Charleston’s LGBTQ pride parade started in 1997 as a modest gathering of a few hundred people on the state Capitol steps. It was the only such celebration in West Virginia. Now, it’s one of 11 throughout the state.
Bob Rosier, a lifelong West Virginian, attended the 1997 event, which came 23 years after the first gay pride march in U.S. history on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York.
“I wasn’t surprised, but people from rural parts of the state probably were,” Rosier said of the first Charleston event.
Five years ago, Charleston was West Virginia’s only option for a pride festival. Now, festivals have become more common throughout the mountain state, said Billy Wolfe of the LGBTQ rights group Fairness West Virginia.
“It’s no longer just folks saying, well, it’s just Charleston doing it,” Wolfe said. “It’s easy to dismiss the capital city. That’s where all the lobbyists and politicians are,”
Morgantown and Beckley held festivals for the first time this year. JoeMichael Fusco, vice president of the board for Morgantown Pride, said it started out as a casual block party and turned into an event with 1,000 attendees and 50 corporate and community sponsors.
“Basically we planned a local gathering, but so many people were interested, it just kept expanding and expanding,” Fusco said. “It was a grassroots effort and given the current political climate we wanted to do a celebration.”
The more local events throughout the state the better, Fusco said, because some people don’t have access to transportation and can’t get all the way to Charleston to attend a pride event.
In the Eastern Panhandle, the Lost River Pride festival marked its third year this past weekend. The area has become a tourist destination, especially in the LGBTQ community.
“We got started just on a whim,” said Dan Mahoney, Lost River Pride member. “It was just four guys sitting down at dinner three years ago and we said, ‘We have so many LGBT people here, we ought to have a pride thing.”
In past years, the pride festival was a farmers market, but this year it will be a slightly larger event. It will be at a larger venue with a stage and several musicians from around the area, Mahoney said. It will take place this weekend at the Lost River Retreat Center.
When Charleston first launched its parade in 1997, it was also a smaller affair. There were about 300 people, according to a Charleston Gazette report. This year’s event, held earlier this month, drew about 4,000 people.
“It’s really a big deal now compared to the early days,” Rosier said.
Chris Gosses, president of Rainbow Pride of West Virginia, organizes Charleston’s parade. He thinks because there are so many people, the parade route will need to change from its usual route on Kanawha Boulevard.
“Typically, the lineup just goes in a straight line. This year we had to wrap it because it was so much bigger,” Gosses said.“I’m looking forward to a day, which I really think is not too far off, where we might have to look at a different parade route — — one that actually kind of snakes a little bit.”
When the festival was on the Capitol steps, marchers would regather at Davis Park and make their way down Capitol Street.
“Some folks felt even going down Capitol Street was hidden,” Gosses said. “It wasn’t visible, you’re hidden by the buildings.”
When Haddad Riverfront Park added its amphitheater several years ago, Gosses said, organizers wanted to bring the parade onto the boulevard.
“No matter if you’re on MacCorkle or the interstate driving by, you know we’re out there. We’re visible,” he said.
Both Wolfe and Gosses said they’ve noticed attitudes change since the early days of pride celebrations. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled to make same-sex marriage a right nationwide. In West Virginia, 12 cities and towns in the state have passed non-discrimination ordinances in the last 12 years.
Wolfe said the laws themselves reflect how some communities’ perspectives have changed.
“There is a lot of overlap in where we’ve passed discrimination ordinances, and where the community feels empowered to be visible and and organize a festival,” Wolfe said.
He added this is not true for all areas, citing Elkins and Buckhannon as places that have festivals, but no non-discrimination ordinances. Although a great deal of progress has been made, there is still a lot to be done, Wolfe said.
“On the other side of the coin, the relentless attacks from the current [Trump] administration on the LGBTQ community, particularly on the trans community, I think has really shocked a lot of people’s consciences,” Wolfe said.
He said he believes some of these events have incited people to come out to pride events and support the LGBTQ community.
Gosses said this has lead to some people seeing past stereotypes.
“Even from folks who don’t understand or don’t know, they stop seeing you as a stereotype, or what they think you do behind closed doors, and they start seeing you as a human being,” he said.
