By ELAINE WATKINS/YachatsNews.com
June is Pride Month and Yachats is kicking it off with the third annual Pride Festival from Friday, May 31 through Sunday, June 2 at the Commons.
The festival is the brainchild of Yachats resident Helen Anderson, who estimates attendance to be split pretty evenly between LGBTQ and straight people.
Anderson’s favorite event of the weekend is the puppy parade. Last year around 30 dogs participated, and this year owners can fill out vanity cards to introduce their contestants. Prizes will be awarded and every pooch and owner gets a Yachats Pride poop bag dispenser.
Other highlights include vendors, food trucks, beer and wine sales, and lots of live music. Friday night is the Second Chance Prom, and Saturday night is an All Vinyl Dance.
Sunday will feature a community potluck and barbeque at noon with free hot dogs, hamburgers, and veggie burgers. Attendees are asked to bring a side dish to share.
One main focus is on education, which this year includes a panel discussion about gender fluidity.
“The whole gender spectrum thing is a new concept for older people – even for a lot of LBGTQ people,” Anderson says.
The festival is a way for LGBTQ people and their supporters and allies to be open and accepting. Anderson appreciates that Yachats is inclusive in a way that may not be true of other nearby communities.
“Yachats has a long history of being gay friendly. There used to be a place out at Ten Mile where gays could be open, even back in the fifties. And Beulah’s [the old Landmark],” Anderson laughs, “that was a place back in the 70s where drag queens would come. Darcelle is one of the oldest working drag queens in the country. He’s in his 90s, and he used to come down from Portland to go to Beulah’s.”
Pride Month commemorates the Greenwich Village Stonewall Riots in June 1969, an event recognized as being the start of the gay rights movement. For Anderson, the decision to start a Yachats Pride Festival came after a man shot and killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. on June 12, 2016.
Anderson appreciates the support the Yachats community gives the festival.
“It’s a relief for people to be with their tribe, to be open and accepted,” she said. “And local straight people said it was the most fun they’d had in years. It was great to have a night where it wasn’t about the kids.”
“Whatever you are doesn’t matter – it’s about community,” Anderson said.
To see the event schedule and learn more about the 2019 Yachats Pride Festival go to: https://yachatspride.org.
Bette Perman played a vital role in helping me brainstorm the first event. I could not have done it without her. We also were helped by local folks experiences in event production, including Carl Miller, Meredith Howell, Jo Crooks, Celia August, and Caroline Bauman. It’s amazing what a community can do when people come together.