WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Organizers are getting ready to kick off the 5th annual Watertown Pride celebration.
“I have been from this area my whole life and I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of supporters and friends and community members, but it wasn’t until we started having Pride that as a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, it’s been hard to be out in public,” said Jess Leigh.
Leigh says she is ready for this weekend’s Watertown Pride celebration to begin.
Her friend Mark Irwin says Watertown is the perfect place for Pride. He says when he first got here, he felt at home.
“I’ve had friends that either grew up here or maybe they were military, they didn’t feel that Watertown would be welcoming and that they could be themselves here, and you know what? Watertown Pride shows that you can be,” he said.
On its 5th annual, Watertown Pride kicks off as its own non-profit organization. It has donated around $10,000 to the Q Center in Watertown, which focuses on helping LGBTQ+ youth and their families.
“Without their own peer-to-peer support and their own Q Center and us, knowing that there are more people besides the people in school to support them, they are at a higher risk for suicide, for ideations and we are trying really hard to prevent that from happening,” said Leigh.
Some of the things on this year’s Watertown Pride guide include a kickoff party at the Paddock Arcade on Friday, and a flag-raising ceremony at city hall on Saturday, which has drawn record crowds in years past. This year, Planned Parenthood of the North Country is the presenting sponsor of Watertown Pride.
That’s followed by a color run Saturday afternoon in Thompson Park where color will fill the air at “Out in the Park.” Drag shows will happen Friday and Saturday nights and things will wrap up Sunday at Garland City Beer Works.
Watertown Pride has inspired other smaller Prides in the north country. Potsdam held theirs last week. On June 24 and 25, River Pride will be held in Clayton.
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