Jess Lewis, her former spouse Quinn Lewis and their daughter Xanie were determined to make it to Sunday’s Keene Pride Festival, braving the pouring rain and dark clouds looming over Main Street.
The Lewis’ have a motto: “We don’t let a little bit of rain ruin our day.”
Keene Pride has hosted a festival at the end of September for five years running, complete with live music, food and merchandise tents. On Sunday, the streets of Keene were once again overflowing with festivalgoers and vendors, with some saying turnout matched previous years.
“It actually warms my heart being able to see this many people being part of the LGBTQ community coming together despite the rain, despite other plans, despite the fact that it’s on a Sunday,” Lewis, of Peterborough, said. “It’s really heartening because it feels lonely sometimes in New Hampshire. We’re all here, we’re all queer, and we all built a community where we’re able to get together and show our true selves.”
Bailey Saddlemire has a personal tie to Keene Pride, meeting her partner at the event in 2024. She works as a career advisor at Keene State College and ran a tent Sunday for the Queer Womanhood Collective, a community-building organization she created for LGBTQ+ women.
She said she expected turnout to be diminished by poor weather, but was pleasantly surprised by the number of visitors at her stand.
“I think we were thinking it was probably going to be a little bit smaller because of the rain, but the number of people we’ve been able to talk to has been wonderful so far,” Saddlemire said. “This is a really great event that we’re really happy to be a part of, and I’m really glad that they were able to host it no matter what.”
Cass Anderson and Cat Clauss also have deep roots with the Keene Pride Festival, having visited the event for three out of five years. The two former college roommates drove to Keene from Brattleboro and viewed the event as an invaluable opportunity for rural LGBTQ+ New Englanders — who often feel isolated from one another by geography — to gather, with Clauss linking the weather to the community’s resiliency.
Said Anderson: “I think pride these days is a little bit like emotional mental health care. You need to be able to connect with your tribe.”
“You’ve got to find your people,” Clauss said. “Even in the darkest times, there’s still a rainbow.”
Janelle Drake started the Affirming Spaces Project to ensure LGBTQ+ community members feel welcome in small businesses and the workplace. She founded her volunteer organization in 2021 and said she set up a booth at the Keene Pride Festival thanks to the city’s walkable mom-and-pop-driven downtown and the networking opportunities it provides.
Her work began three years after former Gov. Chris Sununu signed a landmark piece of legislation in 2018, amending the state’s anti-discrimination law to include gender identity.
Affirming Spaces provides a variety of free services, including workshops for businesses on gender inclusivity for employees and customers, and has forged a network of LGBTQ+ community partners across northern New England.
But in the years since, Drake said conservative lawmakers have made multiple attempts to weaken protections for LGBTQ+ people in the state.
Drake was touched by the number of festival participants and said the turnout conveyed the importance of the event to LGBTQ communities.
“I like seeing people come out even in the rain because it shows that this is a really needed thing for the LGBTQ community,” Drake said.
Festival-goers reveled in the rainfall, dancing in puddles, singing along to Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” and meeting fellow New Englanders in a smiling celebration of one another and themselves.
“There’s a lot of power in, despite everything going on, being able to say, ‘This is who I am, I’m not going to quiet down for anybody,” Anderson said.