There won’t be any scantily clad drag queens prancing around the public stage at Soldotna Creek Park this June, after organizers of “Pride in the Park” cancelled the annual display of LGBTQ sexuality on the Kenai Peninsula.
Citing a lack of volunteers and organizers, the Soldotna Pride Council announced that it is “taking a break” from its controversial and deeply divisive festival, which for years has prompted protests from concerned citizens.
Since 2019, the Pride in the Park event has drawn radical LGBTQ activists to the Soldotna area, where they parade through town exhibiting myriad sexualities before gathering at a local park for variety shows that include sexually suggestive drag queen dancers, costume contests and the celebration of “queer joy for all ages.”
Several years ago, the event sparked heated controversy after a video of Anchorage drag queen Brenden Badd went viral. It shows a man wearing a costume that appears to be a miniskirt and a thong as he twerked and did backflips in front of young children. Another performance included Badd in a leather miniskirt gyrating just a few feet in front of minors.
These and other performances prompted concerned citizens to flood the Soldotna City Council chambers demanding that they limit lewd displays of public behavior in city parks.
Others have organized protests to counter the LGBTQ agenda in the community.
In cancelling this year’s event, organizers claimed they needed time to “rest, recharge, and build back our team.”
“This decision was not made lightly and came after months of hard work and persistence trying to gather what is needed for a successful event,” the group posted to its Facebook page. “Our community means the world to us, but we recognize that sustaining this work requires us to care for ourselves and plan for the future of Soldotna Pride.”
While this year’s festival is canned, organizers are going forward with a scaled down LGBTQ-themed march on June 13. Marchers will walk from Soldotna Creek Park to The Goods, a local “eco-friendly” grocery store and café that partners with LGBTQ activists and other left-leaning causes.
Organizers are also hoping to restore Pride in the Park in 2027, if they can recruit more activists.
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In the meantime, conservative-minded protesters will once again mobilize to counter the Pride March.
Protest organizer Toby Burke said he welcomes the demise of the event, but he acknowledged that local residents must be vigilant in resisting the advance of the LGBTQ agenda in the community.
“I assert these LGTB+ Peninsula events were never organically grown but were predictably bankrolled by outsiders hoping to forcibly inject synthetic liberal ideologies into the life of Peninsula citizens – via the largess of government (taxpayer) money,” Burke wrote to supporters. “As the federal money continues to dry up, commensurately, so does the will to advocate for and sustain these perverse and alien ideologies.”
Counter protesters are planning to assemble and peaceably meet the LGBTQ marchers along their route, in order to affirm that there is a “better more perfect way.”
The march is set to start at 11 a.m. on June 13 – proceeding from Soldotna Creek Park to The Goods grocery store.
