Pflugerville to see its first Gay Pride Festival on June 18
Along with the usual rainbows, glitter and draq queens, the first Gay Pride event in Pflugerville on June 18 will also have a serious side: a panel discussion featuring two state legislators.
"Typically, (Pride festivals) are all about the celebration and just to having a good time, but we're also going to have this event where we have some honest discussion about things that you know and things that really affect people in our community," said Marc Garcia, the president of Pflugerville Pride, which is hosting the event.
The panel will be moderated by KXAN anchor Will Dupree and will feature state representatives Celia Israel and Sheryl Cole, trans activist Ash Hall, LGBTQ+ therapist Meagan Butler and Rachel Hill, the government affairs director at Equality Texas.
The panel will take place from 2-3 p.m. at the Three Legged Goat, 200 E. Pecan Street, where speakers will answer question from community members. The questions, which were submitted in advance, include legislative topics, mental health and statistics, Garcia said.
Long popular in major cities, Pride festivals are catching on in some surrounding suburban communities. Garcia said he was inspired to start a festival in Pflugerville after witnessing the community and city leadership support for the inaugural Gay Pride event last year in Taylor, in eastern Williamson County.
Round Rock and Leander each had their first Pride events on June 4 and May 14, respectively, and Taylor will host its second Pride festival on June 25.
Garcia said it is fantastic that more and more pride celebrations are happening in smaller cities around Central Texas.
Every community in Central Texas is different," he said, "and our Pride celebrations are going to be different, and I think that's the amazingness about celebrating the diversity, LGBTQ+ diversity."
Garcia said he wants the Pflugerville festival to become a "destination event" during the official Pride month in June because Austin doesn't celebrate until August.
"My husband and I moved to Pflugerville in 2015 and we always felt welcomed in town, but we always knew Austin was the place to go for Pride," he said. "The further out you go from Austin it becomes a little bit more conservative."
As Pflugerville continues to grow and become more diverse Garcia said, it's the perfect time to celebrate that diversity not only within the LGBTQ+ community, but in the whole Pflugerville community.
"We have become a place of Pfirsts in Pflugerville,” Mayor Victor Gonzalez said May 30 in a news release announcing the event. “This is a reflection of our ever-changing community. It is my pleasure to welcome the Pfirst Pflugerville Pride Pfestival to Pflugerville.”
RELATED: First-ever Gay Pride festivals to take place in Round Rock, Leander, Pflugerville
The free festival will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Main Street.
The festival will kick off at the main stage with an opening ceremony led by Gonzalez, Garcia, Pflugerville City Council Member Jim McDonald and Texas state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt.
"We will have comedians and live music and drag queens and all the glitter and sequins your eyes can take," said Garcia.
Also performing will be LGBTQ+ comedians Ava Smartt and Ky Krebs, and live music by Tish and the Misbehavin’ Band. The festival will have more than 60 vendors selling everything from food, clothing and jewelry to art and books. Nonprofits also will have booths at the event.
Pride Month is held in June to mark the anniversary of the 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, which sparked the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Some of the first Pride parades were held the following year in a few large U.S. cities. Official Pride events in Austin launched in 1990.
In March, the Pflugerville City Council passed a resolution in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community in March.
The resolution supporting those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or asexual reads" "The City of Pflugerville stands in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ community, will protect their rights to seek care and feel physically and mentally safe in our community, and will oppose any actions that negatively impact the well-being and rights of LGBTQIA+ youth and their families."
For details about the Pflugerville Pride festival, visit pfpride.org.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Pflugerville to see its first Gay Pride Festival on June 18
