‘This is who I am’: Rainbows, defiance abound in Helena as MT Pride celebrates 30 years

The nearly 2,000 attendees of Saturday’s Montana Pride Parade celebrated the state’s LGBTQ community, culminating in a rally at Anchor Park.

While rainbows abounded, just as prevalent was an open defiance of recent legislation and caustic rhetoric from Republican state leaders.

Cherilyn DeVris, a communications manager for Montana Human Rights Network, worked a booth for the organization at the rally. MHRN also hosted a Legislative Recap and a pizza and board game party for transgender youth as part of the week’s events.

“It was a horrible legislative session of hostile, antagonistic rhetoric, especially targeting transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit people,” DeVris said in an interview. “But what we’re seeing are more Pride celebrations in the state than ever before.”

Helena’s festivities were the 12th to occur in the state in 2023.

“It sends a clear message to the Legislature that the hostile, completely misleading rhetoric does not represent Montana,” she said. “These people here today represent Montana.”

Montana’s first-in-the-nation law, born out of House Bill 359 and intended to ban some drag performances and story hours, was temporarily blocked by a federal judge July 28.

Organizers of the weeklong Pride event initially said their request for permits from the city of Helena to hold the gatherings would be denied.

The city, added as a defendant in the case along with the state Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction and chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow County, later said it would issue the permits.

The city joined individuals, businesses and organizations in calling for the temporary halt to the law, saying it did not want to deny permits and possibly violate organizers’ and participants’ rights but also didn’t want its employees at risk of legal challenges for issuing permits.

“The city’s actually been very supportive of Pride forever,” Hamm said in an interview following the rally. “The city attorney threw the state under the bus so hard, their lawyer didn’t know what to do. It was great.”

He said despite the delay in the permits, attendance was close to last year’s events.

Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins showed that support in his speech at Saturday’s post-parade rally.

“We celebrate the journey we are on together, a journey toward a future where everyone regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity is embraced, respected and valued,” Collins said.

Fellow Helena City Commissioner Melinda Reed encouraged attendees to run for all levels of government.

“I think it is important for so many reasons that we see ourselves in government, but it is also important that we elect people who are willing to stand up for LGBTQI2A+ rights, who believe that transgender rights are human rights and who welcome everybody in our communities,” Reed said.

One such politician is Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula, who identifies as transgender, nonbinary.

“I was lucky, I got to live like the kid that I was,” Howell said, recalling their youth during a speech at the rally. “I got to grow up in a flattop and a little Hawaiian button-up shirt, running around, and don’t get me wrong, I took flak for that.

“I had to deal with my classmates. I had to deal with my neighbors. But I didn’t have to deal with the Legislature, and I didn’t have to deal with the governor, and I didn’t have to deal with my pediatrician. I got to be a kid, and that’s what I want to get back to for Montana.”

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, who made national headlines after being excommunicated from the House last session after an impassioned speech from the floor in support of her community, also addressed the crowd.

“Happy Pride, Helena!” Zephyr said.

She said despite the introduction of more than 500 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country, she is hopeful.

“Helena Pride 2018, a few years back, was my first time dressing fem in public, and I remember a sense of ‘Oh, I’m home. These are my people. Finally, it makes sense to me,’” she said.

She encouraged attendees to “find the room in which your voice will do the most good.”

“Whether you are trying to run for office, whether you are doing work in your school or local community, whether you are just standing tall in your own and saying, ‘This is who I am,’ all of that work moves the needle,” Zephyr said.

Representatives of Moms Demand Action, a national nonprofit advocating for public safety through gun law reform, also marched in the parade.

“First and foremost, we’re here to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, people who are disproportionately affected by gun violence, particularly suicide,” Helena Local Lead Cara Uribe said in an interview before the parade.

State Lead for Moms Demand Action Shani Henry called the recent legislative session “atrocious” and said the message that emanated from the 68th assembly may only exacerbate the situation.

“In light of recent legislation, it’s extremely concerning,” Henry said. “It’s atrocious, and now more than ever, we need to support this community.”

Adam Rea, a gay, 17-year-old Helena resident, marched in his third Montana Pride Parade Saturday.

Rea said his participation was equal parts celebration and protest.

“We’re not any different than the rest of the community,” Rea said. “Simply because we love certain people, doesn’t mean that we’re ‘other.’”

The war for basic human rights is one the gay community has waged in America for decades.

“We made all this great progress, and then we started to see some of it get peeled back,” Hamm said. “What’s been energizing is seeing all the people younger than me that are saying, ‘No, no, no. We’ve already fought this. We’re not letting this happen.’”

Hamm called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “wake up call for a lot of young people in our community who thought, ‘my life is OK, and I don’t have to do anything.’”

“And now, they’re very energized,” he said.

That energy was apparent in Rea.

“While it may not be the exact same battle, a lot of it is, essentially,” he said. “I’m continuing the fight the previous generations started instead of giving up. Otherwise, it’d go to waste.”