As my girlfriend and I joined the line of cars trailing out of Alton Baker Park, I immediately spotted the queer congregation (and allies) marching from Spectrum Queer Restaurant and Bar on August 13th, with glitter, rainbows and queer pride flag capes to boot.
After locating a parking spot in a nearby field and exiting the car to frolic with everyone to the tents and noise, I heard someone laugh as they said, “We’re gay. We can’t park straight.”
It was only fair that the Pride event doubled in size this year to celebrate the queer community. Last year, there were around 75 vendors and sponsors, and this year, there were 180, emphasizing the growth in involvement from the Eugene community.
Marlie Heberling and about 25 other community members have been volunteering their time to plan the event since January 2022.
Since moving to Eugene from San Jose about four years ago, Heberling has worked with the Eugene Pride planning committee and is currently one of the vice presidents. Prior to her involvement with the committee, Heberling advocated for queer folk as a church youth director, working with the organization PFLAG, or Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
“Pride is honestly one of my favorite days of the year,” Heberling said.“[There is] so much work going into it and, and there’s a part of me that’s like, we’ll be glad when it’s done, because I can sleep. And [it’s] so much fun to see the faces of people, especially people where it’s their first Pride. And that moment of acceptance.”
Heberling explained that this year’s Pride offered more interactive activities than past years — including the addition of a Family Zone for families and youth, complete with a unicorn sprinkler, arts and crafts and ultimate frisbee. Throughout the event, free workshops were offered, including a Visual Poetry workshop by local poet Jalen Thompson and a guide to pronouns and supporting queer youth organized by the local non-profit Ophelia’s Place.
This year, the non-profit Pride Day Equality Project, the organization behind Eugene Pride, raised $12,500 in scholarship money to give to queer youth in the community. The EugPride website explains they collected the scholarship funding through year-round donations, event fundraisers, and purchases from their merch store.
The local queer community slayed the day cheering on events at the main stage, including the performance by the Eugene Gay Men’s Chorus and local drag queen Lyta Blunt’s Drag Revue. As DJ Dawn Nevau played “Where My Girls At” by 702, a crowd of people gathered in front of the main stage to vibe and dance in the grass.
I struck up a conversation with Pamela Fouse, initially drawn to her rainbow umbrella and her groove as she enjoyed the music floating by from the main stage.
Fouse told me she volunteers for the Burrito Brigade, a local nonprofit organization that provides hot meals for the houseless community in Eugene. One of her grandchildren, fifteen-year-old Roan, is a vendor at Pride this year, selling their artwork.
“Coming over the bridge, I was bringing my grandchild, and I told them, it looks like a fairy kingdom, you know, with the roofs and the flags and the color and the joy,”Fouse said. “There’s a joy at these kind of events that there isn’t at other events, you know, even Renaissance festivals..The joy is here.”
Fouse led me to Roan’s booth, where they displayed their artwork, which was vibrant and full of color. Aside from prints and paintings, they had pins with a wide-eyed cat mascot backed by queer pride flag colors.
“I love using color,” Roan said. “I like it being a maximalist — I like having a lot of stuff going on. Even in flat color places, I like having patterns placed on top.”
One of their sticker designs had the same cat with “Death to the patriarchy!” written alongside a tasteful arrangement of red hot flames.
Later, I stumbled upon a poetry slam at the Community Stage. Here members of the community could watch the day’s lineup, featuring a Drag Queen Storytime and a comedy hour. The Community Stage was a calmer space for people to share about their art and express their queerness in whatever medium they wanted. Parris Woodward-Ganz, a UO student who had spoken earlier in the day at the Pride rally before the march, was sharing some of his poems, some of which were centered on his gender identity.
I also talked to Tamara Hooper, one of the leaders of the Free Mom Hugs chapter in Oregon, who had a booth at the event. The non-profit organization volunteers at Pride events all over the state and provides free hugs for queer youth. This was their first time hugging at the Eugene event and their twelfth Pride of the year so far.
“We come to pride events, and we give out lots of hugs and love,”Hooper said. It’s not just moms, [or] dads, I have a 26 year old nonbinary kiddo, and they come out and hug with us.”
According to a 2022 national survey on the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth by the Trevor Project, LGBTQ+ youth who felt high social support from their family reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support. The Free Mom Hugs organization works to provide support and visibility for queer youth and to eradicate homophobic attitudes through educating parents and family who aren’t accepting of the LGBTQ+ community.
“A hug is a very small thing you could do for someone,” Hooper said. “But parental acceptance and affirmation is really necessary for our community.”
Eugene Pride made space for those in the queer community to express themselves however they wanted and to celebrate different identities. I appreciated talking to those in the community and feeling their joy and support.
“I think all of us have that same experience of looking around, and seeing people having such a good time and connecting with others and feeling like themselves truly for maybe the first time,” Heberling said. “And that’s a feeling unlike anything else.”
To check out Roan’s artwork, visit their instagram @kuzonstudios. To find out more about the Pride Day Equality Project and to get involved in planning next year’s Pride, visit their website.
