Aurora City Council Continues to Falter on Funding Aurora Pride
Aurora is the most diverse city in Colorado. Despite its relatively humble population of 386,261 per the 2020 census, I’ve seen Nepali and Indian bazaars, Ethiopian coffee shops, Colombian restaurants around town, and when I connected with Aurora City Counselor At Large Alison Coombs for our interview, we met at Wake & Take Café and Event Center, a Russian-owned business.
Coombs understands the diversity in Aurora better than most after campaigning throughout the municipality. As a queer woman, she is especially familiar with the LGBTQ+ community in Aurora which is just as diverse as Aurora at large.
“I know (LGBTQ+) folks with a range of abilities. Folks that have physical and developmental disabilities. Certainly various neurodivergent folks, racially diverse, but also in terms of age. When I was campaigning the first time, I had the really great fortune of being able to meet with a pride group that had started convening at one of our retirement communities,” Coombs says.
Campaigning also furthered her understanding that Aurora has very few safe spaces where everyone from all these backgrounds in the LGBTQ+ community can gather. Unlike a larger metropolis such as Denver, there are very few establishments in Aurora like gay bars and clubs where people in the community can authentically express themselves.
“We only know the people we individually know. We don’t have places for us to all know each other as being across all ages and all races and various religious backgrounds and sets of beliefs.” Coombs says.
One of the very few safe spaces in Aurora is Aurora Pride, the city’s annual pride celebration that, since 2019, has taken place on the beach at the Aurora Reservoir. It’s the only beachfront pride event in a 1,000-mile radius. LGBTQ+ people and allies come from all over the region (and country) to celebrate pride and enjoy the safety of the space in a unique location (which inherently brings significant money to the city via tourism).
However, as of the time of writing, the City Council may deny Aurora’s LGBTQ+ community that safe space. Currently, the City Council is planning to vote on funding on Monday, July 22. However, the vote has already been bumped and moved off of agendas in the past, and there is anxiety that the vote either once again won’t happen, or that the funding won’t be granted.
During a city council meeting on Monday, July 8, Coombs proposed a resolution to provide $15,000 in funding to Aurora Pride. In response, Councilmember Stephanie Hancock made a motion to remove that item from the agenda. Coombs and Councilmember Crystal Murillo voted to keep the item on the agenda, but the mayor and the remaining seven present counselors voted to remove it as well.
So, the decision to fund Aurora Pride was not even debated. Hopefully it will truly get voted on this coming Monday.
“To not even go on the record with where they stand, to me is an extremely disappointing move. It certainly is fine to vote ‘no’ on an item. But to say ‘No, we’re not even going to go on the record voting on this item’ I think is just fundamentally disrespectful to our constituents. To not even be willing to show them where you stand as an elected leader. It’s also disrespectful to me as a councilmember,” Coombs says.
Coombs has been a councilor since 2019, and funding Pride hasn’t been an issue in the past. Even when the council leaned conservative as it does now, they voted unanimously to fund Pride.
Recently, Councilmember Françoise Bergan asked that Pride along with other nonprofits in Aurora decrease their financial reliance on the city. Aurora Pride complied with that request. The proposed $15,000 is by no means all of the money it takes to fund Aurora Pride at the reservoir. Most of the money comes from fundraising by the Pride organization itself.
Furthermore, 100% of that $15,000 would go back into the city, as the organization will use it to pay for the rental of the reservoir, which, again, is only a fraction of the money required.
If the council continues to refuse to vote on funding, Coombs can access money for sponsorships through a contingency that doesn’t require a formal vote. The full $15,000 is not available through that source, and moreover, she would still have to get five other council members to agree.
After the last vote, she is not at all certain she could make that happen.
“That’s the kind of operation that is taking place. A complete refusal to even acknowledge and go on the record with people’s views on human rights for LGBT people and supporting a safe space and an event that is loved by people regionally,” Coombs says.
OFM reached out to all seven of the council members who voted to remove the item from the agenda for comment. Councilmember Hancock refused to comment. Five councilors did not respond. The one who did was Councilmember At Large Curtis Gardner.
Councilmember Gardner recently unaffiliated himself from the Republican party after the Republican Party of Colorado emailed supporters with hateful LGBTQ+ rhetoric during Pride Month. The email called for pride flags to be burned and referred to members of the LGBTQ+ community as “godless groomers.”
“Aurora is an incredibly diverse city and I think our diversity is part of our richness. That includes everyone. Like I stated at the time, I’m raising my daughters to treat everyone with love, dignity, and respect. I could no longer be part of that organization because of how they treat LGBTQ+ members of our community,” Gardner says. “I think the decision not to fund Aurora Pride in Aurora is a bad decision.”
When asked why he voted to remove funding Aurora Pride from the agenda at the city council meeting, Gardner said it was because the item was lumped in with several other items. Funding Aurora Pride was 11.a.10, and Councilmember Hancock’s motion to remove included 11.a.10, 11.a.4, 11.a.5, and 11.a.11.
