BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Pride month celebrating the LGBTQ+ community officially begins nationwide in June, but a Broken Arrow nonprofit kicked off its pride celebration early on Saturday.
Jenn Teehee is president of Advocate Alliance of Broken Arrow, founded a year ago. The organization hopes to one day open a physical location for its LGBT youth programs.
"We have a youth program that we started for students in the Broken Arrow area, just to help them build their community and have connection,” Teehee told 2 News.
“It’s a sense of community that we often don’t get elsewhere, BA Pride Fest vendor Valentine Lucas said. "It’s just bringing our art people together, and it feels really nice and safe.”
Teehee believes they're on their way to gather meaningful funding, with this year’s pride fest doubling the amount of vendors from last year, and to provide a sense of security for vendors and attendees.
The organizers spent two-thirds of its budget on increased security as a precaution.
There were also concerns about whether a key feature - drag performances - would even be allowed due to some legislators at the the state capitol attempting to ban the entertainment, as has happened in other states.
"They reintroduced another bill that we weren’t sure that it was going to pass in time which would make it illegal to have drag in public,” Teehee said. "Thankfully it hasn’t passed yet.”
"These are a group of people who are brought together to love," drag artist Anita Richardson said. "Only to ask who they want to love, which is what everybody should be allowed to do.”
"It’s insane that somebody could say what clothes you can wear and what you can’t wear. That’s just insane to me,” drag artist Mis Domeanor added.
As the festival wound down Saturday afternoon, Teehee expressed one final hope.
“When (visitors and vendors) go home I hope that they know that our community here in Broken Arrow supports them, that we are strong, and that they are wanted here.”
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
