Participants mingle during the 2022 Tyler Pride March and festival. This year's event is set for Sunday.

The local LGBTQ+ community and advocates are gearing up for Pride Month in East Texas, including the third annual Tyler Pride March set for this Sunday in downtown Tyler.

Organizer Raynie Castañeda said this is a time for allies and supporters to join the local LGBTQ+ community in both a celebration and a statement.

“We want to create a space in the community where people can feel safe and accepted, feel free to be themselves,” said Castañeda, who also owns The Fickle Witch. “It gets better every year.”

June is celebrated as Pride Month to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots, according to the Library of Congress. It is an entire month to show the uplifting of LGBTQ+ voices, celebration of the culture and the support of their rights.

“This is an opportunity for Tyler as a whole to come together and celebrate,” Castañeda said. “We have a lot going on and it’s going to be a fun time.”

All across the country during the month of June there are typically parades, protests and drag performances. There are also memorials and celebrations of life for members of the community who lost their lives to HIV/AIDS.

It is often part celebration and part political activism of all the LGBTQ+ community has accomplished over the years.

Castañeda said on the event’s Facebook page that the event serves as a “statement to our area that we exist, we thrive, we love and exist, despite their constant efforts to erase us.”

The 2023 Pride March will take place Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the square in downtown Tyler. In addition to the march set to begin at 11 a.m., the event will have LGBTQ+ owned vendors, support services and drag show performances. The march will be a half-mile from the square to Broadway Avenue and Front Street.

The event will also have Free Mom Hugs, a nonprofit organization that supports the LGBTQ+ community by offering acceptance to those who need it.

“If you haven’t been accepted because you aren’t ready to come out yet, that is OK,” Castañeda said. “We are here for you no matter what.”

According to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), Texas is leading the charge with 53 anti-LGBTQ+ bills out of 491 bills in the United States. However, Castañeda has noticed some headway in acceptance in East Texas, and credits the bravery and determination of Tyler’s LGBTQ+ community.

“Progress has been slow but it’s there,” Castañeda said. “There are a lot more people who are becoming more accepting and open minded. Three or four years ago we wouldn’t have been able to do this but thanks to the local LGBTQ community who have been determined to be seen and heard, it’s been an amazing amount of progress here in East Texas.”

Even if there are people who still are not sold on the rights and existence of the LGBTQ+ community, Castañeda said it costs nothing for people to mind their own business.

“If you see something you don’t like, you don’t have to deal with it if you don’t want to but It’s not a choice for us,” Castañeda said. “Why would we wake up every day and simply choose to be constantly harassed and bullied by people? If we could blend in, we would but we can’t. This is who we are.”

There are other upcoming events in Tyler set to celebrate Pride Month, including TAG (Tyler Area Gays) 2023 Pride Fair. The fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 17 at East Texas Fairgrounds, 2112 W. Front St.

This year’s fair will include drag shows, a doggie costume contest, and other entertainment. For more information, contact info@tylerareagays.com or visit tylerareagays.com.

To read about the Pride Month events set in the Longview area, read this story from the Longview News-Journal, at https://bit.ly/longviewpride.