This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the Boise Pride Festival as it was founded in 1989. The Pride Parade originated in 1970,and it took place in New York City on June 28th to commemorate the one year mark of Stonewall. It was known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day.

Normally, the pride festival is held during June or July, but because of Covid-19, the event had to be postponed until September 10th-12th. However, the virus is still an issue, so how did they handle safety precautions?

 To start, they closely monitored who was admitted at entry. In order to get in, you were required to either show proof of vaccination or have a test been administered on or after September 9th. You must also comply with the health guidelines. This means you cannot have been exposed to a positive covid case or have traveled internationally within the past two weeks, and you cannot have had any symptoms of Covid within 48-hours. 

Once in the festival, the fun and activities can begin. Some big events included, as written in the Pride Boise website, a circus act and fireworks on Friday, belly dancers and a 9/11 tribute on Saturday, and a drag story time on Sunday. 

There were also some big names participating in the festivities. Todrick Hall, a Youtube star, singer, choreographer, and American Idol participant held an event on Sunday at 8:30 pm. 

Singer and songwriter Kaleena Zanders was also included in the Sunday events. She just released a new album and works to bring back the importance of black, queer artists in her genre of music. Also a highly anticipated guest of the 2021 Boise Pride was Trixie Mattel. Trixie won Rupaul’s Drag Race in season three, and is also a singer, and actor. They performed on Saturday at 4:30 pm.  

Beyond the events, Pride holds a personal importance to many people. Mattheus Wardle, an attendee of Pride for multiple years, says, “Pride is a place I can be myself.” In a similar sentiment, an anonymous student said, “I get to celebrate me, being me.”

Charley Beebe (10) expressed her own love of pride by saying, “I love being connected to other people in the community who share my social and political views… I also love pride because being an ally is a really important role.”

Another participant of Pride answered, “I need to be able to see people like me. It’s exhausting never fitting in or being able to relate to the people around me, and pride gives me a chance to get away from that and meet people with the same or similar experiences to mine.” 

In a more general sense, when the same participant was asked why pride is important, she answered, “Since being queer is not majorly accepted in our society, people need a space where thye can celbrate thir identities and feel safe to express themselves.”

Another year of Pride has officially come and gone. There were some obstacles to get around and a few worries surrounding the preparation and covid, but things were able to come together and people didn’t lose another experience of pride.