'Rednecks 4 Rainbows': Surge in small-town Pride events helps LGBTQ folks find home. Is it enough?

[Demovictory9]

PULASKI, Tenn. – When this rural town’s fledgling Pride festival kicked off June 11, organizers braced for protests. Critics had made their opposition known. Sheriff’s deputies were on hand to prevent trouble.

But by midafternoon, just one man holding a “REPENT” sign stood outside the Agricultural Park near Pulaski, a town of 7,600 residents, as several hundred cars – including a jeep sporting the phrase “Rednecks 4 Rainbows” – arrived for the festival that's in its second year.

“For something like this to happen here is an amazing step,” Ashley Fitch, 20, told USA TODAY as she sat on a folding chair before a sequined drag queen strutted past sheriff’s deputies toward a stage as the song “Y’all Means All” boomed.

Though LGBTQ pride events have long been mainstay celebrations in big cities, their presence in rural and small-town America has grown in recent years, experts said, claiming recognition in some of the more conservative areas of the country.

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“These small-town Prides feel really radical to me. There's this claiming of space in places where we don’t get to do that very often,” said Rae Garringer, who lives in West Virginia and founded “Country Queers,” an oral history project documenting LGBTQ experiences in rural areas. “And it’s really powerful.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rednecks-4-rainbows-surge-in-small-town-pride-events-helps-lgbtq-folks-find-home-is-it-enough/ar-AAYH8Y1

[Deminpenn]

1. Chatted up a customer service rep

earlier this year. Turned out he was LGBTQ in a small town in a very red NW state. I said he must be lonely there, but he said when he married his partner 100+ townfolk turned out for the ceremony. There is hope for sure.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. We had an event for the first time in 2019, before COVID.

People were concerned. Only a few showed up to "protest" which was mainly handing out flyers to "be saved". One approached me and asked if I was saved and I looked right at him and said, "No need. I am Jew like your Lord. So, I am good!" The dumb-founded look made me smile; the six queens behind me lost their collective shit. All in all, it was a fun time. Even found another Jew...of course, they didn't live in my town, but still cool. The only downside was the vendor with pride products didn't have any queer Jewish stickers, they were told not to carry them because it could upset people...they were right, it pissed me the fuck off.