2024 A Look Back: Trailblazer award
All means all, y’all. Cory Vaillancourt photo
By the end of the 1900s, groups of marginalized Americans like women, Blacks, Hispanics and others had made great strides in their respective liberation movements after centuries of subjugation, leaving some to wonder if we’d ever again witness the bravery and sacrifice required when the oppressed refuse to be treated as second-class citizens any longer.
But since the landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, paving the way for gay marriage, the LGBTQ+ community has also made great progress. Today, there are more out athletes, artists, entertainers and elected officials — federal, state and local — than ever before.
That progress, however, is far from universal, moving faster in some places and slower in others. If a Pride parade is any determinant in how ubiquitous LGBTQ+ equality has truly become, Western North Carolina, especially Haywood County, was definitely on the slow end of the scale.
Was — until June 28, 2024, that is, when an intrepid band of locals overcame decades of stigma, ugly social media barbs and brief opposition to host the first local Pride festival, in Waynesville’s Frog Level.
More than a thousand people, some traveling from as far as Charlotte or elsewhere, flocked to the festivities, which included live music, food, drinks, art, speeches by local leaders, dance parties and, of course, professional wrestling.
One man, Haywood County native and longtime resident Raymond Valentine, had lived nearly all of his 80 years never expecting to see such a celebration in his own home county. All that time, the revered longtime teacher had to keep his true identity hidden, not that others didn’t have their suspicions. Valentine regularly endured taunts, slurs and disrespect from people in his own community who somehow thought it was their place to voice disapproval on how he lived his life.
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“I’m happy with the progress,” Valentine told The Smoky Mountain News in June, “but it was decades too late.”
A simple parade does not equality make, as though the ills of this world would be cured by colorful balloons and clever signs; but today, thanks to everyone who made Haywood’s first Pride on Main possible, our little world seems just a bit brighter and just a bit more accepting — and no matter who you are, we could all use more of that.
