Belleville hosts its first Pride event

By Alex Boles

Belleville, Ill., is taking its chance to come out with flying colors.

Belleville City Council approved the request to close down 2nd Street from West Main Street to A Street at the May 19 Council meeting for the first annual Belleville Gay Pride event. The event takes place Saturday, June 21 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and has been described as a giant “party in the street” by organizer and planner of the event Janet Brannon.

“My love has always been making sure people can get along and people understand each other – get rid of fear – which to me is having a big party and inviting all your friends, black, white, green, gay, straight and everybody to enjoy each other,” Brannon said. “That’s what we’re going to do in Belleville, and I’m so excited.”

Brannon said there is a large Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender scene in Belleville and that she cofounded Metro East Gays and Straights (MEGS), which plays an active role in the event. She said that the community has really shown that they are open to diversity by being involved and supportive of the event from the very beginning.

“The mayor said if we need anything else, he’d be happy to help,” she said. “He’s very open. I mean, this is a really great town. It’s friendly and it’s very ethnically diverse, which is wonderful as far as I’m concerned.”

Barbara Arms, co-founder of MEGS and organizer of the event, also said the community involvement and acceptance has really surprised her. She said that while she handed out flyers for the event, the community’s receptivity pleased her.

“I’m just hoping that it continues to stay as positive as it’s been,” Arms said. “One of the women said ‘well, we don’t think there will be a counter protest this year because they don’t have time to get organized, but maybe next year.’ … Even then I don’t think there is one central place where everyone is homophobic, be it a church or one central business or whatever, so I think it might be hard to organize a counter protest, but we will see.”

Arms said she has two reasons why she thinks the city of Belleville has not had a Gay Pride event before, but that there probably are many other reasons to support it as well. She said that Belleville used to rely heavily on St. Louis for their gay activities. Also, she said that it seems that there has been more homophobia in Belleville than in St. Louis. Brannon said she thinks fear has a lot to do with why this is the first year the event has been planned.

The event will hit Belleville with music, dancing, booths, color, food and fun. Brannon said MEGS had little money to fund the event, but the city is helping out a lot.

“The city is donating electricity, and they’re supplying benches and chairs. We’re charging $40 for people to set up a booth, and there are a few people selling things,” she said.

With the event around the corner, speakers have been confirmed and many businesses and churches are planning on setting up booths. There also will be giveaways and MEGS is having a T-shirt made to be sold, Brannon said. The front on the T-shirt will read, “Metro East Gays and Straights First Annual Celebration of Diversity and Equality,” and the back will read, “MEGS, June 21, 2008.”

“The word has gotten out in St. Louis that we’re having this event,” she said. “We have Acropolis across the street and the Oregon Trail Coffee Company next door [to them] – both are going to be open and serving food and coffee, of course. We’ve gotten five or six different booths already.”

She said St. Paul’s United Church of Christ is going to have a booth along with The Well of Living Water Ministry, the Coalition for Economic and Social Justice, and many other interested parties. The speakers who are confirmed are Stan Stark, a GLBT activist, Mr. Lynn Clapp who is on the commission for Human Relations in Belleville and Charles May who will be speaking about what it was like for him to come out in Springfield. She also said that Escapade, the popular gay bar in Belleville, now is flying a gay flag outside the establishment.

Arms said she is looking forward to the whole event and plans on doing a little bit of everything from dancing to talking with the younger members of the community to spread MEGS’ theme – equality and diversity.

“That’s our theme, and that is what we’re trying to get across – that we want all people to join us in this wonderful celebration, regardless of any of the issues that often separate people,” she said. “We want people to come together and have fun and educate each other.”

Arms said that she is surprised at the success of the event and that it has surpassed the expectations of her and others.

“We just took about two steps forward and all of a sudden it’s mushrooms and we can see how MEGS, the originators of the event, could step back next year and there would be a whole Pride committee willing to carry on and we didn’t expect that.”