Photo credit: Milwaukee Pride Facebook page
This year’s celebration of Pride Month created some noteworthy historic moments to add to Milwaukee’s chronicle of LGBTQ life. PrideFest set a new attendance record of more than 45,400, an increase of 21% over its 2017 record-setting total of 37,600+. The event’s first Thursday opening for the Big Gay 5K Run and the Dance Pavilion party helped bring up attendance by several thousand.
But perhaps that exceptional jump in the numbers, after the previous year’s amazing 13% increase, implies not only the LGBTQ community’s growing embrace of its identity and its political awareness but also the increasing comfort of non-LGBTQs to venture onto the hallowed PrideFest grounds.
In the decade of my own participation on the Pride board of directors and as a production crew member, I can recall the annual effort to expand attendance. It included outreach to the local and regional markets and the strategy of offering an ever more diverse spectrum of entertainment and other activities (like the Health & Wellness Area) to attract the full range of LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ guests.
It worked. I recall seeing straight couples in tight arm-in-arm awe, and, perhaps, a bit of trepidation, in the midst of an intimidating sea of gay people. Today, it would seem, straight folks attending PrideFest are no more incongruous than Italians at Polish Fest. My only complaint is that there were no voter registration kiosks on the PrideFest grounds to take advantage of the gathered masses and encourage their engagement beyond the weekend party.
Despite the inclement weather, Milwaukee’s Pride Parade had a record number of nearly 100 marching units, a 10% increase from last year. I saw Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McCabe as well as other Democratic political personalities. I didn’t see any Republicans, gay or otherwise, but for that there were religious groups (lots of Lutherans), families, pets and all the rest. And, for the first time, the Milwaukee Police Department had a contingent.
Meanwhile, a local TV news anchor did a segment on last Sunday’s Chicago’s Pride Parade and commented on the fine weather the Windy City enjoyed for their event while mentioning the rain on our Milwaukee Pride Parade earlier this month. The anchor’s colleague agreed, adding, “But we got the party started!” Indeed, a historic moment unto itself.
Then, just last week, another historic moment took place at Miller Park, its inaugural Pride Night. Joining two dozen Major League Baseball teams that host Pride events, the Milwaukee Brewers welcomed us with shirts emblazoned with a rainbow Brewer logo. An LGBTQ chorus sang the national anthem and Saturday Softball Beer League Commissioner Eric Peterson threw out the first ball for the game against regional revivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. The special Pride seats were sold out as was the tailgate party. It was the culmination of a growing relationship of professional sports with the LGBTQ community.
In these uncertain political times of “Zero Tolerance,” “I Really Don’t Care” and the “Free Exercise Clause,” it is reassuring to see the history of our liberation struggle is still being made by LGBTQ people, who, like those stiletto-heeled drag queens at the Stonewall Inn, continue to boldly resist and fiercely care.
