St. Cloud Pride Hosts Pride Month Events, Preps for September Pride Week

(KNSI) – It’s LGBTQ Pride Month, recognized around the world in June after the Stonewall Riots in New York City over 50 years ago kicked off the LGBTQ rights movement. St. Cloud Pride board member Mandy Spiczka says St. Cloud has been celebrating its Pride Week since 2010.

“In St. Cloud, we celebrate in June with everyone else, and we also celebrate our own Pride Week in September,” Spiczka said. “Lots of cities in our state celebrate at different times, and we chose September for St. Cloud Pride so that our college students could participate more because so many of our college students are away during the summer.”

Spiczka says the group is trying to grow and expand its reach with more year-round programming, including some events this month.

“We are really excited to kick off a series called QueerConnect, and these are going to be events just to gather people from the LGBTQ+ community and just try to connect people,” Spiczka said.

That first QueerConnect event happens Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. LGBTQ+ youth are invited to paint rocks at Make It Mac’s Makerspace.

On June 19th, St. Cloud Pride is hosting two events: A QueerConnect hangout and picnic in Sauk Rapids Municipal Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Pride Night at Skatin’ Place from 4 to 8 p.m.

“There’ll be some special Pride-themed activities, and if you mention St. Cloud Pride, you get free skate rentals,” Spiczka said of Pride Night. “I think they want to you RSVP to the event so they can see how many people are coming, but it’s nice of them to offer that discount and to host this event.”

St. Cloud Pride will also be represented in the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation’s Dancing with Our Stars virtual charity event on June 14th.

“Our pair, Kim Miller Swenson and Scarlette Revolver, is representing our charity,” Spiczka said. “We’re just really excited to be involved with that. It’s the first time ever that a queer couple has been represented on this stage, so it’s already a victory in and of itself.”

Funds raised for that dance duo will benefit community education panels and youth scholarships sponsored by St. Cloud Pride.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wane in the U.S., Spiczka says the organization is getting ready for its September Pride Week, which will look more like its 2019 iteration with in-person events the week of September 13th through the 19th. In 2020, St. Cloud Pride held most of its Pride Week events online. This year, St. Cloud Pride is planning to host a peace walk with local faith leaders, a Pride parade and a drag show.

“We’re trying to have more events all year long because there’s a need to support the queer community all year long,” Spiczka said. “Queer people are out there every day, struggling with their identity, struggling with acceptance, struggling in their communities, struggling to find connection and we all need each other. We all need people, we need allies, we need everyone to be a part of the St. Cloud Pride movement.”

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