Photo by Emma Delk Local LGBTQ community members and supporters headed to Heritage Port on Saturday for the second annual Pride Month celebration hosted by the Friendlier City Project.

Wheeling’s LGBTQ community and supporters gathered at Heritage Port Plaza to commemorate Pride Month during the Friendlier City Project’s second annual celebration.

Saturday’s festival not only celebrated LGBTQ history and culture but also served as an outreach event to connect local LGBTQ community members to various resources to help support them.

Friendlier City Project chair Mikaya Green noted that it was exciting to return to the city with a “bigger and better” Pride festival than last year’s inaugural celebration.

“I feel like last year was such an amazing turnout that we were excited for this year,” said Green. “Since we’ve moved down to Heritage Port, I’m seeing an even better turnout, which means we’re just building on the momentum from last year.”

Twenty-six vendors were present at the festival, offering original artwork, clothing and other artisanal goods. Food trucks were also set up at the entrance of the event, including Midge’s Hot Dogs, Tacet Coffee Cart and The Gringo Taco Truck.

Green noted that the event included not only food and clothing vendors but also a name change clinic, live wedding ceremonies and a communal gender-affirming clothing swap. She felt it was important to bring even more resources to the Wheeling LGBTQ community, as she noted that it can be “difficult” to find resources in the area.

“Having a day where community members have easy access to these resources is important because doing things like changing your name can be hard to figure out on your own,” said Green. “Being able to come down here and see and connect with all these resources is going to help the queer community a lot.”

Resource booths at the festival included the Ohio County Public Library, Genesis Youth Crisis Center, Oglebay Institute, Central Outreach Wellness Center, Bethany Memorial Church and Fairness WV.

Vendor Coordinator Kellie White added that while it was exciting to have more vendors at the event compared to last year, one of her main goals was coordinating more resource booths at this year’s festival.

“The biggest thing is not only did we increase our number of vendors, but we also increased our advocacy work and community involvement,” noted White. “We have a tie-dye station and a coloring station, which increase how people can interact with the festival outside of visiting great retail vendors and listening to awesome artists.”

Wheeling resident Mo Smith, 17, explained that the most important resource the festival provided them as a young member of the LGBTQ population was a “sense of community.”

“It’s a nice event because there are times, especially in high school, where you don’t feel very welcomed by people,” said Smith. “Seeing a community gathering like this is nice because I see everybody out here with rainbow stuff on happy and smiling. It shows me that Wheeling is on the right track and that we’ve become more accepting of gay people as a city.”

For Smith, the highlight of the festival was being able to support local queer artists in the city. Apart from LGBTQ vendors at the festival, the traveling art exhibit “Pride As Protest: Using Art For Social Change” served as another showcase of local queer artists at the event.

The collaborative exhibit unveiled at the festival was a collaboration between the Friendlier City Project and YNST (You’re Not Seeing Things) Magazine. The works featured commemorated the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which began the ongoing movement for LGBTQ+ equality,

YNST editor-in-chief and Pride on the Plaza Event Coordinator Adam Payne explained that the featured work demonstrated that “the fight for equality is not over, and there are still passionate voices that need to be heard.”

“Art is one of the most powerful, effective vehicles to create change,” noted Payne. “This exhibit displays what change looks like for West Virginians, Appalachians and southern artists here in America today.”

For Payne, the exhibit allowed community members to reflect on “what pride means to them,” which he noted is an important aspect of pride celebrations.

“I think Pride is not only a time to reflect but celebrate and bring community together,” added Payne. “We want to share our like-minded interests and hopes for the future here.”

Parents Ben and Shanda Lasure brought their 3- and 4-year-old daughters, Evelyn and Rosaline, to the festival to enjoy the sense of community found at the event.

Mother Shanda Lasure noted that while their daughters had been most excited about dawning rainbow tutus and waving flags around, the parents were glad they could share the experience of Pride with their children.

“We just came here today to be supportive since we have family members who are part of the LGBT community,” noted Shanda Lasure. “We didn’t attend celebrations like this growing up, so we want to take our children to them and teach them about Pride.”