'You belong and we belong': Eugene celebrates Pride

With a chant and a singing sendoff from a group of grannies, hundreds began the march in Eugene Saturday morning from Spectrum to Alton Baker Park.

The group gathered outside the city's only official LGBTQ bar for a rally and march to the annual Pride in the Park celebration was a "great turnout," Springfield City Councilor Kori Rodley said.

While Eugene/Springfield Pride, which hosts the event, doesn't have official counts, there definitely were more people than last year at Alton Baker, said Katie Kraft, who serves as board secretary for the organization.

There were 139 vendors this year, Kraft said, dozens more than came out for the festival in 2021.

Tents and people spanned the grounds of Alton Baker, filling more of the park than the previous year's event.

"It’s very exciting," Kraft said. "We’re really thrilled to have it be so big and have it be so positive."

While the park was packed, the march itself is the best part of Pride for Bill Yeary, who recalled seeing his first pride parade decades ago.

"I knew that I wasn’t alone anymore and I knew that we all didn’t deserve to die," he said, referencing feelings his father expressed about the 1976 film Ode to Billy Joe.

Yeary found a family in the LGBTQ community and said he hopes the march showed at least one person "they have people who will help when they’re ready."

And for those who still malign and attack members of that community, Yeary and others had a message — deal with it.

"We're still fighting," Yeary said. "Still. Fifty-three years later (after the Stonewall uprising)."

They won't stop fighting, speakers at the rally said.

People identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, nonbinary and more have fought on "every front," Rodley said, from the streets to schools and churches to the steps of city hall and other government buildings.

"We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it," she said.

Rodley, a self-described mother, grandmother, spouse, daughter, sister and lesbian, said she sees Pride as a way to "remember where we come from and celebration of who we are and, seeing all these kiddos, where we will be."

She urged people to "keep showing up for each other" and to keep pushing back on attacks.

"March today for what is left to do and what is left to come," Rodley said. "You belong and we belong and we will not go back in the closet ever."

The LGBTQ community faces challenges, but there's an oasis in Eugene at Spectrum, general manager Kiki Boniki said.

The restaurant and bar and event space is the "only official safe space in town" for transgender people, lesbians, gay men, non-binary people and others.

"We remain resolved to protect this community," Boniki said. "It is getting harder and harder with the things that we all face every day."

Organizers stressed in comments during the rally that Eugene/Springfield Pride is working on intersectionality and commemorating histories of other oppressed groups.

Claire Reyna, an activist with local group Black Unity, said there's a link between Stonewall and the current Black Lives Matter protests. She said people can't praise one while condemning the other for rioting.

Reyna encouraged people to be intentional about uplifting Black voices within the LGBTQ community.

"I see you. I hear you," Reyna said. "And I want to uplift you. And the city of Eugene needs to do the same."

Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: 'You belong and we belong': Eugene celebrates Pride