LGBTQ+ community, friends celebrate at record turnout for CdA Pride in the Park

Celebration, sanctuary and remembrance.

That’s what Pride in the Park boiled down to Saturday as members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies – decked out in rainbow clothing, stickers and flags – gathered at City Park in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

“We celebrate the ability to live authentically for those that are out,” said Dr. Sarah Lynch, North Idaho Pride Alliance executive director.

Lynch said the event serves as a sanctuary for people who don’t feel safe to be authentic in their sexuality, especially in North Idaho where anti-LGBTQ sentiment is strong.

“I think that here in North Idaho, just the atmosphere, it makes it that much more important to host an event like this where for five hours out of the year, we can all come out and be visible and connect with each other and find resources and support,” she said.

Lynch said a record number of vendors (about 75) and attendees (well more than 2,500) showed up to the park .

Besides a handful of people protesting the event with signs on the edge of the park, the event went off without a hitch. Coeur d’Alene police officers were spread on the perimeter of the park.

A group of masked men, later identified as Patriot Front members, tried to disrupt the event two years ago but was intercepted by police on Northwest Boulevard just short of the park.

“It was fabulous today,” Lynch said.

PFLAG Coeur d’Alene/Kootenai County was one of the several booths that offered an assortment of resource publications.

Founded in 1973, PFLAG is a national organization that supports, educates and advocates for LGBTQ+ people and their families.

The North Idaho chapter was brought back to life about a year ago, chapter president Jeff Wickham said.

Wickham said he hoped the Pride gathering brought joy and hope to people.

“The suicide rates are so much higher in the LGBTQ population because sometimes it feels so hopeless, so I hope that today they can walk away with a renewed bursting of hope in their soul,” he said.

Regarding the protesters, Wickham said it’s a free country and they can do that.

“It’s great that America provides us that opportunity,” he said. “I might not be a fan of their message, but I’m thankful that we live in a place they can voice it.”

Attendees checked out the dozens of vendors stationed near the City Park Bandshell.

Some chatted and others danced to the music that played from the bandshell, where Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond read a Pride month proclamation.

Friends Juan Villanueva and Destiny Skains, who wore rainbow-colored glasses and lei necklaces as well as colorful tie-dye shirts, were some of the hundreds of people who walked through the vendor area.

Skains said the event was a judgment-free zone.

“You are who you are regardless,” Skains said. “You don’t have to hide who you are just ’cause other people have judgement toward it. So, we just all come together and support each other.”

Several local church leaders voiced their support for the LGBTQ community.

Father David Gortner at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Coeur d’Alene said his church and other Episcopal churches across the globe are “fully affirming” of LGBTQ people.

“God’s arms are wide open. Period,” Gortner said.

Gortner said his mindset started to shift as a college student when gay and lesbian students opened up to him about their struggles.

“That began a process for me of understanding things a little bit differently and more generously because it’s like, those are people who love Christ and they’re serving God,” he said.

He said many of the students he spoke with had difficulty coming to terms with who they were in their sexuality and faith.

“We want to be part of helping people pass over that bridge and find a way of making harmony,” Gortner said.