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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE June 3, 2011

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

Columbus Pride honors elders and the young

by Anthony Glassman

Columbus-A plethora of numbers were being bandied about during Columbus Pride on June 17 and 18, ranging from five, the percent attendance increase over last year, to 30, the anniversary, to 50, the number of years that two of the grand marshals have been together as a couple, all the way up to 210,000, the estimate of the number of people who attended over the course of the event. "We had a great time," said Karla Rothan, the executive director of Stonewall Columbus, the organization that produces Columbus Pride in addition to being the state capital's LGBT center. "We honored our trailblazers, about 60 adults over the age of 70."

Included among them were couples who had been together for 40 or 45 years, as well as Elton Wilson and Carl Eckart, who have been together for half a century.

"We had a wonderful lounge for them at Pride, and then a terrific brunch for them on Sunday," Rothan noted.

Having these elders present was, in fact, Rothan's favorite part of the weekend.

"The 70-year-olds were in their 20s in 1969, and thirty years ago when we first started Pride, they had families they were afraid to come out to, they had jobs they were afraid of losing," she noted. "The couple who had been married for 50 years, this was their first Pride! It was really inspiring to see them put themselves out there."

The event enjoyed sponsorship from AARP, acknowledging the increasing visibility of LGBT seniors, and the Columbus Office on Aging had a strong presence at the parade and festival.

Rothan stressed the importance of programming to the demographic; as the baby boomers reach their senior years, an increasing portion of the population will feel the

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isolation that comes as people get older. Columbus Pride was a big step towards showing LGBT seniors that they are, in fact, not alone.

In addition to the contingent of seniors, the other end of the age spectrum was represented with young adults from Fusion, Stonewall Columbus' social space for collegeage LGBT, queer, questioning and allied people.

Bridging gaps like the generation divide was also evident in the selection of the headliner for the entertainment.

Chely Wright became the first prominent country-western star to come out of the closet last year, and is very vocally Christian, illustrating to the nation's heartland that LGBT people are, indeed, members of their families, their churches, their everyday life.

Stonewall Columbus also rented some floats this year. According to Rothan, it was a fun addition; generally, the organization's staff and volunteers are too busy putting Pride together to construct floats, so renting them provided an opportunity to add them to the parade.

One was a birthday cake that blew bubbles, another was a gazebo with a fountain.

"Being able to rent one without having to worry about building it was really good," she laughed.

Pride will stay at Goodale next year

This was the third year in a row that the festival was held in Goodale Park, after construction forced a move from Bicentennial Park in 2009. The Columbus Commons in the old venue is already open, and BicenContinued on page 7

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