CUMBERLAND — Local members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community marched through downtown Sunday from City Hall to Canal Place to celebrate pride month at the annual Cumberland Pride festival.
The celebration featured 79 vendors, ranging from local artists and businesses to various food trucks, a mime and a caricature artist. Various local bands, Mountain City Center for the Arts and drag queens performed during the festival as well.
“The goal is unity and to have a place that folks can come and feel at peace, at home, happy and be able to have self expression without any kind of negative feedback,” Jacqie McKenzie, who founded Cumberland Pride, said.
McKenzie, originally from Garrett County, came out after moving to Frederick County.
“My whole world was opened,” McKenzie said. “I flourished there. I got to bloom and met people like me and felt at home.”
After a few years, McKenzie moved back to the area to be closer to family, and decided to start the pride festival.
“I wanted to bring that same feeling to our home,” McKenzie said. “I wanted my children and our family after I came out, to have a place where they were accepted and they weren’t discriminated against.”
Other events throughout the week included a bowling night, drag queen performances and a vigil.
It’s important to make space for the community in the politically conservative area so people can feel at home, co-organizer Heidi Gardner said.
“We often hear people say, ‘We need to get out of here,’” Gardner said. “And we’ve created a family here so that people don’t have to feel like that.”
Building community isn’t the only outcome of the celebration, McKenzie said. Visibility is another important aspect.
“One of the other major goals is just to let the broader community know that we’re here,” McKenzie said. “We’re contributing members to society, just like everyone, sometimes more so because we have to. We have to act up and act out and speak out so that we have equal rights.”
It’s especially important in small towns like Cumberland, said husbands Josh Kelty and Greg Malloy, who led the parade in the same car they used for their 2018 wedding.
“Normalize it,” Kelty said. “That way we’re not hiding anymore. It’s important on small levels, not just big city levels. Small town America. Cumberland, Maryland. Red county. We’re not going anywhere. We’re not going to hide. This is our space, too.”
In the last few years local attitudes toward the LGBTQ community have changed for the better, Malloy said.
“In the early 80s, there was no way that we would be able to hold hands in public,” Malloy, a Cumberland native, said. “So, it’s nice to be able to hold hands.”
Kelty, who moved to the area about 20 years ago, agreed.
“It’s had a lot of ups and downs through the years, but since I’ve been here for 20 years, I think that the attitude here has changed dramatically in the positive,” Kelty said.
Despite online threats to protest the festival, there were no dissenters that day.
“People from their keyboards love to hate but when push comes to shove, there’s nobody on the corner with a sign protesting,” Kelty said.
Since McKenzie founded the festival nine years ago, the celebration has grown.
“It’s grown bigger every year,” McKenzie said. “It’s grown bigger, and we have a great flow now, so it’s a little less work, but we still need hands on deck, so all the volunteers that we can get the better.”
Eventually, McKenzie and Gardner would like to pass off their leadership positions to be able to enjoy the festival as participants without the overwhelming workload, they said.
However, the hard work pays off, McKenzie said.
“This is my favorite part,” McKenzie said, “Once the parade comes in and everything kicks off. Just to see everyone together and happy and enjoying, it makes it all worth it.”