WILKES-BARRE – Hundreds of people clapped and cheered on “Miss Estella Sweet” as she sang Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and her fellow drag queens danced along with her.
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Sweet’s second Queens of NEPA show on Sunday was the finale for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Rainbow Alliance’s second annual gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community festival at Kirby Park.
Rainbow Alliance Executive Director John Dawe estimated more than 1,000 people filled the park to celebrate being a part of or to show support for Northeastern Pennsylvania’s gay community at PrideFest 2009.
He based those numbers on the fact that the alliance had 900 PrideFest stickers to distribute and quickly ran out after the five-hour festival started at noon.
Committee member Bill Brown said the head count hit 1,000 by 3 p.m., and another 300 to 500 people showed up “when the sun came out.”
“It’s just amazing the amount of growth. The biggest thing … was the amount of vendors and sponsors,” Dawe said, noting that vendors and exhibitors more than doubled to 43 since last year’s festival.
Elva Valentine, owner of Valentine’s Jewelry in Dallas, said she set up a table at the festival this year because “I think it’s important to show support of the gay community in Northeast Pennsylvania. It’s important to show there’s no threat and we can coexist and live together.”
Valentine said she didn’t expect to sell much jewelry, and by 4 p.m., she had not. “The point was to show we have appropriate jewelry and to sign people up for our e-mail list to get the word out there,” she said.
Christopher Kupchik, executive director of Berwick-based Caring Communities, said his organization provides free tests for HIV and syphilis for at-risk people. He’s trying to get the word out that there has been a rise in syphilis, especially among homosexual men.
“We had a good response. We tested about 45 people today, and that’s a great number,” he said.
Jo Vondenhuevel, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Wyoming Valley, said she and other members set up a table to let the gay community know that the church is “an open, liberal religious community, and we’re basically here to support people on any spiritual path they take.”
“It’s kind of tough because we are representing a church, but we’re not that Bible-pushing kind of church. A lot of people walk by us because they think that’s what will happen … and they’re turned off by that. But if they would just come check us out, they’d see we’re an awesome community,” Vondenhuevel said.
Mark Innocenzi, director of health and safety for the American Red Cross Wyoming Valley Chapter, said he attended to promote the Red Cross and programs such as those designed to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis, and recruit volunteers.
“There’s been a lot of interest. It’s not a one-way street. The Red Cross has always embraced the gay and lesbian community and the gay and lesbian community has always embraced the Red Cross, so we’re proud to be a part of this. It’s a wonderful event and really shows a very diverse community and I think that’s exciting,” Innocenzi said.
Cathy Burgi, a captain with Silent Witness PA, said about 14 members of that organization attended the festival to “provide a spiritual firewall between the protesters and the festival-goers.”
“I think things went well. There were no incidents and that’s the reason we were here. Last year, things got a little ugly. But this year, it was very successful,” Burgi said.
There was a quiet couple and two more-active protesters who held religious signs and shouted to attendees as they walked by them to the festival. “They got some people pretty riled up, but we encouraged people not to engage them,” Burgi said.
Overall, festival-goers enjoyed themselves once they entered the festival grounds.
Designed to be family-oriented, PrideFest offered a children’s tent with games and activities such as balloon animals and face painting by Outrageous Entertainment. Adult entertainment, in addition to the drag queen show, included solo and duet singers and instrumentalists, a magician, a poet, disc jockeys and a tarot card reader.
Hilary Hazus, 31, of Plains Township, said she came to the festival to support her friend, Cody Barry, 25, of Mountain Top.
Barry said he missed last year’s festival because he was out of town, but he came this year “to support the gay community.”
“It’s a great turnout. It could have been better, but it’s only going to get better. Good things take time,” he said.
Robyn Brozena, 16, of Larksville, said she and four other teenage friends – Natalie, Brittany, Gaby and Christy – “have gay friends and we came to support them.”
The girls posed for a photo with drag queen Liyahna Montgomery, 26, of Wilkes-Barre. “We like the drag queens and the music,” said Brittany Marra, 17, of Hanover Township.
Montgomery was touched by the support.
“I like the fact that they came out to support the drag queens. It’s an art for me. I try to show them that they can be sexy but also have class. I’m not dressed slutty, I have a bathing suit on. You can do a lot with rhinestones and a lot of talent,” Montgomery said after performing Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed.”
Montgomery said the festival is important to her and other members of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community “because we just want acceptance. We’re the same as everybody else except that we have the same(-sex) partner in bed. People should just accept us because we’re here and we’re staying.”
Dawe was encouraged not only by overall attendance, but by the number of straight people who attended the festival.
“It’s a real outpouring of community support. A lot of people think Northeast Pennsylvania is bigoted and intolerant. I think we proved that wrong today,” he said.
ON THE NET
Learn more about the NEPA Rainbow Alliance at www.gaynepa.com.
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