Santa Fe’s LGBTQ+ community and allies turn out for the annual Pride on the Plaza celebrations — including a colorful parade — and other Pride-themed events organized by the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance. Photos Barb Odell/courtesy Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance
Santa Fe’s LGBTQ+ community and allies turn out for the annual Pride on the Plaza celebrations — including a colorful parade — and other Pride-themed events organized by the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance. Photos Barb Odell/courtesy Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance
In the lead up to last year’s Pride on the Plaza, organizers watched warily as lawmakers in neighboring states considered bills that would limit transgender people’s rights.
While the threat to civil rights continues nationwide, this year’s parade arrives amid encouraging local news. The Santa Fe City Council was set to give final approval June 24 to a resolution designating city offices and city-owned buildings as “safe spaces and anti-bullying zones for all community members,” protecting LGBTQ+ and other marginalized residents. The city also is hiring a director for a new Office of Equity and Inclusion.
Meanwhile, the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance, which organizes Pride on the Plaza and numerous other Pride-themed events, is moving toward operating New Mexico’s first LGBTQ+ center and coffee shop.
“Albuquerque has more of a youth-oriented center that is more multifaceted, but it’s not specifically a Pride center and LGBTQ center,” says Kevin Bowen, executive director of the Human Rights Alliance. “And the (University of New Mexico) has meetings and organizations, but we would be really the first complete one. We would serve the city and the county, and likely those in the rural communities in the northern part of the state.”
The alliance is looking at a couple of potential locations as it raises money. Once it secures one, Bowen says, the center could be occupied within six weeks. In other words, stay tuned.
Culmination of Pride Month
In Santa Fe, Pride on the Plaza is held on the final Saturday of Pride Month. It’s one of the last events in a string of June offerings from the Human Rights Alliance that include Pride Movie Night, a business gathering, and a parade after-party.
Santa Fe’s parade also puts a cap on Pride events statewide, which have proliferated in recent years. Parades and festivals were held June 8 in Clovis and Albuquerque and June 15 in Farmington. Festivals and parades also have been held periodically in Roswell, Gallup, Carlsbad, Artesia, and Las Vegas.
Two parades are held in the fall: during Southern New Mexico Pride celebration in Las Cruces, which returns for its second year in September and October, and Silver City’s Pride festival, planned in late September.
“When I came on board with the organization, Santa Fe Pride had always been the last weekend of June,” Bowen says. “We started reformatting the board and going in a different direction, because there was nothing going on in town with bars. We just thought, why don’t we do more events for the month and do things that reflect a very diverse cross section of our population? We had a movie night out this year. We graduated from charging for it to making it free.”
Santa Fe’s parade is in its 31st year, making it the second-oldest Pride parade in the state, following Albuquerque’s, which started in 1976.
“We try to get as many different kinds of people as possible to come to a Pride celebration,” Bowen says. “We’re the City Different, and our Pride celebration is quite different than they are in other cities. It’s very much an open, welcoming, family relationship. The public schools participate. Multiple organizations support it. We’re very thankful, because not only do we have that, but we have the city of Santa Fe standing behind us 100 percent.”
Bowen also notes the stark difference between sponsoring Pride events and simply using Pride as a way to sell merchandise.
“Would I prefer to see more people involved in sponsoring? I would say yes. And to me, sponsoring could be as much as participating in the parade and taking a booth, because it is a perfect way for any business in town to just say, ‘Hey, I give a shit,’ right?
“There are some people, some organizations, some businesses that will put out Pride products, and that’s great if all the proceeds go to an LGBTQ organization. [But some are] just slapping a Pride logo or Pride colors on things.”
During Arizona’s legislative session this year, House Bill 2391 was introduced; it calls for defining a person’s gender as their biological sex at birth, either male or female. Senate Bill 1005 would bar a public institution from requiring an employee to participate in a diversity, equity, and inclusion program. Senate Bill 1166 would require public schools to notify parents within five days if a school employee knowingly refers to a student by a pronoun that doesn’t align with the student’s birth sex.
In fellow border state Oklahoma, House Bill 2186 calls for limits on drag performances. House Bill 1011 would bar health care professionals from performing gender-transition procedures on anyone younger than 21 years old. House Bill 3135 would bar schools from using public money to teach about sexual choice, sexual orientation, or drag performers.
“The national political landscape has changed significantly,” Bowen says. “I mean, certainly within New Mexico, but just the stakes for the LGBTQ community are so much higher than they have been in the past. The anti-LGBTQ legislation, anti-reproductive-rights legislation, anti-voting-rights legislation that affects so many marginalized communities just seems to not be stopping.”
While neighboring states’ actions are frustrating, Bowen says, they also can serve as a reminder to appreciate New Mexico’s relative friendliness and embrace of personal freedom.
“I’m thankful that we’re here, and I’m thankful that we don’t have the hostility that many other locations in the United States have,” he says. “People who are in my position in other parts of the country are getting hate mail, hate email, phone calls, bomb threats, death threats, the list goes on and on. I’m thankful that we live in a safe state.”
