Monday, June 2, 2008
Kansas City’s 30th annual Gay Pride Festival gave KU students and others a chance to celebrate their sexuality last weekend.
The celebration spanned three days and included music, merchandise giveaways, free HIV and STD testing, food and drinks and a variety of vendor booths at Liberty Memorial Park in Kansas City, Mo.. The entertainment varied from singers Martha Wash and Deborah Cox to the dance group DC Cowboys.
From left to right, Gabrielle McBride, Leawood junior, Billy Griffin, Leawood junior, Tim Flattery, Onaga junior, Justin Frances, Onaga junior, Tyler Long, Ottawa University junior, and Andrew Kuttler, Wichita senior, sit on picnic benches enjoying the music and conversations at the Pride Festival.
Austin Young, Tonganoxie junior, gets blood drawn for a free anonymous HIV and STD test.
This year the festival moved to a different side of Liberty Memorial Park to accommodate the growing number of participants. The Kansas City Gay Pride Organization estimated that more than 17,000 people participated last year and this year was expected to exceed that number.
Andrew Kuttler, Wichita senior, said the festival was not all about partying for him.
“The pride festival is just a time to let things go and come together,” Kuttler said. “It’s about being proud of who you are, not necessarily because you are gay, but just because you are proud of who you are as a person.”
Not all of the KU students who attended the festival were gay, though. Gabrielle McBride, a Leawood junior, has come the last three years in a row to support her gay friends.
“When I come to the festival, it is like I feel what [my gay friends] feel all the time,” McBride said. “Here, I have a hard time picking out the straight people and for them that is every day because they have a hard time picking out the gay people.”
For Austin Young, Tonganoxie junior, and his boyfriend of one year, Tyler Long, a junior at Ottawa University, this was their first time at the festival.
“It is my first time to be around a lot of gay people and just celebrate my sexuality,” Young said. “It gives you a real sense of community.”
Billy Griffin, Leawood junior, likes the festival because of the relaxed atmosphere and remembers his first time, three years ago, as being slightly scary.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Griffin said. “Everything was so new. I had just come out, but now I’m in my element here. I’m not the odd person out.”
With free admission, many families come to enjoy the festivities during the day at the park, while an older crowd enjoyed the music and dancing at night.
“It’s not as scandalous as people might think,” McBride said. “It’s not like people are making out everywhere. It’s just about pride and friends.”
— Edited by Mandy Earles
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