By PATRICK ADRIAN
Special to The Eagle Times
CLAREMONT – Hundreds of people traveled to the Visitor’s Center Green on Saturday, June 16 to attend Rural PRIDE, the first LGBTQ pride event in Claremont.
With revelers filling the green from noon to 4 p.m. and more than 30 businesses and organizations coming in from several areas of the state, the turnout impressed event organizers.
“It’s a lot bigger than I expected,” said Skylar Ford, 15, the Stevens High School freshman who first proposed the event. Skylar is a member of the Rural Outright program, an education and advocacy group created by the TLC Family Resource Center in Claremont in support of LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer / questioning, intersex, and asexual) persons, their families and their allies.
Matt Mooshian, Rural Outright’s program chair, said Skylar proposed the idea last winter after attending a Pride event in Portsmouth with other students.
Pride events have increased over the past two years in the state. Nashua and Keene will host their first Pride days this summer, and Concord will host its second.
Skylar said he wanted others in Claremont’s LGBT community to know they have support, and said that Rural Outright has given him a support that he couldn’t find elsewhere. He compared the support process to a snowball effect, adding that the more people know they have support, the more they will participate to spread support.
Mooshian said that the event’s success will hopefully inspire other Pride events in the Upper Valley.
Lana, Skylar’s partner, who is from New York, said this was his first time attending a Pride event.
“It’s been a great experience,” Lana said. “I’m so proud of him.”
Mooshian said the event’s mission was to show community support for LGBT individuals.
“It’s amazing to have support from your community, from people in your neighborhood,” Mooshian said. “It’s about sending the message that love is love.”
Claremont couple Joshua and Paige Lambert, both 26, said the event illustrated how much community support has improved in recent years.
“Five years ago this event would never have happened,” Joshua Lambert said.
Michelle Porter, 39, moved from Boston, Massachusetts, to Springfield, Vermont to be with her parter, Cori Bushaw, 45. Porter said rural life is different for the LGBT community but offers many benefits.
Cities like Boston have an abundance of social venues but lack the personal community, Porter said. Gay pride events in Boston are crowded, and don’t allow people to move about or bring their dogs like this event does.
Bushaw, who was born and raised in Vermont, said that the LGBT community has noticeably grown in recent years, as has community acceptance in the region.
“Whether it’s because more people are willing to come out, or that more people are moving here, there are a lot more of us,” she said. “The difference may be from an increase in (LGBT) population or in understanding.”
Organizations in attendance included service providers such as Planned Parenthood, political advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and local groups like the Sullivan County Democrats and SAU 6.
Lisa DeValk, health educator at Claremont Middle School, worked with TLC to provide education and student support at Stevens and at Claremont Middle School.
DeValk said that middle school is where many students begin to strongly question their sexual or gender identity.
SAU 6 Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin said the school district in Claremont has worked to lead on the issue of community acceptance of its LGBT students. It was one of the first New Hampshire districts to create a LGBT policy.
McGoodwin said that some districts still hesitate to get involved, though he understands the difficulty and urges people to be patient.
“Accepting differences is not new,” he said. “It’s an evolution. Change takes time.”
In addition to health and community organization booths and artisan vendors, Rural PRIDE also included a children’s play area, a DJ who provided upbeat music for the day, and live performances including by magician Dylan Tenney, Lady Sabrina, Eleganza Extravaganza, Marisa Imon, and tribal fusion belly dancers Bashirah and The Naga Stars, and a martial arts demonstration by National Institute of Modern Martial Arts (NIMMA) students.
Early in the event, Claremont City Manager Ryan McNutt took the microphone to welcome the attendees.
“Claremont is a 21st-century city,” he said. “This city embraces love. We want for everyone to know that.”
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.