Glacier Queer Alliance celebrates Pride month with festival

From learning about birds of prey to drag karaoke, this year’s Flathead Pride Festival events hosted by the Glacier Queer Alliance aim to involve as many people as possible but also provide visibility for the LGBTQ community.

Glacier Queer Alliance Executive Director Bryan Babb said having the community come together to support its LGBTQ members is important after recent “negative legislation” in Montana and across the country.

“It's very important to us that we do become visible,” Babb said. “It is important for all people to know that LGBTQ folks are everywhere, of every age and do everything. So, I think that that is really part of pride celebrations and when we put together our Flathead Pride Festival, we try to really pay attention to that.”

Pride month is celebrated in June to honor the riots that broke out at New York’s Stonewall Inn in 1969. The riots are remembered as a turning point for LGBTQ activism where the community stood against oppression.

The Flathead Pride Festival runs June 9 through June 12. Events include a Pride Pirates Raft Trip in West Glacier on Sunday and a Party in the Park event Saturday at Depot Park in Kalispell. A Family Fun Friday event tomorrow at the Gateway Center in Kalispell is set to include information about birds of prey and taste testing some bugs.

Babb said the events provide avenues for people who want to celebrate Pride in different ways.

“I think that’s part of what Pride has become is just giving visibility to the LGBTQ community. And one of the roles that GQA finds and fulfills in our community is that there is an access point for people who want to learn and grow and be more supportive of LGBTQ folks,” Babb said.

Drag Karaoke is Friday and the Drag World Show is Saturday, both at the Gateway Center in Kalispell.

“We are putting together a drag show for the first time in a few years and those are always really popular,” Babb said. “So we're pretty excited to be doing that again this year.”

FOUNDED IN 2018, the alliance began with the goal of supporting LGBTQ people. The group began by facilitating spaces and events where LGBTQ people could come feel included and safe, but has since expanded to focus.

Babb said the organization has been focusing on long-term financial sustainability and using their resources to remove some barriers for transgender and non-binary people, like helping them through the processes to get their documents, reveal their name and more.

“A lot of my energy with trans and non-binary folks is spent getting them connected to their mental healthcare and their physical healthcare resources, as well as helping them go through the process to apply for name changes and such,” Babb said.

GQA also utilizes social media to advocate against restrictive legislation against trans youth and to speak out about other social issues for the community. The group has been experiencing increasing microaggressions over the last few years that Babb said are a product of people “expressing their confusion and not understanding.” He said these kinds of acts, which range from graffiti, to destruction of property, to hate speech have been increasing.

“I personally have received more speech-based hate bullying in the last six months that I have in the entire 13 years that I've lived in the valley. We do have a sense that people are feeling more emboldened to strike out and express their differences or their hate — which is very unfortunate,” Babb said.

The alliance tries to take a preemptive approach focusing on educational outreach and understanding and the Pride Festival is a big part of that. The alliance plans to start working on next year’s festivities as soon as this year concludes.

“Through our social media and our general educational outreach, we are trying to just create a more understanding and educated community that helps change that general environment,” Babb said.

The Glacier Queer Alliance’s Flathead Pride Festival begins Thursday at the Pride Kick Off Party from 6-9 p.m. at the Columbia Falls Community Market, then continues throughout the weekend.

Find a full schedule of events at www.glacierqueeralliance.org.