10 iconic places, people, events that shaped Arizona LGBTQ+ community: Gaymers to RuPaul
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With Phoenix Pride’s 2022 celebrations around the corner and LGBT History Month underway, it’s an opportune time to reflect on recent historic events and figures in the LGBTQ+ community that have helped shape Arizona.
From the first marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in 2014 to the creation of the transgender Pride flag, several significant events have led up to this year's 41st Pride celebration.
The 2022 Phoenix Pride Festival and Parade takes place Oct. 15-16 at Steele Indian School Park, with the parade starting at 10 a.m. at Third Street and Thomas Avenue on Sunday, Oct. 16.
Here are a few recent stories — and by no means a comprehensive list — that highlight the LGBTQ+ community and its iconic figures in metro Phoenix, and the events that have changed the state’s history.
Arizona legalized gay marriage in 2014
In 2014, Arizona was the 31st state in the nation to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. Less than a year later, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges eliminated any state-level bans on same-sex marriage. Gay marriage had been illegal in Arizona since 1996.
Maricopa County clerks' offices immediately began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Oct. 17, 2014. Here’s what the scene was like.
Bisbee became the 1st Arizona city to legalize same-sex civil unions
A year before the state legalized gay marriage, the tiny southeastern Arizona city of Bisbee passed an ordinance allowing same-sex couples to obtain civil-union certificates, which allowed them some of the rights of married couples.
Kathy Sowden and Deborah Grier were the first couple to get their certificate on July 5, 2013. Here’s how Sowden — the former president of Bisbee Pride — helped shape the annual celebration into what it is today.
After Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne threatened to sue the former mining town, the city modified the ordinance
Here’s how Bisbee became a gay-rights battleground.
20th century ‘gender pioneer’ received a headstone 113 years after his death
Nicolai De Raylan, an immigrant from Russia, died of tuberculosis shortly after arriving in Phoenix in 1906. Upon his death, it was discovered that De Raylan was a transgender man, and he was buried in a dress in an unmarked grave.
When Marshall Shore, also known as Arizona’s Hip Historian, learned “that we had a gender pioneer, right here in Arizona, from 1906,” he started a fundraiser in 2017 to purchase a headstone.
On Nov. 16, 2019, the Arizona LGBT+ History Project held a ceremony to honor De Raylan 113 years after his death by installing a headstone.
The quote engraved on it, courtesy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, reads: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Here’s how De Raylan was cemented as an icon in Arizona’s history.
Shore also spoke with The Arizona Republic’s Valley 101 podcast about De Raylan and other LGBTQ+ icons throughout the state’s history in 2021. You can listen — or read the transcript — here.
The transgender flag was born in Phoenix
In 1999, activist Monica Helms was advocating for awareness of transgender issues when she met Michael Page, who had created the bisexual pride flag a year prior. They both believed that the transgender community should have a flag representing them.
"I woke up one morning about two weeks later and it hit me while I was lying in bed," Helms told The Republic in 2019. "The design just came to me."
She debuted her striped pastel blue, pastel pink and white flag, now recognized as the transgender pride flag, at the Phoenix Pride parade in 2000.
“Even today, I'm still amazed that it's seen all over the world,” Helms. "It's a symbol that will live on long after I'm gone.”
Learn more about Helms and her story here.
How a Maryvale love story sparked an LGBTQ pride clothing brand
Sergio Aragon and Jesus Gutierrez lived blocks from each other while growing up in West Phoenix. But it wasn’t until they’d graduated from college (the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, respectively) that they realized that they were in love.
Their friendship "slowly blossomed into a beautiful relationship both as a couple and now as business partners.”
In 2019, they founded online brand Gay Pride Apparel as a “creative outlet and also as a way to kind of take back the Pride merchandise,” Gutierrez told The Arizona Republic in 2020. The company’s products ship in discreet packaging, and purchases show an abbreviated vendor name on credit card statements in order to protect customers’ privacy.
Their designs have been worn by celebrities such as actress Lili Reinhart, which the duo said was “the coolest thing that’s ever happened” at the time.
A proliferation of LGBTQ+ influencers who live in Arizona
People who are LGBTQ+, including drag queens, social media influencers and local business owners, have garnered thousands of followers by sharing their lives on Instagram and TikTok.
Phoenix photographer Scotty Kirby does photoshoots with iconic drag queens, and fitness guru Shaun T shares motivational messages and insights into his family life. Ashley and Malori share enviable snapshots from their newlywed lives.
Here are 13 people and nonprofit organizations you should check out on social media.
The first Latino Pride Festival took place in 2018
In December 2018, the inaugural Latino Pride Festival — organized by the nonprofit Latino Pride Alliance — took place at Corona Ranch and Rodeo Grounds in Laveen Village.
"This is the largest gathering of Latino LGBT in the state of Arizona," Eric Villezcas Neri of Latino Pride Alliance said at the time.
There were food vendors, a dance hall and a main stage where local drag queens and musical acts performed throughout the day.
"Everyone's invited, no matter what community they come from, but we're reaching out to families who haven't been to any Pride before,” Steve Gallardo of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who began the Alliance as a passion project, told The Republic in 2018.
Phoenix Gaymers dubs itself the ‘largest gay gaming group’
The nonprofit organization Phoenix Gaymers started as a group of gamers in Apache Junction in 2005. Now, it brands itself as Arizona's largest gay gaming group and hosts weekly events.
According to its Meetup.com profile, Phoenix Gaymers’ mission is to forge “new and strengthened friendships between LGBTQ+ individuals and groups through a shared love of gaming.”
Here’s how the story of how the group was born.
Gay bar Nu Towne Saloon celebrates 50 years in Phoenix
Nu Towne Saloon, located at Van Buren and 50th streets, opened in 1971 amid the gay liberation movement, two years after the Stonewall Inn uprising.
In 2021, its founder, Dennis Kelley, died, and his brother began overseeing operations as the historic bar celebrated its 50th anniversary. And after a half century, Nu Towne remains the kind of place where everyone knows each other's names, orders and karaoke songs.
Read more about Nu Towne in this article, which is exclusive to Arizona Republic subscribers.
Joey Jay became Phoenix’s first drag queen on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
After auditioning three times, Phoenix drag queen Joey Jay — who is originally from Wisconsin — finally made it on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2020. Though she was the second contestant to be eliminated from Season 13, which started airing in January 2021, she left a lasting impression with her chicken feather sleeves and embrace of the "filler queen" label.
The iconic Gottmik, who made it into the season’s final four and was the first transgender man to compete on the reality show, also hails from metro Phoenix originally, but moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Notre Dame Preparatory High School.
Tempest DuJour, who competed on Season 7 and lives in Tucson, was previously the first contestant to represent Arizona.
Joey Jay spoke with The Republic as the season was airing and had this to say about Phoenix’s drag scene:
“It’s quite the opposite of a lot of other drag communities that I've seen. Sometimes (the drag community) can be dramatic or catty, and I don't really see a lot of that in Phoenix. Even if my drag is different from someone else's drag, we all kind of hold each other up. And it's really beautiful to see."
'My community came to my aid': Phoenix drag queen gives out monkeypox care kits
Reach Entertainment Reporter KiMi Robinson at kimi.robinson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobin and Instagram @ReporterKiMi.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: LGBT History Month: Iconic LGBTQ people, moments in Arizona
