Rural Kentucky town’s Pride event in jeopardy

By Ben Gierhart

SOMERSET — Some disturbing news has come to the attention of QueerKentucky. Kristina Brant, a PhD candidate in sociology at Harvard University and a doctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, took to Twitter on Monday, November 11 to report that she believes that local churches in Somerset, KY are attempting to prevent a pride event from happening next year.

“Our rural Kentucky town held its first Pride event this year in the town plaza – the largest public gathering spot. For a largely conservative county, this was huge. But local churches have attempted to block a second annual pride by booking the plaza *every weekend* next year,” she tweets.

“The county judge executive dropped this news nonchalantly, despite the fact this is a clear affront on the LGBTQ community: ‘After last month’s events, we’ve already got it booked all next year. People trying to preempt that happening again, so they’ve booked it all year long.’”

She goes to explain that by “last month’s events” the county judge is talking about Somerset’s pride event and that by “preempt that happening again,” he means preventing a second annual PRIDE. “This is an actual silencing of LGBTQ voices. This is how churches and local govs can work together to prevent progress and perpetuate alienation and hate.”

QueerKentucky will be reaching out to Kristina Brant to gather more facts and elaborate on this story as it develops.