Another good year for Wichita Pride

By SJ Otto

At least a thousand of people gathered for the annual Pride Parade, Sunday afternoon, here in Wichita. There were many colorful banners at this gay pride event where people stressed they should be what they want to be.

Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, asked the crowd who were outside the Old Sedgwick County Courthouse for speeches before the parade, if they remember Stonewall.
"They were riots." he said.

Stonewall was a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations between members of the gay community against a police raid which took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan  New York. They are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement.

He also brought up the passing of an adoption law this year that allows faith based outfits to be involved in adopting out children and they can discriminate against gay couples (SB 284, passed by a vote of 24-15).

"We really dropped the ball on that one," Witt said.

Other speakers that where present also brought up that law, including
Liz Hamor, of  the Greater Wichita Chapter of GLSEN.

"I've known gay people who knew they were gay before they were cutting teach," she said.
In 2013, Hamor started the Greater Wichita Chapter of GLSEN, a national organization that works to ensure all students feel safe, valued, and respected in K-12 schools regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.
"Things were much different five years ago," said Democrat Kansas Representative John Carmichael.

"Gays couldn't inherit property, they couldn't get health insurance for their mates, they couldn't visit partners in the hospital," he added. "It's not as good as it should be but things are better today."

Carmichael also talked about the potential loss of women's rights if Brett Kavanaugh gets to be on the Supreme Court.

"It's wrong and we're going to change it," he said of the adoption law.

"We need to slam the door in their face regarding the last 8 years (of Sam Brownback)," said Lt. Governor Candidate Lynn Rogers.

"We've got to stop the potential hate. We need to get Kansas in the right direction."

Here is a float from Moms Demanding Action from gun violence.

There was a float by James Thompson, running against Ron Estes, the slacker representative of the Fourth District.