An Elder's Day at Pridefest 2014 by Donaciano Martinez

In the post-Pride public announcement from the GLBT Community Center (which produces Pride each year), Communications Manager Melody Glover noted there were 365,000 people who attended the June 2014 two-day event and there were 145 contingents in the Pride parade. As someone who has been in Denver’s Pride march/parade since its first one in 1976, I always have noticed that there are more spectators than there are marchers.

When the parade was over and I attempted to enter the park at which the festival was being held, I was stopped by an official gatekeeper (yes, child, nowadays personal items of festival goers must be inspected at all public events – such as Pride – held in a park). The young lesbian gatekeeper said she wasn’t sure she could let me in because she thought the placard (“I’ve Been Marching for Justice Since 1965”) in my hand “seemed anti-gay” to her. I have been accused of being anti-many things in my 50-year activism since 1964, but being anti-gay was not among them. Quite amused by her comment, I told her: (a) I carried the placard in the parade; (b) I have been marching in the Pride parade long before she was born; and (c) she could check with the GLBT Center’s Elders Program Manager Reynaldo Mireles if she needed verification that I am NOT anti-gay. Still unsure, she reluctantly let me in and soon thereafter I reconnected with Reynaldo at what I thought was the Elders Program (SAGE) booth. It turned out it was the GLBT Center’s information booth for which I volunteered (at Reynaldo’s request) for three hours handing brochures to attendees as they walked by.

The highlight of the day was a straight married couple who brought their two young children to meet me as the parents were so impressed upon seeing me proudly marching in the parade while holding the aforementioned sign that was baffling to the young lesbian gatekeeper. Very nice and respectful, the married couple told me their children have a gay uncle and the children are being raised to accept and support their uncle and other GLBT people.

A confusing part of the day occurred when I had a good chat with a vendor whose appearance and aura were so gay, yet he turned out to be straight -- my longtime gay radar obviously isn't reliable anymore.

Reflecting on his experiences at this year’s Pride festival, community elder and longtime human rights activist William Watts wrote: “Sorry, but I found it fairly bland, insipid, un-special, a major sin and overly ordinary. It could have been the People’s Fair [a straight event] or Taste of Colorado Fair [a straight event] with rainbow county fair junk-goods. Listening to some of the vendors’ conversations, they knew nothing of the LGBTQQI struggle and history and didn’t care. It was such a letdown. With success comes failure quickly!”

Inevitably, an overt Q-hating incident occurred while I was waiting for the bus to head home. The target was an effeminate gay man, who strutted by the bus stop while carrying a rainbow-color umbrella. A het supremacist repeatedly yelled the “F” word (rhymes with the word maggot) at the gay man and told him that he should be a “real man” and pursue women instead of men. At any moment, there could have been violence on the part of the enraged het supremacist. Although there was no violence, the incident underscored the reality that Q hating is alive and well – even on Pride Day.

© 5 July 2014

About the Author

Since 1964 Donaciano Martinez has been an activist in peace and social justice movements in Colorado. His family was part of a big migration of Mexican Americans from northern New Mexico to Colorado Springs in the 1940s. He lived in Colorado Springs until 1975 and then moved to Denver, where he still resides. He was among 20 people arrested and jailed in Colorado Springs during a 1972 protest in support of the United Farm Workers union that was co-founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. For his many years of activism, Martinez received the 1998 Equality Award, 1999 Founders Award, 2000 Paul Hunter Award, 2001 Community Activist Award, 2005 Movement Veterans Award, 2006 Champion of Health Award, 2008 Cesar Chavez Award, 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2013 Pendleton Award. La Gente Unida, a nonprofit co-founded by Martinez, received the 2002 Civil Rights Award. The year 2014 marks the 50-year anniversary of his volunteer work in numerous nonprofit situations.