of,” Sumner said. “People are dancing, socializing, shopping. It’s great. People will want to come back.”
“The teamwork with Jill was phenomenal,” Hearn said. “The teamwork with Rev. (Matt) Scott was phenomenal.”
The organizers aimed high. “We would just dream… ‘What if we did this?’ and ‘What if we did that?’” he said. “Some ideas we threw out.”
One of the ideas they held on to was inviting Fetterman – an ally of the community who had officiated LGBTQ marriages before they were legal.
“When I contacted Fetterman’s office, they responded within six hours – ‘of course we will be there, we wouldn’t miss it,’” Hearn said.
Organizers are looking to grow the event in future years.
“I would love to take over all of Betts Park for the weekend,” Hearn said.