Woodinville holds first Pride celebration

On Sunday, June 26, Woodinville held its first Pride celebration at DeYoung Park.

Attendees could collect Pride merchandise, visit the roughly 20 vendor booths set up by local artists and small businesses, and create posters at arts and crafts stations.

Several speakers shared their stories and celebrated the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance. These included scheduled speakers and visitors who came on stage during the open-mic portions of the event.DJ Non-Prophet coordinated music and audio for the event.

Organizer Tanya Milbrodt estimates that about 500 people visited throughout the four-hour event.

“We had no clue what to expect,” Milbrodt wrote in an email to the Weekly. “We planned for 250 as a starting point and this far exceeded our expectations!”

Heidi Schauble and Maria Harwell of Woodinville Social Justice Connection also helped organize the celebration.

“I love the energy. The energy is so healing,” said CJ Lorey, a member of PFLAG Bellevue/Eastside, an LGBTQ+ support and advocacy organization. “It feels like a family reunion.”

Bothell City Council member Jenne Alderks collected signatures at a booth for Whole Washington, a volunteer organization that advocates for universal healthcare. Alderks is the first openly LGBTQ+ city council member in Bothell.

Ginger Chien, Chapter President of PFLAG Bellevue/Eastside and Director At-Large for Eastside Pride PNW, spoke at the event as well, narrating her experience coming out as a trans woman later in life.

“I felt very alone, and very unseen for most of my life,” she said. “Everyone's affections and admiration were directed at this perfectly crafted cardboard cutout of the man that they wanted to see, that I created for them.”

Eventually, Chien said, she joined an ‘80s cover band with some transgender friends. They began playing shows in Port Angeles.

“It's the last place you would ever expect to see a trans band playing in a bar,” she said.

After some initial fear and skepticism, she said, patrons came to the floor and danced while the band played. Since then, they have played at this bar to large audiences for over 15 years.

At these shows, Chien said, she met the self-described “biggest redneck in town.”

“At first, he was really weirded out by coming to our shows,” she said. “He didn't want to come. And then he came again. And again and again. He started coming to every single one of our shows. And we started to say hi to each other, and we started to talk. And eventually, we started giving each other hugs.”

The man told Chien that an old friend from his childhood had reached out and wanted to reconnect. The friend had transitioned and was now living as a woman.

“I realized I had a question that I needed to ask him after I heard the story,” Chien said. “‘Knowing your friend, knowing who your friend was, where your friend came from, and who she has become, which one of you changed more?’ And he thought for a second, and this little smile crept across his face. And he said, ‘Me. I've changed more.’”

The first Gay Pride March was held in 1970 in New York City. Since then, Pride events celebrating all LGBTQ+ identities have been held around the world. In the U.S., annual Pride events typically happen in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots.

This year, hundreds of bills limiting LGBTQ+ rights have been introduced in state legislatures across the country.

In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, popularly referred to as “Don’t Say Gay.” This bill bans teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ topics in grades three and lower, and limits how they can be discussed with older students.

In his concurring opinion overturning Roe v. Wade last week, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the court “should reconsider” past rulings which codified federal rights for same-sex relationships and marriages.

Tanya Milbrodt said that she was inspired to organize Woodinville Pride after her daughter came out to her last year.

She wanted to take her daughter and her friends to Pride, and was surprised to find out that Woodinville did not have any Pride events. They went to Monroe Pride instead.

“On the way home I was chatting with the kids and saying that we need more events like Monroe’s on the Eastside and that maybe we should ‘just plan our own event,’” Milbrodt wrote. “And a year later here we are.”

In her speech, Ginger Chien said she doesn’t expect this to be the only Woodinville Pride.

“I can't wait to come back next year and see what this has turned into,” she said. “It's going to be even better.”