Amid Pride Fest, Tacomans celebrate being out and speaking out

The day started with a suggestion for a new slogan: Let “love speaks” be the stand-in, at least temporarily, for “love wins,” one of the LGBT community’s many mottos underlining equality and acceptance.

“This has been a year of losses hitting close to home,” said Michelle Douglas, executive director of the Rainbow Center, in opening remarks to the crowd that gathered at South Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue for the beginning of Out in the Park, Saturday’s major event in the nine-day Tacoma Pride Festival.

In her speech, Douglas rallied the crowd to not just love others, but to speak out against violence, homophobia and racism. “I want to hear you standing up when you hear anti-gay slurs, when you hear slurs against people of color. I want to stop the violence. I want to see a new future for the United States, I want see a new future for the queer community. And I’m telling all of you, it takes love to speak to make that happen.”

In Douglas’ speech, and across the crowd that gathered in downtown Tacoma on Saturday afternoon, the June shooting massacre inside a gay Orlando nightclub that left 49 dead and more than 50 wounded was never far from mind. Earlier in the day, when the local Black Lives Matter-aligned group Tacoma Stands Up, now being rebranded as The People’s Assembly, marched from Pugnetti Park down Pacific Avenue to protest the shootings of black people by police, they also took time to remember those 49 victims.

Organizers for the grass-roots movement that began in Tacoma in 2014 led about 75 marchers and shut down Pacific Avenue as they headed toward Out in the Park, chanting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” In unison, they shouted the names of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the two black men whose deaths, at least partially caught on video, at the hands of police caused an uproar that was capped last week by the deaths of five Dallas police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest.

“By saying their names, we are reminding the world that we are grieving,” said Cathy Nguyen, one of the organizers.

During the nearly one-mile march north, the group stopped at one point and gathered in a circle to read the names of the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. Some held hands, some held babies, and some held signs decrying homophobia, racism and Islamophobia, among others. When they continued on, a few marchers jumped out of the street to thank or hug Tacoma police officers who guarded the intersections and kept Pacific Avenue closed to car traffic.

Later in the day, as bedazzled drag queens danced on a rainbow-colored mat at Out in the Park, Pride supporters reflected on news of a more local nature: Many saw it as a victory that Initiative 1515, which sought to restrict which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender people can use statewide, did not secure enough signatures to appear on November’s ballot.

“I-1515 was just about hate, it was never about safety,” said Dixie Mooney, 56, a Tacoma woman who came out as transgender two years ago. “They just used that as an excuse to try to scare people.”

Mooney said the shootings in Orlando brought a somber note to Pride this year and that there is still much work to be done. But, she added, the attention being paid to trans issues is a positive: “It’s kind of in the national spotlight — it’s a wonderful time to be trans, and Tacoma-Seattle is a great place to be trans. I think it’s the best place in the world.”

Kent Silver, a 26-year-old from Tacoma, said it’s an important moment to be out and proud. “Orlando and other hate crimes have been something that make me want to celebrate (being out) even more,” Silver said. “Then with I-1515, the anti-trans initiative, I just feel like there are so many reasons that we need to be working for inclusion for everyone, especially trans people and trans people of color. I’m here to celebrate being gay.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2016 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Amid Pride Fest, Tacomans celebrate being out and speaking out."