With Denver Pride approaching, The Center on Colfax released a series of statements labelled “Setting the Record Gay” in hopes to provide transparency.
Setting the Record Gay
The statements include clarifying information on safety, impact, and community partnerships. The Center’s main goal is to answer any questions the public may have and remain as open and transparent as possible as Denver Pride expands into a month-long event.
Safety
With the size of Denver Pride, organizers are required to involve the Denver Police Department (DPD). However, they are working with the police departments’s LGBTQ+ task force and putting measures in place to mitigate the police presence:
- The Center is employing the minimum number of police officers required for the event.
- DPD ensured that officers staffing the event have chosen to do so.
- Officers staffing the events will be easily identifiable and prohibited from engagement outside of their required roles.
- The Center will be employing private safety staffers to supplement the police presence.
Both the Center’s private safety team and the DPD committed to preventing ICE presence at Denver Pride. “DPD will not be complying with ICE.”
Partnerships
The Center has added a Community Engagement team that focuses on collaborating with queer-owned local businesses. A part of their goal for the expansion of Denver Pride is to use the extended time to better highlight local businesses.
“We appreciate the creativity, brilliance, and resilience of our community partners, and we strive to leverage our collective strengths to create something far greater than any of us could accomplish alone,” the Center on Colfax state.
The long list of community partnerships for this year’s Pride includes: Awakening, Love Vibes, Spicy Librarian, PlayHaus, Mile High Queer Club, and many others.
Impact
A part of the “setting the Record Gay” mission towards transparency included the information on how profits from Pride affect the community.
Sixteen percent of the profits go towards security, maintenance, and staff for the Center’s programming. The other 84% goes directly to the Center’s free community programs: free therapy sessions through their mental health program, peer support groups for queer identities, drop-in programs for youth and young adults, resources for the Trans community, services for the elderly community, and a number of other services.
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