Cape Cod Pride Festival honors local LGBTQ+ activists Charles Evans and Paul Glass

The Cape Cod Pride Festival, hosted by Cape Cod Pride Inc. with Y101 FM, Fenway Health and We Thrive, is set to take over the village green Saturday in Hyannis.

This year, the festival will honor Stonewall Uprising survivors and husbands Charles Evans and Paul Glass with an award for their work and commitment to the LGBTQ+ community on the Cape. Evans is also one of the founding members of Cape Cod Pride.

“They were very surprised when I told them they had been nominated,” said Pam Washburn, president of Cape Cod Pride. “They are Cape Cod and they need to be recognized for their work here within our own community, not just recognized for Boston and New York.”

The pair, now Falmouth retirees, have always been prominent figures in the LGBTQ+ community on the Cape and beyond. Evans helped found Cape Cod Pride, serving as clerk and vice president on the board of directors. He and Glass were also founding members of LGBTQ+ Elders of Color, a Boston-based organization working to bring attention to older LGBTQ+ people of color, and work with numerous organizations on the Cape. Glass currently serves as the organization's president.

“Paul and Charles have such a tremendous legacy, both in their work in Boston, and now and being real leaders here on Cape Cod," said Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro. "I think they truly exemplify the best of our community and I think it's particularly crucial that we lift up and celebrate LGBTQ people of color whose stories often haven't been told."

When does the event start on Saturday?

The festival starts at 11:00 a.m. and ends at 3:00 p.m. The celebration will be kicked off by Provincetown Town Crier Daniel Gómez Llata. Lady Di, host of the “Your Legs Up” talk show, will be the mistress of ceremonies.

“I'm looking for a nice day, a nice celebration of pride,” said Washburn. It's important "just seeing the fruition of all our hard work and seeing people in the community and the allies having a great time."

Speakers for this year’s festival include Evans, Cyr, U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts, and Scott Fitzmaurice, executive director of We Thrive.

"Being proud and being visible is quite literally life-saving work," Cyr said. "Unfortunately, we need to remember that in this most sad-to-see moment, that we're seeing cruel politics that has unfortunately gripped certain parts of the country."

What is the live entertainment for Cape Cod Pride?

Familiar faces such as Zoe Lewis and Out Late with Diana will provide live entertainment along with Cape Cod rock band Club 9 Ball. DJ Jimmy D will also be there, pumping out tunes for the whole day. There will also be a kids' tent running throughout the day and the first 35 kids to arrive will receive a Cape Cod Pride swag bag.

Over 70 vendors and nonprofits will be taking over the green. Food trucks will be providing food throughout the day and a raffle, donated by Cape and Leisure, will be auctioned off as well.

As for the decision to hold the festival in July, Washburn said she wanted to ensure everyone could go to all the celebrations they wanted to during Pride month in June.

“Everybody wants to go to every other Pride because there's so many of them,” said Washburn. “And really, why can't you have pride every day?”

Who are Charles Evans and Paul Glass?

Paul Glass and Charles Evans are names you may have heard before.

They support the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Cape Cod Pride, and LGBTQ+ Elders of Color in Boston. Last fall in Boston their portraits lined the Commons alongside other prominent members of the LGBTQ+ community in Massachusetts for the first installation of "Portraits of Pride."

"It's indeed an honor for me because I'm, as they call on Cape Cod, a washashore," said Evans of Saturday's Cape Cod Pride recognition. He's lived on Cape Cod for 12 years.

Glass said he's been on Cape Cod "a little longer."

"But I started getting involved and volunteering for my time, since I took an early retirement, and the work we've done, particularly here on Cape Cod, as well as in Boston and surrounding areas, has just been really rewarding," Glass said. "Not thinking that I was looking for any recognition, just that it was rewarding and fulfilling for me."

Evans was a founding member of the nonprofit Cape Cod Pride, taking up the role as clerk on the board of directors before becoming the vice president.

Evans and Glass were also a part of the Stonewall Inn uprising on June 28, 1969, at a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, that ignited what is now known as the gay rights, or Pride, movement.

At the time, they were an on-again, off-again couple due to being long-distance, and they had no idea they were both at the first day of the uprising until decades later.

On Cape Cod Stonewall veteran says 'When we fought, we fought for all of us'

At a 50th anniversary luncheon event celebrating the Stonewall uprising, everyone who was at the bar that night was asked to identify themselves. "And Charles stood up and I stood up and we both looked at each other and said 'What do you mean you were there?'" said Glass.

Now, over 50 years after the uprising, the pair never expected the events to be as revolutionary as they were, but are glad they were a part of the moment.

"It wasn't something that I was gonna, you know, engaged in at the time," Glass said. "But I'm thankful that had happened. Thankful I was there to witness it. It's a source of pride now."

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Pride Festival planned for Saturday in Hyannis