Arlington Pride Festival offers ‘a place where we don’t have to worry’
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Arlington Pride Festival offers ‘a place where we don’t have to worry’

Drag Queen Alyssa Edwards performs at the Arlington Pride celebration June 8, 2024 at Levitt Pavilion. (Alberto Silva Fernandez | Fort Worth Report)
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Hayley Stone has been a LGBTQ+ ally since before her daughter, Kacey, now 26, was born.  

Stone attended Arlington Pride Festival on June 8 at Levitt Pavilion to offer support and love to other members of the LGBTQ+ community, she said,

“I want her to be happy. I want her to be loved. I want her to be respected. I don’t care who it’s with. I don’t care what it’s with,” Stone said.

Kacey Pardee, Stone’s pansexual daughter, also of Tarrant County, attended the festival with her girlfriend, Max Wood, a 27-year-old bisexual from Tarrant County. The event’s sponsors included Downtown Arlington, Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau, Lockheed Martin and Charles Schwab. It attracted a crowd of over 6,000, organizers estimated.

Sponsored

A member of The DFW Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Mel Atonin watches as people perform on stage at Arlington Pride June 8, 2024, at Levitt Pavilion. (Alberto Silva Fernandez | Fort Worth Report)

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The event allowed members of the LBGTQ+ community to embrace their true colors without worrying about their safety or about being judged by others, Wood said.

“A lot of us don’t go out with our true colors. It’s very dangerous, unfortunately, in our time where we’re at. It’s a place where we don’t have to worry about kissing in public,” Wood said.

Colorful flags representing different sexualities flew high as people wore rainbow colors filed in through the pavilion’s entrances. Crowds indulged in food and drinks from local vendors and perused various booths and tables representing supportive organizations.

Sponsored

One of the organizations, HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness, offered free HIV testing.

HELP offers anti-HIV drug PrEP and PEP services at no cost. The organization also has other resources for the LGBTQ+ community including gender-affirming care, said Fort Worth native Jose Gamboa, a HELP patient since 2018.

Gamboa, 26, said it’s beautiful how much progress has been made on LGBTQ+ health care and toward an overall more accepting community.

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“Even though it’s just one month out of the year, it means a lot,” Gamboa said of Pride Month. “It’s a good feeling to have the opportunity to be here in a community where we’re able to have something like this.”

Country singer Kameron Ross performs at Arlington Pride June 8, 2024, at Levitt Pavilion. (Alberto Silva Fernandez | Fort Worth Report)

Georgie London is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at georgie.london@fortworthreport.org. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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