It is 2023, and Brazoria County Pride gave Brazoria County its first Pride Festival in Lake Jackson on Saturday, June 3, marking a significant milestone in the community’s history. It was only a few hours, from 10 am to 2pm, but there was so much wholesomeness in that short time frame.
When I got there around 10:30, there were food trucks and the welcome desk. At the welcome desk, attendees put on wristbands and learned about how they could donate. A “100 Founders” option invited the first 100 attendees to donate $40 to become part of the festival’s founders. As a special recognition, “founders” received the festival’s shirt and signed their name on a banner for historical archive.
“We’ve been in communication with the Lake Jackson Historical Association and the Brazoria County Historical Museum to create a record of the event to make sure this festival was archived for historical purposes.” — Nichole Tackwell, founding board member of Brazoria County Pride, said.
Brazoria County Pride — the nonprofit that planned this historical event — started off as Brazoria County Pride for Youth and with the help from the Montrose Center, quickly turned into the nonprofit it is today. This nonprofit received a grant through the Montrose Center, funded by DOW Chemical, to get the program going until there was the organization. Montrose Center helped Brazoria County Pride with managing the money, establishing the board, paperwork, and overall guidance on how to become an organization for the LGBT community of Brazoria. The focus of this nonprofit is on lower Brazoria County because of the lack of resources in this area.
“Lake Jackson is Ron Paul’s hometown, it’s a blue collar, red county, a lot of conservative thinking goes on here. A lot the conversations my kids had growing up was, ‘can we go there, can we do this, probably not because we might get hate crimed.’
When this opportunity came up to do this for them, for our community, and seeing what happened last Saturday was incredible. Just feeling seen, heard, and cared about does magical things and I think that’s the basis of what we’re doing here. It was a mother’s dream come true.” — Nichole told me.
The festival featured various attractions, including a dog parade where adorable dogs dressed in pride colors were fawned over onstage. Additionally, there was a craft area, bounce houses, sensory stations, and a range of vendors offering food, as well as informative health and sexual education resources. The range of vendors and activities allowed the festival to be incredibly intergenerational and intersectional. Not going to lie, I was expecting the crowd to be mostly white, transphobic leather daddies. There were families, from toddlers to elders, Black, Brown, trans people, folks with disabilities, and gender expressions across the spectrum. I feel silly itemizing the intersectional nature of this event, but considering Lake Jackson is 80% white and Brazoria County is 73% white, and all so conservative, I was genuinely surprised. The intersectionality of the crowd was so lovely.
“I always felt that Brazoria County especially, there was a lot more open-minded loving, caring, kind, allyship, but a lot of fear about being public or defending it because it’s such a historically conservative area. To see so many people come out, as allies as well, was just amazing to see.
The biggest thing about this event was that this was about a family-friendly Pride event, to show people — you well know the horrible things they say about grooming children — it created an awareness that people in this community have kids too. They need events like this that they can be seen and heard and be part of. For people to have fun, and enjoy themselves, for the kids to face paint and do crafts.” — Nichole said.
Unfortunately, there was a counterprotest. Far-right Christians with signs saying “Pride Kills” and things of the sort. Initially, they were significantly distanced from the pavilion and the festival. Their megaphones weren’t very audible as the music played. As the festival went on, the counter-protesters got closer to the pavilion, pushing their boundaries. The police were there, but during my time at the festival, the police did not ask the counterprotesters to maintain space. At one point, a festival volunteer came by to make sure we had wristbands because the counterprotesters were sneaking in.
As we were leaving, the counterprotesters had gotten too close for my personal comfort at the pavilion. Some festival attendees got up on tables and danced for the counterprotesters. A few festival attendees showcased their unity by dancing on top of tables, making hearts with their hands. I did not see if the police had pushed the counterprotesters back to be distanced away from the pavilion, like they had at the start of the festival. This was around the time it was time for me to go. Nichole filled me in on what I missed —
“People at the festival lined up and created a wall of pride flags [along the pavilion], all the flags, all the representation. They held them up for the last two hours of the event to block the protesters from viewing the event and to block festival attendees from seeing the protesters. After zip tying all the flags together, the DJ played Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off, and everyone danced as they held the line.” — Nichole explained.
There is a scholarship now available for LGBT+ students in Brazoria County.
The Brazoria County Pride Educational Grant and Scholarship Fund empowers LGBTQ+ students who are residents of Brazoria County.
Brazoria County Pride is proud to offer two $500 scholarships for the upcoming Fall 2023 semester.
Eligibility:
- LGBTQ+ student
- Current Resident of Brazoria County
- Seeking to further their education though accredited academic testing or those earning their undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degrees in the United States.** Applications must be submitted by July 21, 2023. **
Apply online at: https://www.brazoriacountypride.com/scholarships
I really want to drive home the fact that this is historical. People living in Brazoria County saw there were not any resources or representation for their kids, for their community, and they banded together to create it.
