Pride Festival organizers want LGBTQ Puebloans to be 'loud and proud'

One year after hosting hundreds at Mineral Palace Park for Pueblo’s Pride festival, Tommy Farrell, president of the Southern Colorado Equality Alliance (SCEA), is expecting this year’s Pueblo LGBTQ+ Pride Festival on Aug. 21 to be “bigger and better.”

“I remember going when there were a handful of vendors near the Riverwalk,” Farrell said. “This year, we have more sponsors than we’ve ever had before and more organizations want to support the event.”

The affair marks the 18th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Festival in Pueblo. The annual parade will kick off festivities and starts at the interior of the park at 10:30 a.m. It will be followed by a ceremony at 11 a.m., when the city of Pueblo will issue a proclamation declaring Aug. 21 as Pueblo LGBTQ+ Pride Day.

The festival runs until 4 p.m. and will feature more than 110 vendors, the most in the event’s history, and multiple entertainment and food options.

“Pueblo is really showing their support for this event and the LGBTQ+ community,” Farrell said.

Farrell hopes Pueblo can make a statement with this year’s theme: “Loud and Proud.”

The SCEA committee chose the theme after seeing the Parental Rights in Education bill — labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics — signed into law and momentum toward restrictive legislative action against transgender athletes. The former was signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and prohibits discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade.

Farrell said such legislative action detracts from the progress the Pueblo LGBTQ+ community and SCEA have made over the past 30 years.

“We just want to remind our community that we can come together and celebrate and be ourselves,” Farrell said.

The Centennial High School marching band will perform, and Colorado State University-Pueblo President Timothy Mottet and Rick Gonzalez, Mottet’s spouse, will serve as grand marshals during the parade.

The SCEA, city of Pueblo and Pueblo County will offer a shuttle. To use it, park at the Wells Fargo Building at 201 W. Eighth St. and head to the corner of West Ninth Street and Main to use the shuttle.

For more information on the festival, visit socoequality.org/pride.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Pride Festival urges LGBTQ Puebloans to be 'loud and proud'