by Melissa S. Green

Photos from Alaska Pride Fest 2012, held in Anchorage, AK on June 9, 2011. I took over 800 photos on this day! — I’ve picked the best, and divided them into two slideshows: the Celebrating Diversity Parade, and Pride Fest on the Park Strip. Enjoy!

The biggest event of Alaska Pride Week in Anchorage — the annual Pride parade and Pride festival at Delaney Park — were held on Saturday, June 9. A working day for me: even before I became responsible for Bent Alaska, a few years ago I started making up slide shows of my best photos from my very busy camera.

I took somewhere around 850 photos this year, give or take those that were blurred or otherwise too faulty to keep.  I’ve chosen the best of them for the two slide shows included with this post. Please enjoy.

You can see previous years’ Pride slideshows at these links: 2006 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011. See Bent Alaska’s other Alaska Pride Fest 2012 articles, too.

A big thank you to Alaska Pride and Identity, Inc., all their volunteers, and the event organizers, sponsors, participants, vendors, and celebrants for making Pride Week 2012 such a great, great time.

Celebrating Diversity Parade

Trevor Storrs was Grand Marshal of the 2012 Celebrating Diversity Parade.

The parade was emceed by Daphne DoAll LaChores.  Here she is after parade’s end modeling shoes with this year’s top fundraiser from Drag Queen Bingo.

Here are the Celebrating Diversity Parade 2012 judges, from left to right: Sara Gavit, Mike Dingman, and Diane Mead.

I’ll update this post with the names (& photos) of the winning floats and contingents when they become available.

Alaska Run for Women

The Celebrating Diversity Parade drew noticeably fewer spectators than usual this year, a circumstance which can most likely be attributed to the Pride parade and festival being scheduled this year on the same day as the 2012 Alaska Run for Women. The Women’s Run is an annual fundraiser for breast cancer prevention and research, as well as a showcase for women athletes. It’s one of the largest all-women’s runs in the U.S. This year’s Women’s Run involved nearly 8,000 women and girls running or walking a five-mile course, including a lengthy stretch (from 16th to 2nd avenues) along E Street — just one block away from the usual Pride parade staging area at 6th and F.

In consequence, the parade was moved from the more populous and tourist-handy downtown area to just north of South Addition, staging at 8th & K and circling around part of the Park Strip. Additional spectators (and probably participants as well) were lost because community members who took part in the Alaska Run for Women, who might otherwise have participated in or watched the parade, were unable to — since the run was still in progress when the parade began. And many Women’s Run participants were too tired out after a five-mile walk/run to make it to Pride Fest. I hope that Pride organizers will take our community’s interest in Alaska Run for Women into account in scheduling Pride next year.

I caught a little of the Women’s Run by accident (photo above), when my bus turned onto E Street from Valley of the Moon Park and ran up against a wall of pink: Women’s Run participants entering E Street from 16th Avenue. My bus had to back up and turn around. Apparently whoever gives out parade and run permits at the Municipality had forgotten to inform People Mover about the women’s run so they could make route adjustments.

A special thanks to a special guy

Oops. I forgot to bring my extra camera battery when I left my apartment in the morning.  A special thanks to my kid, Jesse, who attended my plea and rode his bike up from midtown with my spare, arriving just a few minutes after I called him when I saw that my camera was running out of juice. (I used my iPhone in the meantime.)  He’s the guy in the hat and red t-shirt.

Celebrating Diversity Parade slide show

The Pride parade was a wonderfully diverse and fun event.  I arrived at the staging area at about 10:30, which gave me plenty of time to get photos of most floats and contingents as they made their final preparations (about a third of the photos in the slideshow).  The parade started a little late, at 11:16. It was worth the wait.

This is lengthy slide show: 146 photos.  I’m pretty sure I got every contingent and every float.  I hope you enjoy seeing these photos as much as I did taking them!  Photos can be viewed individually in the set this slide show is based upon in my Flickr photostream. You can also click on the four-arrows-pointing-outward icon (click on the slideshow first) to view the slideshow fullscreen.

