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“I remember when Pride in Richmond was just a small thing held behind Diversity Thrift Shop,” said D Tremaine Nelson, a longtime LGBT activist based in Richmond. In addition to being a minister for the Quaker church, Heaton also works at VCU’s Department of Alumni Relations. “I was trying to gently lead the church into being more open to LGBTQ so they fired me.” various political and social movements intersected for pride photo by Jacob Medley Heaton joined the Quaker church six years ago after being rejected from the church herself. “From the very beginning every single person should be treated with dignity.” “They’ve been feminists from the 1800s,” Heaton said. Joy Heaton manned the Quaker’s Friend Society booth, acknowledging that despite fraught relationships between religious organizations and the queer community, the Quakers, or Friends as they call themselves, is historically radically progression. It reminded attendees that pride is about just about embracing and creating community for people of various sexual orientations and gender identities as it is about raising awareness of issues faced by the community.
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Organizations such as the Human Rights Watch were present at the festival to provide handy information to people on how to be an ally, how to come out and where to find resources as an LGBT person. “As a queer person I know it’s scary but if people see this (pride) and are in a safe environment like the hostel we can open up entire parts of the world for LGBTQ travelers.” “Richmond is the gateway to the South so it’s important that the hostel fosters an inclusive environment,” Loustaunau said. In her role Loustaunau hopes to encourage queer travelers to feel more safe traveling into southern America, despite the current legal, political and social hostilities surrounding rights of LGBT people. “You know, Pride started as protests, it started with gay and trans women of color at Stone Wall throwing rocks so seeing the interest of large companies in investing in Pride is problematic but also shows something is changing,” said Manon Loustaunau community engagement coordinator at HI Richmond Hostel. The latter funded the organization’s $8,000 scholarship to reimburse the financial costs of the 2017-2018 school year to one LGBTQ+ student who has made significant contributions to their community. PrideFest, a nonprofit, featured dozens of vendors and included sponsors like Capital One, Altria Theater Group and Wells Fargo.
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No matter who you love, who you pray to, what color your skin may be.” “But now, I hold it up as an example of why Richmond is great for anyone. “I don’t think if we look back 10, 20 years that this sort of display of diversify would’ve occurred,” Stoney said. “We (Bloomington and her partner) often think about how lucky we are to witness the growth of LGBTQ identities in our lifetime, how many kids are embracing themselves - how many other people like this went their entire lives without seeing this?”Īmong the attendees was Mayor Levar Stoney, who echoed Bloomington’s statement.
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“When I was a teenager I felt stuck in self-guilt and hate about my sexuality and now I’m here I am 20 years later watching teenagers fully embrace themselves,” said Jennifer Bloomington, a pride participant.īloomington and her partner were raised in Richmond and moved to Maryland after college. Thousands of LGBT members and allies attended the Commonwealth’s largest Pride festival. VA PrideFest is the largest pride festival in Virginia and celebrates people across the LGBTQ spectrum of gender and sexuality photo by Jacob Medleyīrown Island was dotted with colorful rainbow flags and clothing as Richmond celebrated VA PrideFest 2017 this past Saturday.