Edgewater to Host City’s First Ever Pride Parade

Many of the Pride celebrations across the country are going virtual due to the pandemic, but some are continuing to celebrate outdoors with social distancing in mind. Edgewater, a small city a little less than two hours outside on Denver, is hosting their own small Pride Parade for the first time this coming Saturday, June 20. 

According to the Edgewater website, The parade will launch from the Civic Center with police escorts at 1:00 pm moving north on Harlan St. Then take a right to go east on 25th Ave. Right to go south on Benton St. Right to head west on 24th Ave. Left on Newland, Left to go east on 22nd and a Right to south on Depew. The parade will end at Edgewater Public Market.

All parade-goers are welcome to participate in the parade, according to Edgewater website, “All are welcome to join in the parade of cars that will gather at the Edgewater Civic Center at noon to begin decorating”. If interested, the sign-up sheet is on their website. 

“It’s a real grassroots, neighborhood-organized, family-friendly Pride event to connect the community and provide support during these crazy times,” said Marla Dougtry, organizer on the parade. 

The event was formed by a group of neighbors how joined together in a “social distancing happy hour” where they decided that is time for their small town to join in on the celebration of pride. It originally was intended to be a small event, but after a massive amount of positive feedback, the organizers are expecting more people than originally expected. 

The chosen Grand Marshall for the event is Edgewater resident Jude Gassaway, a 78-year-old lesbian who came out publicly in her 40s.

Gassaway is known as a retired geologist and recently was the focus of a short documentary directed by Aaron Burns titled “Western Collections”. The film shows Gassaway sharing her collection of items – from manhole covers to barbed wire – along with going in deeper into her sexuality. For an article by The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Gassaway said reading about homosexuality allowed her to learn about her identity. The film was featured in the 33rd Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, in Colorado Springs, in 2017

Gassaway wasn’t exactly friendly to queer people growing up, and admits to homophobic tendencies. In the film, she admits to not wanting to know any queer people in general, due to her internalized homophobia. She started collecting books about queer people, particularly lesbians, as a way to learn about her sexuality. When she came out 42, she decided to devote her time to accepting and owning her sexuality., rather than hiding it.  

Dougtry is personally excited to have a Grand Marshall with such a grand journey, along with a non-traditional way of coming out as queer. Gassaway is a reminder to all that the act of coming out can come at any time, even later into your adulthood.

While most information for the event is on their website, there is also an event page on Facebook advertising the parade. In the description, the parade is said to be “The best little Pride Parade in all of Edgewater!”