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Spokane Pride Executive Director Matthew Danielson and North Idaho Pride Alliance Executive Director Sarah Lynch answer seven questions about the impact of Pride in Idaho and our rural conservative communities.
Why is Pride in Idaho and rural areas so important?
Matthew: The significance of Pride celebrations is even greater in rural areas where they meet more resistance. Pride as a resistance movement can be what makes Pride meaningful and effective. Pride is the pushing forward of universal rights of identity and living for truth over trying to mold oneself into the expectations of a culture of the past. I firmly believe that Pride is even more important in places outside of our metropolitan areas. Even though their attendance is smaller, rural Prides are one of the main frontlines of our culture war, and they cannot be neglected.
Sarah: The North Idaho Pride Alliance (NIPA) serves LGBTQIA2S+ folks throughout 15,000 square miles of mostly rural, underresourced communities in one of the most politically hostile climates in the nation. According to the Movement Advancement Project, Idaho’s overall LGBTQ policy score dropped even further into the negative this year, ranking 54th out of 57 US states and territories, and we now come in dead last for gender identity policies. The hardest hit population are our most vulnerable, our youth and trans folks. Across the past six legislative sessions, Idaho has enacted 16 anti-LGBT laws whose negative impacts don’t stop at the border. Due to dwindling or nonexistent affirming support, we regularly refer inquiries for services to our partners to the West, from Spokane and beyond.
How long have you been involved with Pride?
Matthew: I’ve been helping with Pride events in northern Idaho since 2013. Back then it was our yearly ‘Pride Cruise,’ where Outspokane, which would later become Spokane Pride, would rent a boat on lake CDA and have dancing and queer joy for a two hour cruise. Since then I’ve helped with dozens of Pride events in the Inland Northwest, from Clarkston, WA to Libby, MT, and I hope to make that hundreds soon. I’ve seen all manner of community reaction to these events, from near total acceptance, to their being nearly as many protestors as attendees to these Prides. One thing is true for all of them, they move the needle.
Sarah: I first got involved with NIPA as a board member just prior to our 2022 Pride in the Park celebration and was quickly thrust into the position of public safety liaison due to my military background and emergency management expertise. Unfortunately, that year’s Pride celebration was hijacked by protester interference and defamatory attacks on a drag performer that stole attention from the story of CDA’s biggest and best Pride in the Park to date. Since that time, NIPA has grown exponentially, expanding our reach from not only our annual Pride festival, but to Pride celebrations throughout the Idaho Panhandle, and even to non-Pride events throughout our broader community. We use a threefold approach of Networking, Advocating, and Educating in our year-round programming, and central to that approach is the importance of visibility. While visibility is a common goal of Pride, it’s important to us to respect that not all Prides look alike, and that Pride must be locally sourced and developed in order to effect change within a community. We always encourage to attendees follow the lead of local organizers.
How do you shift attitudes in communities where LGBTQIA2S+ people still face open opposition?
Matthew: Though there were many protestors at some of these Prides, they were not the professional protestors on predictable city corners with familiar signs of hate and bigotry. They were members of that community, and I saw several of the Pride attendees have respectful conversations with the protestors over extended periods of time. Just knowing who people are and being in conversation can move the needle, even in such potentially hostile contexts.
Sarah: Our work at NIPA is guided by the conviction that face-to-face conversation humanizes ourselves and others. A lot of people think of a Pride organization as one that activates for Pride month and then falls dormant for the rest of the year. We’ve recognized the need to remain visible and offer opportunities for conversation throughout the remainder of the year as well. Outside of Pride in the Park, our year-round programming not only provides connection for queer folks, it also offers opportunities to continue the conversations necessary to shift the culture of demonizing the LGBTQIA2S+ community that drives the onslaught of anti-LGBT policy enactment.
How does visibility help support and protect queer folks, especially youth, in small towns?
