Celebration of Pride propelled renewed enthusiasm and commitment to broader community support

They were not aloft in the parting clouds, however, but carried on flags, signs and t-shirts by thousands of Tulsans.

Oklahomans for Equality’s 2021 Tulsa Pride Festival kicked off Friday and continued through the weekend. On Saturday, despite rain that prompted the cancellation of Oklahoma City’s pride festival, Tulsa’s festivities continued. Vendors, live music and drag queen performances dotted the streets around the Dennis R. Neill Equality center throughout the afternoon.

After a gap year in pride celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some said they noticed more enthusiasm and increased attendance at this year’s festival.

“I think there’s a lot more this year for sure,” said Tulsa resident Curtis Hale. “The vendors down at the Equality Center were great, there seemed to be more participation from the community.”

Marleen Reddaway, who attended the festival with Hale, said she specifically noticed more families at this year’s event.

“I think that means we’re seeing more families being supportive (of members within the LGTBQ+ community), and more people exposing their children to more diversity,” Reddaway said.

For the LGBTQ+ community members who were celebrating their first pride festival, the thousands of attendees from within the community and its allies were especially inspirational.

“It’s really incredible, it’s fascinating,” said Miles McAnally, a first-time pride attendee. “I’ve been in the (LGBTQ+) community for six years, and this just shows that our city and country are ... places that support this, instead of just being boring, average places. Why not make who you are exciting, you know?”

The festival also attracted LGBTQ+ community members from outside Tulsa — and even Oklahoma. Jeyree Chamberlain, a resident of Frontenac, Kansas, said she and her parents made the 115-mile drive and rented a hotel room to enjoy the weekend.

Chamberlain, who was also attending her first pride festival, said seeing the support for LGBTQ+ people in Tulsa was particularly important for her after living in a town she described as less open.

“It’s not really (supportive) at all ... everyone in our town is kind of still in the closet still, because it’s kind of scary to be out in Kansas,” Chamberlain said. “But it’s been so great to see all different kinds of people — white people, Hispanic people, Black people, people of different sexualities — everyone just being different and accepted, and I like that.”

The festival also saw support and participation from groups that members of the community said have historically been arrayed against LGBTQ+ people, particularly police departments and churches.

The Tulsa Police Department, though, participated in the parade and hosted a booth inside the diversity center throughout the festival. Police presence and participation in pride festivals in Oklahoma has been contentious before, notably at Norman’s 2019 pride festival.

Though many social media users reacted negatively when TPD announced they would participate in the festival this year due to the police’s role in the Stonewall Inn raid from which pride celebrations sprang, some attendees said they were glad to see TPD embracing interaction with the LGBTQ+ community.

“I think everybody needs to be involved. Everybody that wants to be involved, should be involved,” Hale said. “It doesn’t matter what it was, or what happened in the past, but it is about what we’re doing going forward ... I think it will take some of the stigma off and the fear off from different people within the gay community.”

McAnally agreed, adding that officers that are part of the LGBTQ+ should be accepted as others are.

Karl Siewert and Dawn Sandstedt, members of the Fellowship Lutheran Church, said their organization has joined the Marin Foundation’s “I’m Sorry” campaign. The campaign aims to atone for past abuses by religious organizations against LGBTQ+ community members.

“The church has done a lot of damage to queer people,” Siewert said. “The purpose of this is to acknowledge that, apologize and start anew.”

Sandstedt said their church believes hatred directed at other people is antithetical to Christian doctrine.

“Our church has always been open and accepting,” Sandstedt said. “We want to spread the word that Jesus loves everybody, and nobody is not welcome.”

After experiencing his first pride, McAnally said he hopes others who have yet to attend will take the opportunity next year.

“It’s going to look a little intimidating,” McAnally said. “But just jump in. Test out the waters ... Don’t be afraid to show what you have, just be yourself.”

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