This years Iowa City Pride Parade comes with added importance for those in attendance

Iowa City, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa City Pride hosted the annual Pride Parade on June 17th. Thousands of people made their way to watch the parade, shop at businesses, enjoy the live music, and visit the over 100 vendors present.

This year’s parade however comes as the past legislative session in Iowa saw several bills and laws that people say target people who are LGBQ.

Those attending the parade who spoke with TV-9 said it adds importance to this years festivities.

Natasha Nachazel was at the Iowa City Pride Parade and said “With this current political climate a lot of younger people who are on the LGBTQ spectrum might feel isolated or alone. I feel like these kind of events are a good time to say like you’re not alone your policymakers shouldn’t define your life but yeah there are a lot of people who care about you and I’m sorry you’re going through this but you’re going to be OK at the end of the day.”

Kaitlin Schlotfelt was attending the parade with Natasha and spoke on the importance experiencing the parade can have for children saying “It feels like this is the least we can do to support our friends and family. I have a family here too and i think it’s important that my daughter gets to understand and see what love can be and what it should be.”

Jacob Mayer was at the parade and shared his thoughts on recent legislature in the state “There are certain folks in the [Iowa State] Capital that don’t even want members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community to exist, they hold a lot of power and instead of taking the time to really get to know anybody they just shut down and try to play scare tactics.” They said.

Schlotfelt encouraged people to talk saying “If you don’t think you know anyone who’s part of that [LGTBQ] community I would challenge you to maybe try to reach out to people because you might be surprised who’s actually in that community and you might actually like people who are in that community and you might not be so scared.”

Nachazel continued “Don’t be afraid to be yourself I know it’s hard I know some people are gonna tell you that you shouldn’t be this way and some policymakers are going to really come down on you but you’re stronger than that you are not a problem just for existing and you deserve to be here as much as anybody else. You are loved.”

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