For Vancouver mother Anjela Ford-Glueckert, Vancouver USA Pride is about two families.
There’s hers — the four generations of women and children who sat in the shade at Esther Short Park on Saturday, eating pretzels and listening to music.
Then there’s the one around her — the rainbow-clad crowd of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people and their allies who milled in the park as they visited friends and checked out the booths.
This is Ford-Glueckert’s fourth Vancouver USA Pride event, where she was joined by her 7-year-old son, Jalen, her 4-year-old daughter, Billie Kat, her mother, Renate Ford, 69, and her grandmother, Ilse Kahle, 89.
She brought her family — absent her wife, who was at a meeting and could not attend this year — for the visibility, she said, and to see the LGBT community out celebrating.
“There’s more people, a more diverse crowd, a lot more families,” Ford-Glueckert said of the event compared to years past. “There are folks outside of the rainbow community here, and that’s better.”
This year’s Pride comes at a time of political uncertainty for many LGBT people. The LGBT community has made strides in recent years, the legalization of gay marriage and increased visibility for transgender people among those.
But advocates are questioning what Donald Trump’s presidency and the rhetoric surrounding his election means for the community.
Amid the discussions, as reported by The New York Times and BuzzFeed, came questions from national LGBT organizations about what role summer Pride celebrations should play. Picnics? Or protests?
For Micheil MacCutcheon, president of Saturday in the Park Pride, the answer has always been the former. Nearly a third of the event’s attendees are children under 18, he said. For many who might be questioning their sexuality or gender identity, the experience of meeting other children like them is empowering.
“We’re getting more ‘Thank you, this was my child’s first experience putting the feet in the hot water to determine am I OK? Am I safe? Will I meet people like me?'” he said. “We’re finding that’s more and more important.”
MacCutcheon acknowledged the political climate, noting he received some hateful emails and Facebook comments about the event. But he added that at 62 vendors, the event is larger than ever. There were more businesses, more medical providers and more churches represented than ever before, he said. That opens and changes the dialogue around the LGBT community, he said.
“My honest opinion is it’s more necessary now than it used to be,” he said of Pride. “It’s an entire day where we’re saying this is your safe space. Be yourself. No one is going to judge you for anything. Here this is about accepting life as life is.”
Kaiser Permanente was among the medical providers with a booth at the event. Nik Rapier, who works in disability management, said the medical offices are working to provide care that acknowledges and respects the unique medical needs of LGBT patients. He noted the Gender Pathways Clinic at Kaiser Permanente’s Interstate Medical Office in Portland, which provides transition care for transgender people, including mental health counseling and gender reassignment surgery.
“I think it is important to be aware we have health care that served everybody, and that we are for everybody,” he said.
Ford-Glueckert, a small-business owner, said Vancouver USA Pride promotes the success of the LGBT community in Clark County. It’s important for people to see that gay people own businesses, that they have families, that they’re local leaders. It may seem small, but it’s significant, she said.
But most important is sharing that experience with her young children.
“For them to see other families like ours,” she said as her little girl snuggled her and her son played with friends nearby. “For them to see it’s normal. For them, they’re seeing this is part of our community too.”
