‘Visibility for the community’: Richmond’s annual Pride celebration

 Braxton Hare, Contributing Writer

The Bon Secours Training Center was transformed into “Virginia PrideFest 2024” on Sept. 14, where people could honor LGBTQ+ achievements, legal rights and queer pride.

Virginia Pride and OutRVA hosted the event which featured a lineup of local and national acts. Performances on the mainstage included Crystal Waters, Robin S, Tank and the Bangas, RuPaul’s Drag Race alums Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Kennedy Davenport, Mr., Miss. and Mx.VA Pride and DJ Lez Pop, according to the Virginia Pride website.

Virginia Pride was founded in 1975 by a group of loyal and active community members, with the goal of bringing community awareness and promoting diversity while enabling unity among the Richmond queer community, according to its website.

“Today, pride represents tremendous progress and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — it represents visibility for a community that has historically lived in the shadows and on the margins of our society,” said James Millner, Virginia Pride’s program director.

Millner said he could not be more excited for this year’s “PrideFest” after the rescheduling of last year’s event due to a tropical storm warning.

“We have had plenty of time to plan for it this year, you know, it was not something that we threw together in three weeks,” Millner said. “Our team did an amazing job of doing that last year, but this year we went full force from day one.” 

Although he always enjoys watching the entertainment, Millner said his favorite moments at “PrideFest” are “the sort of smaller ones.” 

“It’s the interactions between young trans and queer folks — It’s observing people coming out to our event and being their true authentic selves without fear of being shamed or discriminated against — those are my favorite moments,” Millner said.

Those moments, however, would not exist without the help of numerous volunteers, Millner said. 

“It takes up to a couple hundred volunteers overall to make sure the event runs smoothly,” Millner said. “We have a volunteer program as well to support different functions within the organization outside of ‘PrideFest’ too.”

The James River Transgender Society tabled the event, providing a variety of resources for all gender variants. 

Danielle Johnson, member and advocate for the James River Transgender Society, said she came to Virginia PrideFest 2024 because it’s a place where people can drop all their reservations and concerns. 

“It’s just a great place to come if you’re just coming out,” Johnson said. “It’s a great place to meet a lot of people and see different kinds of representation.” 

JRTS hosts monthly support meetings every first Friday of the month at 7 p.m. at Diversity Thrift, according to its website. Everyone is welcome to attend.

“At the support group, we are able to talk about stuff like health insurance, name changes and makeup — all sorts of stuff,” Johnson said.

“PrideFest 2024” has allowed organizations like the JRTS to meet people who otherwise wouldn’t know of their existence, Johnson said. 

“Especially being a support group for the trans-community, not a lot of people know us,” Johnson said. “This just opens up a wide area of opportunity for us.”

Booths were occupied by local vendors offering a wide variety of products and services as well. Tables were piled high with items such as handmade jewelry and crocheted knick-knacks. 

Amongst these merchants was Blake Bottoms, a queer watercolor artist.

Bottoms said Virginia Pride and “PrideFest” have both been helpful for their business and sales. 

“Right now, a huge thing for us is the exposure,” Bottoms said. “But I think there’s also a community-building element that’s really been important to me.” 

Bottoms’ art focuses mostly on trans and queer people and features bodies not traditionally seen in art, such as bigger, BIPOC or trans people, they said. 

“My primary thing is sort of radical acceptance of self and a celebration of that, and so my hope is to spread that vibe generally,” Bottoms said.

Bottoms wants young queer entrepreneurs out there to “talk with people who have been doing it for a while, and listen to their advice because there are a lot of ins and outs of business owning.”

“Just keep at it, you’re punk, you got this,” Bottoms said.