By Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine Staff

30 days! 27 Events!

However, we went beyond the city limits of Las Vegas with our celebrations, embracing one event in Henderson and one event in Mesquite. The final curtain call was “Over-the-Hump” in Pahrump! The Southern Nevada Association of PRIDE Inc. was spreading the rainbow far and wide this year! SNAPI has been developing relationships within the Las Vegas community and with our neighboring cities for over 40 years.

On June 1st, we started our month-long celebration with the Henderson Pride Festival, ICME, at the beautiful Water Street Plaza in downtown Henderson, Nevada. Mrs. Las Vegas PRIDE Norma Llyaman was asked to open the day’s entertainment with an incredible rendition of RISE UP featuring many community supporters and featured dancer Justin Daniels. The event was packed with vendors, entertainment, community supporters, and allies throughout the day. The city’s mayor deservedly honored Henderson Pride Festival with an official LGBTQIA+ PRIDE month proclamation.

As the month progressed and the local events, including our Royal Coronation, PRIDE Bingo, the 1st Annual Bar Hop, PRIDE Parties at The Phoenix, Family Skate Night, and so many more came and went, we focused on our friends and family in Mesquite and Pahrump. We must admit that our Mrs. Las Vegas PRIDE, Norma Llyaman, was a remarkably busy PRIDE Ambassador!

Our travels to Mesquite gave us the opportunity to work with and support the incredible efforts and programs of Love Family. They have continually grown since their development in 2019 and are making great successes in the LGBTQIA+ community in the region. Love Family is a local LGBTQIA+ nonprofit organization focused on UNITY and EDUCATION to help make the Virgin Valley a better, happier, and safer place. With the efforts of their founders and volunteers, they have organized fundraisers and exciting community-building events for the past several years. Many local Las Vegas community members have joined them with their Pub Crawl, Prom Nights, and the annual Mesquite Pride Love Family Variety Show. For the second year in a row, our very own Auntie Norma was asked to co-host with award-winning youth drag artist Operetta (Loki Roarke.)

We were delighted to co-host the final event at The Pahrump Nugget on June 30th with our Pahrump PROUD team and LGBT of Pahrump group. This uniquely beautiful event brought together over 350 people this year. Attendees enjoyed over 30 different craft and art vendors, community organizations, business leaders, nonprofits, civic organizations, and political figures. Auntie Norma also hosted the stage with 5 hours of non-stop music and entertainment from various performers, drag artists, and many local musicians. Recording artist James Walker Davis and his band closed the day with an amazing 1-hour concert. Many attendees later gathered at Pahrump’s newest and coolest coffee shop, family-owned and operated, the BLACK COW, for cool refreshments and sweets.

“As our valley becomes increasingly diverse, we look and hope to celebrate with all minority groups. With the growing population of the LGBTQIA+ community and after our incredibly successful 4th annual celebration, Pahrump PROUD, we could not be prouder of our community and the allies that came to rally around us and our successes!” States James Walker Davis of Ridge Realty Group and founding partner of Pahrump PROUD.

Southern Nevada is such a culturally and socio-economically diverse region. These somewhat rural areas represent a large number of LGBTQIA+ community members who appreciate the outreach and the effort put forward to include their areas with National PRIDE Month and the local celebration in October. Las Vegas PRIDE continually dedicates resources and programming to uniting all to show that the “Wild West” community is vibrant, inclusive, and ready to celebrate!

This article was originally published in the 52 issue of Las Vegas PRIDE Magazine, and can be read in its original format here.