Thousands show colors at PrideFest

Youth zone for teens and parade for children debut at 32nd annual event

Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 25, 2007 at midnight

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It was a good day to be gay.

Thousands of people came to Civic Center on Sunday for the 32nd Denver PrideFest. They came to socialize, to dance, to eat, to become more politically active, to learn. But mostly, they came to be part of something bigger than themselves.

"It's the one day for everybody to get together and represent numbers and show support," said Lori McNeill, 26, of Colorado Springs, who is engaged to her partner.

Organizers were expecting an increase over last year's crowd of 200,000, but the numbers for the two-day festival had not been tallied as of Sunday night.

Saturday featured family entertainment, including a first-ever children's parade that drew about 40 kids, festival spokeswoman Debra Pollock said. The main event featured a new youth zone for teens. Pollock said a record number of 240 business vendors set up tents.

In Sunday's PrideFest parade, the Denver City Council served as the grand marshal. As always, the parade became a vehicle for politicians and businesses trying to drum up voters and consumers.

"Gay consumers are a little more conscientious about who they buy from," Pollock said. "They look at the way (businesses) treat their gay employees."

Five questions for people at PrideFest

1. What does it mean to be gay in Colorado?

2. How far has the GLBT movement come or not come?

3. Have you ever been discriminated against because of your sexuality?

4. What are the key issues facing GLBT people in Colorado?

5. What are the biggest myths about gay people?

John Kidd

Age: 46

Hometown: Denver

Occupation: Carpet layer/musician

1. I love it. I love it here. I especially like events like these that are not about weirdness. Most of the people here are just normal people. I think Denver's really an open city.

2. I see transgender people all the time now. I used to never see them. I'm most happy for them. As gay men, we've had it pretty good for a while. Trannies are still such a foreign thing in our society.

3. Yes. I was raised Mormon. . . . The Mormons have a thing where they'll put your name in the temple to be prayed for. My mother was doing that every week for a long time.

4. They've got to do something about the marriage thing. Maybe health care.

5. People who are uninformed - for them a lot of times it's all just about sex. . . . There's so many other things in people's lives. It's equality. It's all it's about.

Jennifer Seymour

Age: 35

Hometown: Conifer

Occupation: House cleaner

1. I so much want for the Republicans to recognize us as people who want to marry and share in the same equal rights as they do.

2. If there was a scale of 1 to 5, I think we're sitting at 3. I think that some day, there's civil rights from 1964 to now with black history, and I think we'll also share that some day. We'll have come just as far. I hope very much for that.

3. Yes. I have experienced a hate crime, and it was terrible. Being in a restaurant and berated by the assistant manager. I was baby-sitting at the time and had two children with me.

4. We just so much need to keep getting out there and letting people know that we're the same as them. We just happen to love the people that are of the same sex. I do believe it's genetic. I don't feel like I chose this.

5. That we want you.

Richard Searcy

Age: 50

Hometown: Colorado Springs

Occupation: Restaurant host

1. The town that I live in, people think that it's restrictive, but I'm not restricted to do anything. I think it's fabulous to be gay.

2. It's come a long way. I think there's been a rebirth, and it's risen back up to the level it was back in the early days, the pre-AIDS days. Like a renaissance.

3. No.

4. Equal rights, marriage and health care.

5. To think we're not normal.

Michelle Vincent

Age: 26

Hometown: Centennial

Occupation: Office manager

1. It's great to see all the support we have here in Colorado for Pride. My partner and I were engaged at Christmas. It would be wonderful if it was recognized.

2. Looking back at Stonewall, of course we've come a long way, but we have so much more that we could do.

3. No.

4. Marriage. Insurance rights. My partner works for a large corporation that recognizes same-sex partners. We're both on her insurance policy. But equal rights are the biggest thing.

5. That we're all sex fiends.

Michael Christopher

Age: 53

Hometown: Denver

Occupation: Disabled veteran

1. I'm as free as my brothers and sisters are. But at the same time, I'm not free, and neither are my brothers and sisters because we're not allowed to live the lives that we were meant to have because of who we are. We can't get married. We don't have any rights when it comes to health care of our loved ones.

2. We've come a long way. But as a group of people, we need to focus on one thing and that is getting the Congress and Senate, the Supreme Court to realize we don't need any (special) rights. We have the rights we were born with.

3. Yes. In the military.

4. We need to realize that as a group of people, we already have the rights that we're trying to get. And it's the people of our country that are pushing their hatred on us, which, according to their Bible, it says thou shalt not judge. And what are they doing?

5. My sexual preference is often.

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