14 JUNE 20-26, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | And one of the fi ve largest in the country, too. From its humble picnic beginnings with fi fty people, PrideFest is now estimated to draw in half a million visitors. And after it took over Pride, the Center was able to raise enough capital to move into its building at 1301 East Colfax Avenue, where it’s been for thirteen years. A Heap of Trouble As Hanzon looks back on the sculptures and installations he’s built for Pride, it’s diffi cult not to refl ect on his own journey, as well. He recalls relentless bullying in his childhood — “I got my face pushed in dirt many times,” he says — as well as the inexorable pressure to be “normal.” “We were raised in a generation that, in the ’50s and ’60s, it was a family’s dirty little secret,” he says. “When I was coming out, we could still be arrested for holding hands, for any public display of affection. … I remember fi nding a book next to my parents’ bed and reading that a homosexual was a pedophile crossdresser. That was the defi nition: It was a cross-dressing man that abused children.” His own identity terrifi ed him, as well as others confronting the same truth at that time. When he was fi fteen years old and the fi rst Pride gathering in Denver took place, Hanzon was still grappling with being gay, and his high school art teachers were his comfort. But when he was taken to see the original cast of A Chorus Line, he burst into tears. “I had the realization for the fi rst time that I was gay, and realizing that meant a lot of stuff — there was a whole heap of trouble on your front porch now,” he says. “I remember being terrifi ed. Because I was certainly an effer- vescent kid, for sure. I was raised in the moun- tains and I was the token hippie, so I was bullied a lot,” he continues. “I was very aware at an early age that I had to carry my- self right, I had to walk right, I had to blend in. And there are parts of my family that are Evan- gelical, so I was defi nitely the black sheep and the shameful secret. ... There were a lot of other se- crets, but those were good, Anglo-Christian secrets.” And with such fi gures as even Liberace declar- ing they were straight their whole lives, there was no one to look to. “There were ‘confi rmed bachelors.’ There were ‘spinster sisters,’” Han- zon says. “Those were the acceptable terms at the time.” “How Can Love Harm?” Pride and the gay liberation movement brought much-needed protections to the community, from legalizing same-sex re- lationships in the fi rst place to housing and workers’ rights to same-sex marriage. And as the burgundy colors in Hanzon’s installation at the upcoming PrideFest represent, many people have shed blood to bring the move- ment this far. It’s a stark reminder that Pride is still so important to celebrate because more work needs to be done. It was only a few weeks ago that the Colorado Republican Party sent an email to members with the subject line “God Hates Pride.” Signed by party chair Dave Williams, the email derided members of the LGBTQ+ community as “godless groomers,” “woke creeps” and “evil.” A link to a video — with the thumbnail “God hates fl ags” — shows a pastor saying the Pride fl ag is a representation of “the demonic realm” and “human indecency.” Hanzon read the Westword article about the email. “I want to say to the people that are so upset, to the far right: Your interest in my sex life is really disturbing,” he says. “If we can set the sex aside for a moment,” he continues, “if it’s about emotions, or intellect, where’s the argument? How can love harm? That’s why we’re claiming ‘e pluribus unum’: We belong to the society. We are not godless. We are not spiritless. We are not emotionless, to treat us like we’re animals of a different ilk. Is there any reason not to have compassion? Is there any reason not to have empathy?” Such vitriol is observed on the national level as well, from state laws against drag to policing trans health care. Former president Donald Trump vowed that if he were to win the 2024 election, he would create policy changes in education to “promote posi- tive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers and celebrating, rather than erasing, the things that make men and women different.” He threatened to sign an executive order to force federal agencies to end any program involving gender transition “at any age,” harming transgender adults and youth alike. A year into his presidency, he tweeted that transgender people could not serve in the military (perhaps unaware that tweets do not make laws), and his Department of Justice announced that it would no longer protect LGBTQ+ people from employment discrimi- nation at the federal level in order to protect “religious freedom.” He made a concerted effort to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who not only overturned Roe v. Wade but agreed with Justice Clarence Thomas that they would look at Obergefell v. Hodges, too. “When I’m hearing about all the attacks on the trans community that are going on, with trying to prevent quote-unquote groom- ers, or banning drag shows or all that sort of hateful, stupid stuff,” Fuller refl ects, “it’s the exact same playbook of what was happening back in the ’80s for people living with AIDS — demonizing gay men and creating laws to prevent people” from living authentically. This is why Pride is necessary. “I think there are a whole lot of people who don’t personally identify as LGBTQ but see that sort of hate and say, ‘I need to come out and make a stand on how I feel about this,’” Nash says. “Support the community. Show up at Pride, because the numbers matter. “You know, it’s weird to say this, but thank heaven for the far-right conservatives,” he adds, “because all they’ve done is make us more resilient and more powerful.” Small Steps As he looks over the colorful, splashy renderings for E Pluribus Unum, Hanzon picks up a copy of the Mary Oliver poem and reads it. “I haven’t seen anybody not cry” when reading the poem, he says. “Because we all have that vulnerability. We all have that ‘otherness.’ And as long as that ‘otherness’ exists, we need to unify. “To think that the fi rst Pride in Denver was called a Gay-In, with probably twenty people, and we’re expecting half a million people this year — it’s wonderful,” he con- cludes. “The haters are always going to hate. But may we be marching toward a diverse, inclusive, equitable world. Little by little.” Denver PrideFest, Saturday, June 22, and Sunday, June 23, Civic Center Park, free. Learn more at denverpride.org. Culture continued from page 12 LONNIE HANZON KRIST Y ROWE A rendering of Lonnie Hanzon’s E Pluribus Unum installation. Lonnie Hanzon
