Salisbury celebrated Pride Month with a parade and festivities on Saturday as the community faces a hostile environment. Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush has this audio portrait.
Once again, happy Pride Salisbury! With those words, the 2025 Salisbury Pride Parade got underway with the colorful drag queens dancing to the music from the stage. Hundreds showed up and cheered as a parade traveled down Main Street with drag queens and others waving to the crowd. The bustling celebration comes 56 years after the Stonewall uprising in New York, when drag queens fought against police raid and began what is now the modern gay rights movement. Cadet Kelly dressed in a bright green outfit, was one of this weekend's drag queens participating in the event.
“And an event like this is so important, especially in a time like today, to represent, stand up, and just show we're here, we matter, and we're not going anywhere”, Kelly said.
The parade has been put together by the Gay Rights Group PFLAG, but the local organization is broken away from the national and has a new name. Mark DeLancey, now the former executive director of PFLAG.
“We are now going to be known as Shore Pride Alliance. We feel that that name better represents our organization, better represents the Eastern shore, and better represents all of us as a collective”, DeLancey explained.
These are divisive times and there have been attacks on many of the programs for the LGBT Plus community, and even recognition has come under assault and the vendors that lie in the streets reflected on that anxiety as they showed their wares.
“I've got polymer clay jewelry.”
Sylvia Cathal is the owner of Silly Putty.
“I think it's pretty important, especially in times like these. We've got an administration that's not so friendly towards the queer community, so it's really important for us to band together and kind of support each other and have something positive in these hard times”, stated Cathal.
It's also the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Suzie Peterson sits under a canopy for the Restoration Project Church that embraces the LGBTQ plus community and it hits closer to home for her.
“Absolutely terrified of it. I'm a mom of a daughter who is gay, who just got engaged this past week, and so of course that's in the back of my mind and I'm very fearful that her rights are going to be taken away”, said Peterson.
And Erica Trader, who is one of the vendors, says it is clearly had an impact on her children.
“Sometimes she doesn't feel comfortable to be who she wants to be. Feel like we're all equal. It shouldn't matter like what you choose to want to be. What do you want to call yourself? It shouldn't matter”, Trader said.
Still, there was an upbeat feel to this year's festivities, with rainbow colored signs and flags, to a T-shirt, which read 'Protect Queer Kids'. Another couple attending the event is Mike and Kim Reddish. They felt it was important for such events to present a positive image for the community. Kim Reddish.
“I think it's incredibly important. If you notice there are lots of young people here and if they can't find good examples for themselves, it makes it harder for them to become the person they're supposed to be. I like seeing families with little people. I think that it provides education and the more education one has, the less hateful behavior maybe we'll have”, said Reddish.
Still their struggles continue. For Mark DeLancey, it's times like these that his community needs to be heard.
“We are still who we are and no matter who we are, we need to find that confidence in ourself to stand up for who we are. Once we stand up and understand that our lives and we have value and we're enough, that's what showed the rest of the world, the rest of the community, the rest of everyone who has an uneducated opinion, who we really are and what we stand for as leaders”, DeLancey finished.
The temperatures were hot, but the crowds braved the heat as the music played on and the dancers twirled before the crowd. This is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
