Pride Month event kicked off Friday in Cochise County with the 19th Annual Bisbee Pride. The event runs Friday through Sunday and features parades, vendors’ markets, drag shows and children’s events.
Rainbow waves are sprinkled across Old Bisbee, crosswalks are hoisted with chalky rainbows, and several shops and restaurants along Tombstone Canyon Road are hoisted with pride flags, allowing attendees to Decorated with colored costumes, cosmetics and collectibles.
Ramon Garcia, president and chief executive officer of Bisbee Pride Inc. for seven years, said last year’s event had nearly 6,000 attendees and expects a similar turnout this year. said.
“The Bisbee Pride event is a community event. Everyone benefits from it,” Garcia said. “At a time when tourism tends to be very weak, this is a blow to the economy…I don’t know how some of these businesses will do over the summer if it weren’t for Bisbee Pride.”
Garcia said he never faced hostility for hosting the event during his time as president and CEO of Bisbee Pride.
“I’m very lucky that I’ve never experienced outright hostility when it comes to Bisbee Pride,” Garcia said. “We had protesters too. But most of the protesters who attended in Bisbee tend to be very polite and respectful of those around them.”
For Garcia, who hails from Bisbee, giving back to the community is a major motivation for keeping hosting proud.
“For me, it’s always been an inclusive and tolerant community,” Garcia said. “On a very personal level, it’s kind of giving back to the community that allowed me to be myself, to be accepted, to be a community leader at any point in my life. It’s about providing a place where they can safely gather and celebrate their individuality.”
But Arizona has become a hotspot for LGBTQ rights debate. On May 22, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed Senate Bill 1001. The bill states that public and charter school teachers and school personnel may not address students under the age of 18 by names or pronouns other than those to which they were assigned at birth. Written consent from the student’s parents.
Since then, Congress has passed two bills, Senate Bill 1028 and Senate Bill 1030, that limit when and where drug performances can take place. Both bills were introduced by Republican Senator Anthony Kahn.early version of SB1028said that “adult cabaret performances” should not be held on public lands or anywhere minors may see the performance.
The bill would define adult cabaret performances as “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, drag performers, drag shows, male or female impersonators providing sexually appealing entertainment, or other similar acts. Defined as those in which “entertainers” appear. Regardless of whether performance is a consideration. “
SB 1028 has since fixremoved the word “drag show” from the bill and replaced it with “a person who provides entertainment in a sexually explicit manner.”
SB1030is asking the county board of oversight to adopt a zoning ordinance for the “regulation and use” of operating licenses, including establishments that host adult entertainment, including establishments that host drag shows and performers.
Under the bill, the county “shall include in a manner at least as restrictive as the rules adopted in Title 4 to regulate the age and conduct of erotic entertainers.”
Both bills were sent to Hobbes on June 12, and both are awaiting Governor Hobbes’ action as of Friday.
Garcia said these bills, if signed into law, would have a significant impact on future Pride events.
“We have a day stage, a stage that is free and open to the public, where different types of entertainment will be performed, including drug entertainment,” Garcia said. “In fact, this is our most popular event and attracts the most attendance. And it just changes the character of how we take pride in Bisbee…”
“I think some of the bills being considered at the congressional level are unnecessary,” Garcia continued. “These are fear-based bills that have no basis in fact.”