Matthew: Pride in these smaller towns is joy. Pride is always joy, but there is something even more salient and powerful being in a place where you wouldn’t think being oneself would be acceptable. There are young queer people coming of age not just in our metropolitan areas, but in these towns, and we must have visibility everywhere so the next generation can grow up without the scars caused from thinking they are alone and have no people.
Sarah: NIPA’s overarching goal in providing opportunities for conversation is to combat isolation and improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQIA2S+ folks. The 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People in Idaho reveals an alarming picture of youth well being. Thirty eight percent of LGBTQ+ young people in Idaho have seriously considered suicide, and 12% have attempted it. At the same time, 68% report symptoms of anxiety and 63% report symptoms of depression, rates far higher than their non LGBTQ+ peers. Even more concerning, 62% of LGBTQ+ youth wanted mental health care but were unable to access it, underscoring a profound gap between need and available support. I’ve always held that NIPA’s Pride in the Park is a critically life-saving event, especially for our youth!
How does Pride help people in small towns build understanding and reduce prejudice through real, face to face connection?
Matthew: Prides show people in these areas that they usually know a queer person even when they might not have known it. It is so much harder to hate a friend or neighbor than a soundbite of Fox TV. People need to understand that we are everywhere, and we are not going anywhere, and Pride is the biggest way that happens in many of these places.
Sarah: Matthew’s point is a textbook illustration of contact theory in action. When Pride events bring LGBTQIA2S+ people into public, joyful, everyday visibility, they create the kind of real life interactions that reduce prejudice far more effectively than arguments or media narratives ever could. Contact theory shows us that when people personally know someone from a marginalized group—or even simply see them as neighbors, coworkers, or fellow community members—their attitudes shift. Fear gives way to familiarity, and stereotypes lose their power. It is deeply important to NIPA that we showcase the fact that LGBTQIA2S+ people are inextricably interwoven into the fabric of our society, as we always have been!
How can rural Pride events create meaningful connections that turn unfamiliar neighbors into allies?
Matthew: I believe that rural Pride events can help turn neighbors unacquainted with our queer community into allies by creating space for there to be authentic interaction between people. These events also bring people into these communities, showing that there is a wider base of support for the queer community in these towns.
Sarah: NIPA is grounded in a belief that a quiet, complacent majority is hiding amidst the noise of a loud minority. We are committed to engaging this majority, educating them to become better allies. Our allies need safe spaces to ask questions and learn, and we all need places where straight and queer community intersection can be made visible, our commonalities illuminated, and our differences appreciated.
What final message or invitation would you share with readers who want to show up, support rural Pride events, and stand with queer communities this season?
Matthew: I believe it is my duty and the duty of anyone in these larger cities who has the ability to help and to SHOW UP. Show up and help with these events, volunteer, donate, share, ect… whatever you are able to do. I am not, however, encouraging people who might be targeted by certain reprehensible legislation moving through the Idaho capitol to do anything or cross any borders that they are not comfortable with. We cannot abandon our queer community in these right wing areas, the privilege to pick up and move because of a state’s policy is not open to so many people. I hope to see y’all at Pride, whether it’s here in Spokane or somewhere beyond. HAPPY PRIDE!
Sarah: We are deeply grateful to Spokane Pride who always shows up in support of NIPA’s Pride in the Park! We extend a warm invitation to all of our neighbors to come out and celebrate our 10th anniversary this year on Saturday June 6th from 11 am to 6 pm at Coeur d’Alene’s City Park, with special guest, Amelia Day. NIPA prioritizes the safety and well being of every Pride attendee through a robust, multilayered safety plan that includes coordinated partner communication, a trained safety team, clear emergency protocols, and accessible event design. This ensures Pride in the Park remains a space where people can gather confidently and celebrate in an environment grounded in collective care. We’re overjoyed this year to celebrate the award of not one, but TWO, inaugural Pride Scholarships for local queer youth. And there’s still time to register as a vendor booth or sign up to sponsor!
Learn more about NIPA at https://www.nipridealliance.com/cda4pride
Learn more about Spokane Pride at https://www.spokanepride.org/
