Tuesday’s Pride Cruise celebrates Gay Pride Month
About 60 members of the local LGBTQ community honked their horns while cheering and waving in celebration of Gay Pride Month during a colorful car parade through downtown Hendersonville on Tuesday evening.
The procession -- which ran south on Church Street from Seventh Avenue to Caswell Street before heading north on Main Street -- caught many people off guard, including David and Ann Ravenscraft, longtime allies of the LGBTQ community who happened to be visiting from Chapel Hill.
“It was a wonderful surprise,” David Ravenscraft said minutes after the 45-car procession wound its way down Main Street. “We don’t have anything like that in Chapel Hill.”
His wife said she also was thrilled to see the celebration.
“It made our night,” she said. “I hope we’re seeing a new era for people who have been marginalized.”
David Baker drove three hours from Brasstown, N.C., to take part in the parade after hearing a report on NPR Radio last year about a week-long set of events organized by Laura Bannister, president of Hendersonville Pride, a gay rights organization that has grown steadily since it was founded in 2019.
Baker said he was “totally impressed” by the welcoming nature of Hendersonville area residents. He said the manager at an Ingles supermarket on U.S. 64 donated the balloons he had planned to buy when he stopped in on his way to the parade.
“I’m so proud for Hendersonville,” Baker said. “I just couldn’t miss this. Period.”
This year’s parade – complete with a police escort -- came on the heels of several local Gay Pride Month event cancelations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Bannister.
“We had a whole week of celebrations planned, including movie nights and drag shows,” she said. “We were going to have the Asheville Gay Men’s Chorus (perform) and have a picnic – none of which could be accomplished with social distancing.”
Bannister said she was especially disappointed about not having a picnic, an event that turned out to be an enormous hit last year.
“As things improve, or once a (COVID-19) vaccine is available, we will revisit the picnic idea because that was so much fun,” Bannister said. “We had over 500 people there. We didn’t know we (in the LGBTQ community) were all here in Hendersonville together.”
She also expressed gratitude to the Hendersonville Police Department.
“They’ve always been very gracious to us and very kind and swift in their responses,” Bannister said. “They’re delightful to work with.”
HPD Lt. Mike Vesely said the feeling is mutual.
“Our community loves us, and we love our community,” said Vesely, a 25-year veteran of the HPD. “They have respect for us, and we respect them.”
Joshua Bledsoe, co-chair of the Henderson County chapter of Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), said members of his 20-year-old support group took part in Tuesday’s parade because so many friends, parents, grandparents and other relatives of gay men, lesbians and transgender individuals of all ages felt a need to show their support publicly.
“This was the first Pride event for some of our LGBT folks, and the beautiful thing (is) there is support out there,” Bledsoe said. “No one should live under this fear that they can be fired from their jobs because of who they’re married to – or who they are.
“I just have a strong belief that whomever you are, whomever you love, you have a right to be included and accepted,” he said. “We value the idea that we are all beloved children of God, and we should work toward creating that community.”
Bannister couldn’t agree more.
“These celebrations are good, and they bring the need for equality to the forefront of many peoples’ minds,” she said. “One day we’ll be able to live without these celebrations – I hope.”
Stephen Kindland is a freelance writer, photographer and author of an award-winning children’s book titled “I Beg Your Pardon, But This Is My Garden!” He can be reached at stephenkindland@gmail.com.