The removal of 11.a.11 was the primary motivation behind Gardner’s vote. That motion (also introduced by Councilmember Coombs) would have issued a formal apology to the family of Kilyn Lewis, a 37-year-old Black man who, on May 23, was shot by the Aurora police while unarmed. Lewis died from his injuries two days later.
Gardner stated that it would be premature to issue an apology before the investigations surrounding the shooting have concluded.
“Unfortunately when she made that motion she also included the removal of several other items which I didn’t agree with and I wish hadn’t happened. I do support the sponsorship of Aurora Pride,” Gardner says.
Since that vote, councilmember Coombs requested to sponsor Aurora Pride through the aforementioned contingency fund in the amount of $7,500 which is significantly higher than the sum usually requested from that fund. In general, that fund is used for items like table sponsorships at events which often amount to around $2,000. But Councilmember Gardner supported the sponsorship for $7,500 because he understands the value Aurora Pride brings to the city.
Sara Valencich is another member of Aurora’s government who sees the value in Aurora Pride. She has told as many decision-makers as she can that Aurora Pride needs to be funded.
Valencich is the Officer of People, Culture and Belonging (PCB) for the City of Aurora. Under this role, she oversees community engagement through professional development and event organization. She and the department provide administrative support for community groups such as Aurora’s Human Relations Commission and Racial equity and Aurora’s Critical Topics (ReACT).
Through PCB, Valecich has hosted events specifically for the LGBTQ+ community including a Know Your Rights event where they brought lawyers and police officers to speak to LGBTQ+ citizens of Aurora about their rights within the legal system while listening to concerns from the community. PCB has also hosted pride events at Stanley Marketplace, Aurora’s independent business community.
Every year, Sara works at a PCB booth at Aurora Pride and has a wonderful time.
“It’s my favorite event of the year,” Valencich says. “There are no other pride events that are set up on a beach. How fun is that? We are known across the State for having such a cool pride event. It’s an asset to the city, and I am constantly shouting its praises as much as possible, and encouraging people to go.”
But beyond simply having a good time there, Valencich and PCB do a lot of great work for the city. They share free swag like pronoun pins so people can show the masses exactly how they see themselves. They also promote a lot of community events as well as services like youth violence prevention.
One thing that Valencich particularly appreciates is using Aurora Pride as an opportunity to receive feedback from the community. For example, people have come up to the PCB booth at Pride to mention they live close to a library that doesn’t host any community engagement events. With that feedback, the department can host new events to ensure that people who want to connect with fellow LGBTQ+ citizens will have space to do so.
“We want to make sure that whatever we are doing is serving the intended audience. So just even having a conversation with us is super helpful in guiding some of our next steps,” Valencich says. “It’s not just about having fun all the time. It’s about creating authentic engagement with the city.”
Beyond city officials, many different organizations create authentic engagement at Aurora Pride. There are religious organizations like Smoky Hill United Methodist Church that offer free hugs. Many LGBTQ+ people have trauma related to religion and Smoky Hill demonstrates that religion can help anyone.
Other organizations work with Aurora Pride to provide STI testing, Monkeypox vaccinations, COVID vaccinations, mental health resources, and gender-affirming care. Pride also fundraises scholarships for Community College of Aurora.
But as much as Aurora Pride offers services and education, it’s also a grand old time. The event hosts a wide variety of performers from all different backgrounds and they have food trucks that represent the global cuisine available in Aurora.
“We try to highlight as much culture from the city as we can. The whole queer community has access to these things that they might not normally have access to,” says Zander Oklar, Executive Director of Aurora Pride. Speaking of access, after feedback from the community the event recently installed an ADA ramp that goes all the way down to the water so people with disabilities can join in on the fun. “We’re just trying to figure out every single year how we can do more to support every part of the community.”
With everything that happens at Aurora Pride, it might seem like the event is rolling in cash, but that’s not the case. Oklar is the only employee, and he often skips his own paychecks to keep the event afloat. The money the city provides is an essential part of the budget, and Aurora needs this event now more than ever.
Rhetoric like the email that caused Councilmember Gardner to leave the Republican Party is on the rise, and the citizens of Aurora are seeing the negative ramifications. Dragutaunte, a local youth drag organization, has decided not to perform at Aurora Pride this year because some members received death threats after participating in an Amazon Prime documentary called Generation Drag. Councilmember Coombs was cited by her homeowner’s association for displaying a pride flag.
“Queer people in Aurora are feeling less and less safe to live in Aurora,” Oklar says.
It is the foremost duty of a government to ensure the safety of its citizens, and Aurora Pride provides a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. OFM calls upon the Aurora City Council to fund the event and allow the beautifully diverse Aurora LGBTQ+ community to have a safe space. Even if it’s just for one day.
Update: As of July 23, 2024, Aurora Pride has been funded $7,500 by the city. Previous years awarded the city $25,000, and this year, Aurora Pride was hoping for $15,000. At the time of this update, Aurora Pride will go forward at the Reservoir as planned but with less funds than in past years.
All images courtesy of Veronica L. Holyfield