Pride Fest on the Park Strip

Alaska Pride Fest was celebrated on the Delaney Park Strip from noon to 5:00 PM.  While the parade took place under sunny skies, an overcast had moved in by the time the festival began, but despite the threat of rain, I only felt a few drops sprinkle down midway through.  A coworker told me the next day that her part of down (around 68th & Lake Otis) suffered a heavy rain throughout the afternoon: we got very lucky!

And we had a very good time, too.

Some special notes before the slideshow:

Assemblymembers Elvi Gray-Jackson and Harriet Crump read a resolution from the Anchorage Municipal Assembly recognizing Alaska Pride Fest 2012.

The resolution passed the Anchorage Municipal Assembly at its June 5 meeting, on a vote of 10 to 1. (Despite his name being included as a sponsor, Assemblyman Trombley voted against the resolution.)

The resolution reads as follows:

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
AR NO. 2012–148

A RESOLUTION OF THE ANCHORAGE MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY RECOGNIZING ALASKA PRIDE FEST 2012 AND ENCOURAGING THE ANCHORAGE COMMUNITY TO CELEBRATE THE DIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF ALASKA.

WHEREAS, Alaska Pride Fest is sponsored each year by Identity, an umbrella organization that provides a full range of community services as an Alaska 501[c][3] nonprofit organization; and

WHEREAS, Alaska Pride Fest 2012 is a week-long celebration from June 2nd through June 10th of Alaska’s diversity and of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community’s journey to “Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Pride.” which is the theme of this year’s celebration; and

WHEREAS, Alaska Pride Fest 2012 will share its celebration with the Anchorage community on Saturday June 9th 13 beginning with the Celebrating Diversity Parade at 11 a.m. which culminates in an outdoor festival from noon to 5 p.m. on the Delaney Park Strip. This year’s Grand Marshall is Trevor Storrs, well known for his community leadership and whose commitment over the past 15 years to systemic change and inclusion has reduced barriers and helped to build a stronger Anchorage; and

WHEREAS, the first LGBT Pride celebrations in support of gay rights began over 40 years ago on the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the event regarded by many as the catalyst for the LGBT movement for civil rights in the United States; and

WHEREAS, to commemorate events that took place at the Stonewall Inn during June of 1969, the month of June has been declared Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month and made official annually by proclamation of President Barack Obama who called “upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people”.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Anchorage Assembly recognizes June 2-10, 2012 as

“Alaska Pride Fest 2012″

and encourages the Anchorage community to join in celebrating Alaska’s diversity.

A proclamation was also read from the Alaska Legislature honoring James Crump, who died in a tragic accident at the Pride parade in 2011. I’m attempting to locate the text of the proclamation. James was honored by the Anchorage Assembly three days after his death. A scholarship fund in his honor was announced last August by Identity, Inc. and the Pride Foundation. Initiated by an anonymous donor, the James Crump Scholarship Fund is administered by the Pride Foundation. (Its 2012 recipients, Annie Derthik and Tonei Glavinic, were announced by the Pride Foundation in May, along with four other Pride Foundation scholarship recipients.)

We were also introduced to the winners of the 2012 Alaska Pride Young Adult Recognition Award: Verner Wilson (left) and Issa Braman. Congratulations!

Pride Fest slide show

This is another lengthy slide show: 185 photos!  I wanted to give as complete a picture as I could of the fun & joy of Pride, with all its variety of performers, vendors, and festival-goers. I  hope you’ll enjoy it.  Photos can be viewed individually in the set this slide show is based upon in my Flickr photostream. You can also click on the four-arrows-pointing-outward icon (click on the slideshow first) to view the slideshow fullscreen.

Except for the photo of James Crump, which came from his Facebook profile, all photos by Melissa S. Green.

Note: I license (almost all of) my photos via Creative Commons. You are free download, upload onto your Facebook wall, etc. as long as you give proper credit/attribution, as follows: Photo by Melissa S. Green | Bent Alaska.