Marchers marched. Preachers preached. Drag queens performed. A choir sang. When it was over Saturday night, September 7, 2024, Magnolia had experienced its first large-scale event designed to recognize the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
No one knew what to expect from the South Arkansas Pride Festival sponsored by Maple SAP, a non-profit group formed this year to advocate for LGBTQ citizens.
What participates and the public got:
A parade that lasted about three minutes, following Jackson Street from the Reynolds Center at Southern Arkansas University to North Court Square. The parade consisted of eight vehicles, most of which were occupied by participants in the drag show. About two dozen walkers with flags and costumes strolled the distance from SAU to downtown. CLICK HERE to watch a video of the parade from Magnolia Reporter on Facebook. The parade starts at about the 8:45 mark.
A strange scene once the parade reached North Court Square. It combined the small parade with a choir – also about two dozen people – that positioned itself on the north side of the Columbia County Courthouse. It sang “Crown Him With Many Crowns” and other Christian hymns. As the parade rounded the square onto Jefferson Street, street preacher Robbie Brooks stood on the traffic island on the northwest corner of the square and his voice boomed through a loudspeaker. Across the street, people attending the festival cheered the arrival of the parade. CLICK HERE to see that portion of the parade. It starts at about the 3:00 mark in the video.
The street preaching began about 11 a.m. and ended about 3 p.m. In between, people positioned along the traffic islands around the square held signs with messages including “The wages of sin is death” and “Jesus saves.”
After 3 p.m., the pageant of drag queens began in Square Park.
The block of Jefferson Street that includes Square Park had a handful of food and drink vendors. Also present were tents with representatives from health, community and LGBTQ-related organizations. There was even one tent staffed by members of Central Baptist Church, which shares that portion of Jefferson Street.
The drag performers danced, lipsynced and worked the crowd of about 300 people. The performers also collected dollar bills from audience members.
The crowd thinned rapidly after the drag performance. Only about 30 people remained to hear a free concert by Andrew Mitch of Nashville.
What the festival may have lacked in direct participation was balanced by social media commentary. By early Sunday morning, the magnoliareporter.com parade videos cited above had received more than 90,000 views and more than 500 online comments. (magnoliareporter.com does not monetize its Facebook videos). The number of people indicating “likes” or “loves” of the videos outnumbered those expressing “anger” by a margin of about 6:1.
Comments were what one might expect. On one side, many people condemned the parade and festival as offensive to Christian values and teachings. On the other, people praised the festival as indicating a more progressive attitude and acceptance of LGBTQ citizens.
