Pride Fest lets queer Chicagoans be themselves: ‘I love the freedom’

The first place Rene Garza, a 62-year-old Army veteran, felt comfortable coming out was Chicago Pride Fest in 1986.

He said it was one of the first places where he felt he could let his guard down, between hiding his sexuality while he was enlisted, as well as at home for fear of how his family would react.

“When I came here, I could be myself,” Garza said. “But when I went home to Garfield Ridge I had to hide again. … But that’s what I love here, I love the freedom. I’m gay and I’m proud. Get over it.”

He was in the crowd as the festival opened Saturday morning at 11, though attendance was expected to surge throughout the day on the block Garza lives — Halsted Street between West Addison and Grace Streets.

This year’s two-day festival features three stages lining Halsted Street with music and drag performances, with headliners Jesse McCartney and Chrissy Chlapecka taking the stage Saturday.

Mark Liberson, vice president of the Northalsted Business Alliance and chair of the festival committee, said that amid the recent attacks on the LGBTQ+ community from federal and state governments, it was necessary for the two sides of pride to come together.

“That’s where having the combination of both pride as a protest but pride as a celebration is important,” Liberson said. “You can’t just fight, you have to take time to uplift each other and to be able to feel that sense of community.”

Friends Aliea Banks, Abron Afalava-Suttles and Jaclyn White also arrived early in the day, Afalava-Suttles has been to pride events in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Calif., and Atlanta — where they grew up — but this was their first in Chicago.

They grabbed an outfit they deemed fit for the club and headed out the door. Banks, though, has attended many times. She had already picked out the spots where she planned to dance in front of one of the stages by the time they walked in.

Banks and Afalava-Suttles — friends since childhood — were excited to be there because “we couldn’t really enjoy [events] like this” when they were younger, Banks, 29, said. Now, what draws them is the same as what brought out Garza: “the freedom” to be themselves.

“As a kid, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and that it was gonna be fun,” Afalava-Suttles, 32, said. “I should be able to go into the world and feel like this every single day. Even at three in the morning.”

Banks said it was also an important break from the intensity of everyday life as a queer person.

“It’s for everyone who needs to shut up, sit down and turn up,” Banks said.

The fest has secured a cooling bus for those who need to get out of the weekend’s “dangerously hot and humid” temperatures, and ample supplies of water bottles are available near stages. Health professionals are also on site to help with anyone struggling with effects from the heat. The Center on Halsted will also be open and air conditioned, and Liberson encourages folks to step in if they need cool air.

The fest continues Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. with a pet parade at noon, headliner Deborah Cox at 2 p.m. on the North Stage and closer The Vixen — a South Side native who competed on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” — with her show “BlackGirlMagic,” co-hosted by drag artist Shea Coulee.

Liberson said he could rave for hours about this year’s entertainment lineup, but he said he was excited to see as much of the event as he could.

“I don’t know how I’ll be everywhere at the same time,” Liberson said, laughing. “But I’m looking forward to trying.”