Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Like any other picnic, Warsaw’s very first Pride event Saturday featured food, games, friends and families in a fun, relaxed atmosphere at Bixler Park.
Dannie, one of the event organizers with the Northern Indiana Democratic Socialists of America, said, “We’re from Kosciusko County, most of us here, and we’ve always had to travel quite a ways to get to Pride events, and we just thought that it would be really nice for the community, and especially for a lot of people we know, our friends, to be able to have a place to celebrate who they are and celebrate the more open society that we want to see in this country.”
People were able to come and go freely to the event. Shortly after the first hour of the four-hour event, there was about a hundred people present. Dannie thought the turnout was excellent.
“I’ve lived in the Warsaw area for a very long time, and I expected that this kind of thing would get some traction, people would want to see this. I did not expect exactly how many would want to come out, and it’s really encouraging. I’m very glad that the community seems to really have enjoyed what we’ve tried to put on here,” she said.
Pride refers to the global LGBTQ+ movement celebrating diversity and equal rights. The first Pride parades marked the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, when police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City after midnight on June 28, 1969.
There were a few community resource tables at Saturday’s event in Warsaw, including LITE Recovery.
Dannie said, “We have kind of a semi informal partnership with them. We help them, and they really wanted to be a part of this.”
Tammy Cotton, LITE Recovery executive director and founder, said, “We’re sharing our services, so that’s the main thing, and just supporting the group and the event. They’ve been a great help with us. They’ve done some volunteering for us and things like that, so that’s kind of how we got connected with Poe and some of the others in the group. We just wanted to show our support to them and to the community.”
Other resource tables were for Food Not Bombs out of Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Atheists. Dannie said they contributed a lot of what was at the event, in terms of food.
On hand were also a medical tent and a cooling tent.
Most of the event was just an opportunity for people to socialize.
“We wanted just kind of a Pride cookout. We didn’t really have the resources to put on something really large like they do in bigger cities, but we wanted something that would be community focused, so we wanted the free food for people who wanted to come out here so they could just enjoy themselves,” Dannie said. “And then we wanted the games, of course, so people could have something to do.”
In the first 90 minutes, there were no protesters to the event.
“There was the question as to whether or not there would be any kind of like protest or anything like that. Obviously, people have the right to express how they feel about this. Our only concern is keeping people here safe and we’ve done things in order to make sure that the safety of participants could be ensured, but beyond that if people want to express their view about it, this is still a free country, they’re entitled to do that,” she stated.
The turnout included parents bringing their children with them. Dannie said the intent was for the picnic to be family friendly.
“Absolutely. Many of the people that we organize with are parents. They have children, and this was meant to be for everybody. For everybody to come out here and enjoy themselves and be able to express themselves freely,” she continued.
Ellen said she is an LGBTQ+ ally, which is anyone who supports equal civil rights, equal gender equality and LGBTQ+ social movements.
“I came because I’m just really passionate about equality, and I felt like it was time to show up here because it’s not enough to just sit at home and say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m all for equal rights’ and posts things online. You’ve got to show up,” she stated. “So that’s why I came.”
Unlike Dannie, she was a little disappointed in the turnout.
“I think there’s much more support in this community than is here. But it’s a scary thing for people to show up in public and say, ‘I support you!’ when a lot of people don’t,” she stated. “It’s nice. It’s time to be here.”
Sarah was there to help the Democratic Socialists of America run their event.
“I think it’s really important that everyone feels like they can be themselves and we need more of that here in Warsaw,” she said.
She thinks the environment in Warsaw for LGBTQ+ is “alright. I know that there’s community there when you look for it, but sometimes it can be hard to find it. Online can be really freaky, but I think there’s a lot of people who say things with a keyboard that if they were to actually meet people in person and see a face and have a relationship, it would be different.”
As for the Democratic Socialists of America, Danni said they’re trying to organize people “to be able enjoy a more open and equitable society. We’re here to build a working-class movement for working-class people and we want to see Kosciusko County be able to really enjoy the kind of standard of living that we deserve as working people.”
She said they intend to have another event next year for Pride in June, though they didn’t have anything set in stone.
“With this turnout, we absolutely intend to come back next year,” Danni stated.
The event was free to all, but free-will donations were accepted.
Northern Indiana Democratic Socialists of America can be found on Facebook.
