Hundreds of spectators gathered as vividly colored and embellished floats, cars, vans, and trucks made their way down Green Street in Urbana last Saturday. The thirteenth annual Pride Parade and Fair took over downtown Urbana for the afternoon. Music filled the air, vendors and booths lined the streets, and activities were present for all ages.
Parade vehicles and participants road and walked down the streets, everyone gleefully smiling toward the onlooking spectators. Some threw candy, colorful leis, and pride flags while others waved at the many viewers.
This year’s fair, planned by Uniting Pride, featured a large variety of attractions. Some booths had street vendors selling food, others had independent artists selling their work, or activities for folks passing by. Some were local churches showing their support. The booths were diverse in purpose, but all of them shared the goal of connecting people.
Speaking to some of this year’s attendees, I gained some insight into the alienation many of the people in this community feel. Carter, a gay man from Indiana, explained to me that he didn’t feel connected to the queer community until he moved to Urbana.
“Having events like this creates a lot of community between folks who sometimes feel like they have no one around,” said Carter. He explained to me that it made him happy raising children in this community. “I grew up in an area where being gay meant getting bullied… people were ruthless,” he said.
Standing at the cross-section of the fair I got a view of the far end of the fair. A large stage with a backdrop was the source of some pleasant live music. Closer to the stage I saw a group of young people dancing together, all with smiles on their faces.
After a set of songs ended, I spoke with one of the teens who had been dancing. Julia described how it’s been growing up in the Urbana-Champaign area.
“Sometimes people are mean to me for who I am… everyone is welcome here,” Julia expressed. “I don’t always get to go out with my friends like this, but I feel safe being here together.”
Down the streets of the fair, the backs of some attendees were covered by multicolored pride flags of different varieties. Juniper, a young adult wearing one of these flags, described what it meant to her.
“The colors on this flag mean a lot to me… I wish I could wear it everywhere I go.”
Juniper, Parade go-er
Juniper, who is a non-binary person living in the area, described to me that each color on their flag had an individual meaning.
Among the colors of the non-binary flag, yellow represents people whose gender doesn’t exist within the gender binary, white represents people with some or all genders, purple is for people whose gender is considered a mix between male and female, and black represents those who identify as not aligning with a gender.
“Each flag has different meanings,” Juniper told me, referring to the host of other flags for individual queer identities.
The Pride Festival happens yearly, allowing a recurring space to form that gets more of the local queer community together than any other event in town. Creating spaces like this opens the door to education through discussion.
If you’d like to learn more about this year’s Pride Festival or participate in future Pride Fests or other events, follow Uniting Pride on Facebook or Instagram.
Olaf Schwink
Prospectus Reporter
