Southern Nevada Pride Fest stands firm in the face of LGBTQ rights rollbacks

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

The Southern Nevada Pride Fest of Henderson is celebrating its fifth anniversary this afternoon at Sunset Park, and amid growing attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, organizers say this year’s celebration carries particular significance.

Chris Davin, executive director of the Henderson Equality Center, says he believes the timing makes the festival more important than ever.

“Pride should be in every town, in every city, in every state,” Davin said. “We can’t cut back, we have to continue to show that, you might stop (diversity, equity and inclusion), you might stop the LGBT community and try to stop their existence; you can try to stop us all you want, but we’re gonna continue to fight until we have the same rights as everybody has.”

The fest, from 3 to 10 p.m., is free and open to all ages. It will include community resource booths, free HIV testing and health screenings, food trucks, a dedicated children’s area and performances from artists like Adore Delano, a drag queen and singer-songwriter from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

The nonprofit Henderson Equality Center has hosted Southern Nevada Pride Fest of Henderson — also known as Henderson Pride Fest — annually since 2020 as part of LGBTQ Pride Month, a monthlong observance dedicated to the celebration of the community. Pride Month began as a way to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, a six-day series of clashes in 1969 between police and LGBTQ+ protesters in New York.

The local fest draws roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people a year, some even from as far as New York, Davin said. The event is separate from the Las Vegas Pride celebration in the fall.

The support, Davin stresses, is significant because rights for the LGBTQ+ community are being pulled back by Republican President Donald Trump and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

The governor recently vetoed two bills related to Nevada’s transgender community: Senate Bill 141, which would have developed comprehensive transgender policies covering custody, housing, health care and mental health services for transgender inmates; and SB 171 to protect doctors who provide gender-affirming care.

During his first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government would recognize only two sexes — male and female — and rolled back an executive order from former President Joe Biden that addressed discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Trump also has ordered the expulsion of transgender people from the U.S. military.

Since then, he’s taken a host of actions against the LGBTQ+ community, with specific attacks on transgender people, according to GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Tracker. The administration also removed references to the transgendered from the Stonewall Uprising from the National Parks Service website.

“President Trump claims to be a strong proponent of freedom of speech, yet he is clearly committed to censorship of any information containing or related to LGBTQ Americans and issues that we face,” Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and CEO, said in a statement. “This action proves the Trump administration’s goal of making it as difficult as possible for LGBTQ Americans to find federal resources or otherwise see themselves reflected under his presidency. Sadly for him, our community is more visible than ever; and this pathetic attempt to diminish and remove us will again prove unsuccessful.”

That visibility isn’t diminishing in Southern Nevada.

Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley designated today as Southern Nevada Pride Fest Day to recognize the event’s anniversary. The proclamation was awarded to the festival for its“dedication to creating safe, affirming spaces and celebrating diversity (that) strengthens the fabric of our region and exemplifies the values of equality, acceptance and civic engagement.”

Davin said he was excited to see his organization receive this proclamation; it’s a great show of solidarity from Berkley, especially as attacks from the Trump administration continue.

Davin added the ongoing fight for equal rights stretched beyond the LGBTQ+ community and included the undocumented community, which is facing mass deportations and harassment from the Trump administration as well.

“With (diversity, equity and inclusion) being pushed back, with sponsorship not coming in, we’ve got to stand behind our community and we’ve got to make sure that they know we’re not giving up,” Davin said. “We have to show the political people that we have to continue the fight; the fight started back with the Stonewall Riots, and the fight for equality has always been not only for the LGBT community. We need to make sure that the political aspect of this is really kept strong, and we’re not going to give up. We’re going to continue to keep fighting, and that’s what it’s all about.”