Port Townsend Pride Fest Shines with Queer Joy
[caption id align="alignnone" width="2452"]
MC Caela Bailey entertains young allies at Port Townsend Pride. Photo by Nhatt Nichols [/caption]
News by Nhatt Nichols
Queer joy was in tangible abundance at this year’s Pride festival in Port Townsend. The celebration included boat parades, drag shows, poetry and a market, all enjoyed by hundreds of LGBTQ+ people and their allies.
This year’s celebrations felt especially poignant as both the federal government and, closer to home, the Quilcene School Board have enacted policies that discriminate against transgender people.
[caption id align="alignnone" width="2388"]
Bobby Lee (Left), one half of the drag performance duo Bobby4bobby, poses with Wyete Thomas Quinn. Photo by Nhatt Nichols [/caption]
In the wake of all of these difficulties, poet and Pride performer Turner Masland expressed the importance of gathering for joy as well as for protest. “I think it’s vital for us to gather as a queer family, to celebrate our joy and our resiliency,” Masland said, “After many many many generations of oppression, and continued attempts to force us back into the closet, it’s imporrtant for queer and trans folk to gather, dance, laugh and raise our fists and remind everyone that we’ve always been here and we ain’t going nowhere.”
Masland’s husband, Jacob Braverman, echoed the need for joy, saying, “It was especially wonderful to see local trans and nonbinary community centered and celebrated fearlessly, which is not just meaningful because they are most directly in the crosshairs of the current hetero-nationalist onslaught, but because they have been the vanguard of our collective opposition to it from Stonewall through to the present.”
Braverman added, “It was also just nice to see happy little kids dancing and jumping around in the grass with drag queens, as they should!”
[caption id align="alignnone" width="3982"]
Uptown (front left) poses with the rest of Dykes on Bikes. Photo by Nhatt Nichols. [/caption]
Beyond the excellent drag and burlesque performances, entertainment included folk and punk music from acts like Male//Gaze and Blue Hex. MCed by the dynamic Seattle performer Caela Bailey, who ended the show with a stunning rendition of the national anthem with the lyrics changed to honor LGBTQ+ community members.
This year’s pride celebration was made extra-special by the involvement of Dykes on Bikes, a Seattle-based group who provides community service, advocacy work, and extra security for marginalized groups since 2023, though the chapter has been active since 1976. This chapter’s vice chair, “Uptown,” explained how important service is to their organization, saying, “Pride is not our only focus. It is absolutely all year round, and we place a big emphasis on community service hours, 30 hours a year, at least for each member.” Dykes on Bikes chose to come to Port Townsend’s Pride this year at the invitation of a Port Townsend community member. “Providing safety is probably the number one aspect of putting something like this on,” Uptown said, “You gotta be careful to protect the community.”
