With LGBTQ+ community under siege, Pride Festival provides important sense of community

Fox Valley Pride has never been an overtly political organization.

But there’s no doubt that the theme of the third Fox Valley Pride Festival this Saturday, ‘Bigger Bolder Braver,’ touches on politics. That language is a defiant response to the ever-more hostile attitudes emanating from Washington, D.C., hostility that has filtered into society at large, emboldening its most homophobic and transphobic elements.

You only have to go back as recently as June 1 to see that playing out in the Fox Valley when Steven William Paltzer doused the Pride Flag at the Outagamie County Courthouse with gasoline and attempted to set it on fire. 

“I think this year, given some of the national things that have been happening under the current administration in Washington that seems to want to silence us, we’re actually going to do the opposite,” says Dana Johnson, President, Lead Organizer, and CEO of Fox Valley Pride. “So we’re going to get bigger, we’re going to get bolder and we’re going to get braver in the sense that we’re not going to be silent. We’re going to have the culture we have and if people don’t want to come or they don’t like it, that’s okay. They don’t have to come. But we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and not in the shadows.”

First and foremost, though, the annual Pride Festival is about joy, celebration and a sense of belonging, all of which, Johnson suggests, is its own statement of resistance. And there is still advocacy on display, still an activist mindset underneath it all, he says.

“Because we need to rally people around feeling safe and standing up to the things that are coming our way,” he explains. “I think that the messages, maybe from some of the performers, when you hear their lyrics and things, will be in that space. But Fox Valley Pride doesn't make a lot of statements related to the political.”

Something for everyone

The Fox Valley Pride Festival – called Appleton Pride its first two years before it was rebranded under the Fox Valley Pride banner in 2024 – kicks off on Saturday with the Pride Promenade, which gathers at the History Museum at 11 a.m. and begins its march down College Ave. to Jones Park at 11:30. 

Then, starting at noon, begins a full day of music, dance, games, food, kids’ activities, a cornhole tournament and a lot more. It culminates in a 14-person drag show at 6 p.m., one that Johnson is trying to confirm might just be the largest of its kind in Wisconsin history. 

Main stage performances include several Mile of Music favorites, including Crys Matthews and Heather Mae, Spencer LaJoye, Bodhi and Flamy Grant, among others. Blossom Dance Institute, which specializes in traditional and contemporary Hmong dance, is slated to perform a couple of times. There will also be a second stage for singer-songwriters back in the far northwest corner of Jones Park.

Though there won’t be speakers or poets this year, Johnson expects the music to carry the message again. He compares it to the Lilith Fair festivals of the late 1990s, when the all-female performers advocated for their cause through their performances.

“It was more like power up for the fight ahead, and so I think that that's similar to how we're going to be bolder and also braver,” he says.

The festival continues to grow, to the point where Johnson worries – in a good way – that it may eventually even outgrow Jones Park. Because of its reputation, he even envisions when some of the other cities in the Fox Valley might host the event. Last year drew an estimated 3,500 festival-goers despite heat indexes above a hundred. Johnson is hoping to hit 5,000 on Saturday.

Worrying about backlash

The vendor numbers are up 20 from a year ago, with 140 organizations and businesses setting up tables on the Jones Park lawn. But while individual donors are up, Pride will be supported by fewer organizations and businesses than last year.

“Whether there was pressure on those organizations to not give, or it's just the economy, those are spaces we haven't been able to get,” he says. “But we've also had a lot of folks provide in-kind donations, so that's helpful.”

Johnson, who, among his other vocations, is a project manager, says planning for the Pride Festival is a year-round thing. The organization has upped its planning committee to 12 people. Additionally, they have someone for marketing and advertising, a volunteer coordinator and a vendor coordinator. Johnson stresses that the festival is merely the culmination of Fox Valley Pride’s work. It’s a year-round social organization, engaged in community events and other sponsored activities, which center on but are not exclusive to the LGBTQ+ community. FVP now has a Youth Council, which will be coordinating the kids’ zone on Saturday. 

Johnson says he appreciates the support the gay and trans community receives from the city of Appleton. While he says he wishes the city government would be more forward-facing as far as promoting the festival, he recognizes there’s now a line that can’t be crossed, with the Trump administration threatening federal funds

“Executive (Tom) Nelson made a great statement (after the attempted Pride flag burning) that said, we are inclusive and we are supporting this community,” Johnson says. “And (the flag is) actually something that has been removed in other communities, because there's either backlash or they're worried about their federal funding from the current White House. So, I think at this point I am excited that at least we have some folks that are kind of stepping forward and saying we're proud allies. It's just not as forward as it could be, potentially.”

'We're on this planet so little time'

On a recent Facebook post, Johnson made note of the red flag warning the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Protection issued in regard to the trans community. The Institute referred to an active, multi-stage genocidal process aimed at the “complete erasure of transgender identity.”

“When we think about genocide, we generally think about the Holocaust, and then we might think about the Rohingya (being persecuted in Myanmar) or things that happen in Africa,” Johnson says. “But there are different ways that people can experience genocide, including cultural genocide.”

Johnson says that is where we are now with the enormous number of anti-trans bills either being passed or introduced around the nation, including here in Wisconsin. He points to bathroom bans, denial of gender-affirming care, making it illegal in some places to identify as transgender, or the constraints that make living a full, thriving life nearly impossible. He points also to the much higher incidence of suicides and suicidality in the trans community.

All of which, in his mind, makes the Fox Valley Pride Festival all the more essential as a reaffirmation for the folks who really need to hear that they belong.

“It’s so important that people feel love, that they feel seen, and they feel heard,” he says. “And everything that we do leads with heart at the center and heart forward, and it means that we try to think about who's there for vendors, who's there for our food trucks. How do we become more inclusive? People drive from all over the state, and this may be their first festival, and they are like, ‘Wow, there's people like me. There are allies and there are places I can go for resources.’ “And it builds a community. We're on this planet so little time, that to know that there is even one other person – let alone 5,000, let alone 140 booths of businesses – I think it helps you realize you can continue your life. You can find those connections and know that you can live in a bubble of that community and thrive. Yeah, and that's my goal: to make the LGBTQ community, particularly in this area, thrive.”

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