LGBTQ community gathers to celebrate at Gate City Pride
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POCATELLO — Members of the local LGBTQ community came together to celebrate and be true to themselves for Pride Month.
Gate City Pride 2025 was held on Saturday in the afternoon and evening at Lookout Point in Historic Downtown Pocatello, and around 2,000 people attended to grab a bite to eat, listen to live entertainment and learn about a variety of organizations and services that are available in the community.
Two of Gate City Pride’s board members explained to EastIdahoNews.com what it means for LGBTQ people to have a place where they can do these things and be themselves.
“I think it’s really important to have events like this, so that we can all come together and celebrate being who we are with like-minded people who have similar values,” said Pattie Smith, stage and sundry manager for Gate City Pride.
The theme for this year’s pride event was “Rooted in Pride, Growing Community!” Smith spoke to how important having community is for LGBTQ people, especially for young people.
“The world is just so isolating on its own,” Smith said. “If we didn’t have events like this, there are other places that youth can go hang out, but they might not be as open and accepting, and that’s when you start to see people hiding parts of themselves and not feeling safe or comfortable expressing themselves.”
Kellie Pierce, vice president of Gate City Pride, has two children in the LGBTQ community. She spoke about how important it is for young people to have parents who support them. She pointed to research by the Trevor Project that found LGBTQ children who have just one accepting parent are 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt.
“It is always incredibly powerful to have one adult, at least one, in our kids lives, who they can rely on, and someone who’s going to advocate for them and be a voice for them too. That’s important,” Pierce said.
One of the programs Pierce pointed out that was present at the festival, which is also made available all year-long by Gate City Pride, is “The Closet,” which provides “trans and gender expansive community members” with free gender-inclusive clothes.
Pierce addressed a common sentiment, where people say they’re fine with LGBTQ people but feel like it shouldn’t be pushed on the youth. Pierce, who’s also a member of the LGBTQ community, said its not being pushed on young people – rather, they want young people to have accepting spaces that they didn’t.
“People of all ages experience queerness, LGBTQIA, they’re on this rainbow spectrum. It’s not necessarily a deviant behavior, it’s a human variation. We are all different, and so it makes sense that some of us fall under the queer umbrella,” Pierce said.
“I think it’s good to to embrace all ages,” Pierce said. “As you can see in our community, (young people) are here today, and they’re wanting to have a voice just as much as the adults.”
