San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Partying, politics meet
Thousands enjoy annual Pride Festival
The annual Pride Festival in Crockett Park was a colorful, freewheeling event with countless rainbow flags, endless glitter and thousands of people from San Antonio and beyond coming together to celebrate the hard-fought battle for LGBTQ rights.
But the fundraising event — which included wrestling, inflatable bounce houses, food trucks and scores of vendors, from LGBTQ organizations to political candidates and national businesses giving away free swag — unfolded against a backdrop of turbulent national politics and emboldened bigotry. With the departure of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement this week, President Trump has the opportunity to appoint a replacement who could firmly push the body far to the right. Pundits have questioned whether the court’s previous ruling affirming marriage equality might be overturned in the future.
Philip Barcena, president of the Pride San Antonio, the organization that runs the event, noted that while Kennedy was a conservative justice, he was the swing vote on marriage equality.
“When it came to LGBT rights,” Barcena said, “he sided with human rights.”
Organizers expected this year’s Pride Festival to be larger than last, which saw more than 7,000 attendees. The late night
Pride Parade also included the most entries ever with 140 entries and four former grand marshals — Mayor Ron Nirenberg; Police Chief William McManus; Judge Genie Wright, who performed the first gay marriage in Bexar County; and Judge Ron Rangel, who has performed same-sex weddings during the Pride Festival for four years.
Such a sizable event, Barcena said, signals to Texas and the United States that San Antonio is a special place.
“It shows that San Antonio is an understanding, accepting, reaffirming city,” he said.
Amid the Saturday celebration, there was a persistent drumbeat of politics in the background.
Autumn Summers, the emcee, periodically reminded attendees to register to vote. Volunteers from MOVE Texas, a nonprofit that began as MOVE San Antonio, worked in shifts throughout the day registering voters.
Soon after a performance by Charlie London, a Liza Minnelli impersonator who performed “New York, New York” to much fanfare, the crowded hushed as Judge Rangel performed two simultaneous wedding ceremonies.
“I pronounce you married,” the judge said to the two couples. The crowd erupted, and one couple unfurled a LGBTQ flag. “Let’s give it up for mister and mister, and missus and missus!”
After the ceremony, Rangel said it’s important to show support for others, to recognize that “we as a society lift up everybody.”
“There’s nobody we should leave behind. There’s nobody that we should make feel like they’re outcasts,” the judge said in an interview. “And we’ve come so far in our society to show the power of the community, and the power of love. To me it doesn’t make sense to go back.”
Rangel said that as a judge, he’s prohibited from taking political positions in his public life.
“But I do take pride in knowing that I represent every single citizen in this county,” he said. “And every single citizen deserves to be uplifted and supported.”
Sid Vela, 56, and Leroy Guerra, 60, was one couple who married on stage Saturday. They have been together for 15 years.
They decided on such a public ceremony to be surrounded by their people, and the love and support of their friends, Guerra said.
“And it was time,” Vela quipped.
Among the national companies participating in the festival were the American Automobile Association, Wells Fargo and USAA in addition to Anheuser-Busch. There was a time, attendees and organizers said, that Pride San Antonio was begging for support. Now, major corporations line up to help.
Drew Galloway, executive director of MOVE Texas, whose name stands for “Mobilize, Organize, Vote, Empower,” said he’s seen true commitment from companies like those involved in the event — not just casting rainbows on their logos during Pride month. He encouraged others to do the same.
“Walk the talk,” he said. “And make the impact in the community, rather than just changing your logo to a rainbow for a month.”