A SEA OF RAINBOWS

Svea Conrad

There’s a word Deb Taylor uses often when describing Flagstaff Pride: evolving.

The current president of Northern Arizona Pride Association (also known as Flagstaff Pride) is set to finish her six-year term at the LGBTQIA2S+ organization’s helm, with longtime board member Zane Jacobs ready to take her place in June. At the precipice of this exciting change–both Jacobs and Taylor are quick to sing each other’s praises and what they each bring to the organization–is another illustrious event, Flagstaff’s inaugural Pride parade.

“It’s the first one ever in Flagstaff,” Taylor said.“So it’s monumental and historical. We are actually creating history here, and it is important because [the parade] means visibility.”

The June 17 Pride in the Pines festival will take on a similar shape to previous years’ , with a jam-packed day of drag shows (there will be 36 drag performers with their own dedicated stage, including those of RuPaul fame), food, dancing, access to and information on various local LGBTQIA2S+ resources and an afterparty at the Orpheum Theater.

The parade will kick off the festivities at 9 a.m. It will follow the same route as the fourth of July and Holiday Parade of Lights processions, shutting down much of downtown in both a symbolic and very real push to be seen and heard.

“This ‘visibility’ is especially important. We are your family members, we are company owners here in town, we are part of this community and a large part of this community and we are celebrating.” Jacobs said.“And it’s about time, after 27 years, it’s about time we are doing a parade.”

The first ever Pride in the Pines amassed just a handful of people at Fort Tuthill County Park while last year’s ticket sales tallied well into the thousands.

The parade also comes at a time when an- ti-trans legislation has become increasingly prevalent, both in Arizona and across the nation.

“The LGBTQIA2S+ community is here and they need to be recognized as the vibrant community that they bring to Flagstaff; what they bring to the community as far as work and momentum. The parade is also about equity, it’s about celebrating who you are, especially with all the [anti-trans] bills being passed,” Taylor said.“This parade is a statement.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, as of this article’s print date, the Arizona Legislature had advanced a series of bills that, while expected to be vetoed upon reaching governor Katie Hobbs’ desk, represent growing anti-trans sentiment in the state.

SB 1001 would make it illegal for teachers and other school employees to use the pronouns of a trans or non-binary student without written parental permission. SB 1005, would leave schools open to “threat

DURR

of litigation for providing supportive and affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ students,” and SB 1040 would ban trans students and school employees from using restrooms that match their gender identity; SB 1040 would also allow people to sue schools if they share a restroom or “similar school facility” with a trans person.

“It adds a whole new layer to this year’s Pride in the Pines motto,‘Together We March Again,’” Taylor said, pointing then to the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.

For Taylor and Jacobs both, it is crucial to reiterate that the first ever Pride was a riot against police discrimination against queer people, not to mention it was pioneered by two trans women. The ensuing marches on Christopher Street, where the New York City bar was located, will always remain at the root of Pride and its parades–even the ones as far away as Northern Arizona.

“What does this parade represent?” Taylor said.“It represents the very first Pride parade. It represents Stonewall, the Compton Cafeteria Riots, it represents Harvey Milk, it represents everybody.”

The parade is also the result of a new strategic plan by the organization, devel- oped with the help of Phoenix Philanthropy Group. The result of about 40 hours of interviews with stakeholders and community members, the plan is based on what respondents said they wanted to see from the organization.

“We took all that information, the good and the bad, and we talked about it We asked ourselves ‘What are we doing right and wrong?’ and it was really eye opening,” Taylor said.“We wanted people’s opinion and we listened”

“And I think we are starting to reflect that now,” Jacobs added.“I think the community sees it too.”

A mission statement, also a part of the strategic plan, reads:

“We envision a Flagstaff and Northern Arizona where LGBTQIA2S+ individuals are welcomed, supported, and able to live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination, prejudice, and bias.”

“Literally, we must march,” the document states

“All this comes to our ultimate goal of, ‘What do we want to be when we grow up?’” Jacobs said.“We want to be an organization that is the foundation to lift our stakeholders, our community and our brothers and sisters, young, old and in between, to give them the resources that they need”

For him, that lifting up comes in the form of a long-awaited community resource center, which becomes more of a reality every day. Medical and mental health care, and other resources would be just a small portion of the center, which Jacobs hopes can become a hub for all of northern Arizona That and an ongoing focus on diversity will be central to his presidency.

“It is extremely important. We BIPOC and queer people of color are not always represented in these festivals. Yet Flagstaff is a border town on the largest reservation in the United States, but we haven’t always seen ourselves on stage,” he said

Both Jacobs, who has also spent a great deal of his career working with the Shadows Foundation (which provides financial assistance to people living with affected by life threatening disease), and Taylor started at Flagstaff Pride as volunteers and have since become crucial pieces of the organization. They have also become close friends And while Taylor leaving her post as president is bittersweet, both champion each other and the change, plus all that the future holds for Flagstaff Pride.

“I am excited, nervous of course, but mostly excited just to see it evolve,” Jacobs said “And hopefully I can take [Pride] just even a part of the way Deb has taken it. I think it will be possible because the board is amazing, we are a family and we support each other I can see the resource center, I can see the allyship of Northern Arizona I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this community and to call Flagstaff home.”

The first ever Flagstaff pride parade kicks off at 9 a m on Saturday, June 17th, with former Flagstaff mayor Coral Evans taking on the role of grand marshal

“My hope is to see this parade be like the 4th of July parade but with nothing but a sea of rainbows and trans flags,” Jacobs said.

For more information on Flagstaff Pride in the Pines 2023 including location, start time and more, visit flagstaffpride org Flagstaff Pride will also be taking over Heritage Square on

EVENING STANDARD // GETTY IMAGES

The events of Stonewall led to the creation of the GLF, a group that organized the Christopher Street Liberation Day in New York in 1970 now considered the first Pride parade. It started with only a few hundred people, but by the time the group reached Central Park, thousands were marching for LGBTQ+ equality

Treating people with respect means understanding and applying proper terminology and use of pronouns. The following list was compiled using resources from Illinois Wesleyan University’s LGBTQ+ 101 list The list has been shortened to fit print margins. For a full version, visit their website.

Agender

Adj. : a person who sees themselves as existing without gender. Sometimes called gender neutrois, gender neutral, or genderless.

Ally

A (typically straight and/or cisgender) person who supports and respects members of the LGBTQ community.

Bicurious

A curiosity toward experiencing attraction to people of the same gender/sex

Bigender

A person who fluctuates between traditionally “woman” and “man” gender-based behavior and identities, identifying with two genders (or sometimes identifying with either man or woman, as well as a third, different gender)

Bisexual

A person who experiences attraction to some men and women. 2 adj. : a person who experiences attraction to some people of their gender and another gender. Bisexual attraction does not have to be equally split, or indicate a level of interest that is the same across the genders an individual may be attracted to Often used interchangeably with “pansexual”.

Cisgender

A gender description for when someone’s sex assigned at birth and gender identity correspond in the expected way (e.g., someone who was assigned male at birth, and identifies as a man). The word cisgender can also be shortened to “cis ”

Cisnormativity

The assumption, in individuals and in institutions, that everyone is cisgender, and that cisgender identities are superior to trans identities and people. Leads to invisibility of non-cisgender identities

Dead name

The name given at birth/legal name of someone who has since changed their name or goes by a different name

Feminine-presenting; masculine-presenting

A way to describe someone who expresses gender in a more feminine/masculine way Often confused with feminine-of-center/masculine-of-center, which generally include a focus on identity as well as expression.

Femme

Someone who identifies themselves as femi-