The Greenway Amphitheater in downtown Hopkinsville was filled with all the colors of the rainbow on Saturday for the Hopkinsville-Christian County Human Rights Commission’s first Pride Month celebration.
Pride in the Park included food, beverage, and merchandise vendors, as well as an open mic stage.
June marks LGBTQ+ Pride Month and honors the Stonewall Uprising, which occurred in New York City, New York, in 1969 after the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar, was raided by law enforcement. Bar patrons revolted against law enforcement, and that fueled the gay liberation movement.
Commission Executive Director Raychel Farmer says it’s been around two decades since Hopkinsville had its last Pride celebration. The commission hosts an annual Pride Month proclamation reading, and Farmer thought it was time to do more to celebrate the month.
Ahead of Pride in the Park, Commission Administrative Assistant Jada Morris says she was unsure what to expect, because she saw negative comments about the celebration on social media. However, after seeing the event full of attendees, Morris says she was speechless.
At the amphitheater stage, folks shared messages of empowerment and read personal poems. Becky Dearman read a poem titled “On the Matter of Dreams on the Day of our Wedding.” When she was younger, Dearman says she didn’t dream about having a wedding until she met her partner.
Then, Shannon Davis shared some words of encouragement. She gave a speech where each letter of “Pride” stood for a different value. P stood for purpose, R stood for resilience, I stood for integrity, D stood for dignity and E stood for empowerment.
Davis told attendees that they were born with value and encouraged them to be themselves and to ignore the outside pressures that exist.
Both Farmer and Morris look forward to bringing Pride in the Park back next year.
