Southern Indiana Pride President Sarah Johnson said organizers are intentional in their goal to make the annual celebration open to everyone — including people of all ages.
She wants it to be a safe place to celebrate and support, to see the positive in a time of increased threats to LGBTQ+ people’s rights.
The family friendly event runs from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Big Four Station Park — boasting food trucks, games, arts and crafts and live entertainment.
There’s also a beer garden and a family zone.
“The LGBTQ community includes a lot of younger people, school age children,” Johnson said. “It involves parents who may have children of their own. And we want to give people a place where everybody, the whole family…they can all come there and feel safe, feel included, and be able to, you know, just celebrate being alive, really.”
The roughly 70 vendors include local churches, with a few more than last year — including one who’s a sponsor.
Johnson said it’s meaningful to have this support.
“I think there's been a lot of voices of hate towards the community that have been amplified over the last year or so,” she said. “And these churches stepping up and saying, ‘No, you are welcome here. This is a community for you as well,’ I think is really a profound statement. Like I was telling someone earlier that, to me, says that love is a lot louder than hate.”
This year’s festival comes as LGBTQ+ communities have seen stripped protections and visibility. Johnson said coming into the planning season, she was prepared for issues like losing support amid the political climate. Overall, that hasn’t been the case.
“I think it's going to be really important for the community to be able to see that they are still welcome. That hasn't changed,” she said. “There may be changes at a national or a state level, and there are things in this world that are telling them that they're not welcome, but in Jeffersonville, I think it's been pretty loud and clear that they are still welcome.”
Johnson said she hopes Saturday’s event can be a place to focus on the good — to counter the attention that’s being put on what’s being taken away.
“I think it, if nothing else, it will provide that voice of hope,” she said. “This is a spot where people can come and they can experience the good firsthand. They can feel the love. They can know that they are welcome. They can see all of the churches [that are] ready to accept and embrace them and maybe just provide that hope and that optimism that the world is still a good place to be.”
The festival runs from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., switching to 18 and over after 8 p.m.
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
