I grew up at Pride festivals…

I grew up at Pride festivals and parades, but nothing could’ve prepared me for the sheer delight of volunteering at Christ Church’s booth at Tacoma Pride this year. The booth run by Christ Church and Holy Cross Lutheran was one of a whole street of religious organizations, church after church decked out in rainbows. My fellow volunteers and I blessed people with holy water and bubbles, handed out free water in the heat, and made sure no one left the table without a sticker.

I hear often from my friends that they feel “too Christian for the Queer community, and too Queer for the Christian community.” Even as someone coming into my Christian faith in an affirming congregation, I was nervous to be both trans and Christian at Pride. I had the honor, though, of watching Christ Church’s LGBTQ+ volunteers relax and bloom over the day. It was as if our little row of churches along I Street held the line between Pride and the larger, hostile world beyond. Not one of us had to hide ourselves: our gayness or our straightness; our faith; our gender identity or expression; no part of us was too much for our small booth.
As in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

At Pride I witnessed that unity in its fabulous glory. If you weren’t able to catch it this year, I’d love to celebrate Pride with you in 2027.
—Ari Wright-Egbert