Since the inaugural gay pride celebration in Vancouver 20 years ago, there have been remarkable gains for the LGBT community.
For Rachel Major, 31, of Vancouver, who married her wife a little more than a year ago, those gains — including voters’ approval of same-sex marriages in 2012 — were even more of a reason to show up on Saturday afternoon in Esther Short Park for the annual celebration.
“We have to keep fighting and remain visible,” Major said. “We don’t want to slip backwards.”
The event — Stand Up, Out & Proud — started around 11 a.m. and was slated to last into the evening.
Vanessa Vail Peters Lake, dressed to the nines in a yellow dress, helped kick off the festivities by lip syncing to “Love you, I do” and dancing at the pavilion for the growing crowd.
Lake, who lives in Portland and whose real name is Mark Forney, is the reigning Rose Empress, representing one of Oregon’s oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations.
It’s not often, she said, she performs in the middle of the day.
Visibility, however, was a key component of the gathering. Saturday was about showing “who you are, being proud of yourself” and finding strength in community, she said.
Jessica VanDruff found support in an unexpected place while watching the performers in the park on Saturday. It’s been a little more than a year since the 23-year-old Vancouver resident came out to her conservative, Christian family, she said. It wasn’t easy.
“I was always taught being gay was wrong,” VanDruff said.
She was surprised, her eyes welling, when her aunt showed up at the park.
“It’s the first time anyone in my family has supported me being gay,” she said.
Trevor Chandler, the associate regional field director for the Human Rights Coalition, was set up in one of the many tents surrounding the park. Chandler was there to promote the passage of a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
There was HIV testing and church officials who were there to show they were open and accepting.
Mike Ford, who is part of the board that puts the event together, said the goal throughout the past two decades has been to keep the event family-friendly and welcoming.
For the most part, every year, the community reciprocates the friendly and welcoming vibes.
“Last year, we had one heckler; in all our years, we haven’t had any issues,” Ford said.
