Despite Resistance, Lebanon Pride Builds Support and Hope

James Reynolds had a theory.

“If there was a Pride festival in Lebanon, Ohio, there would be more people protesting than attending,” he said.

Reynolds grew up in Lebanon, a small city of around 20,000 people just 30 minutes northeast of Cincinnati, but left in 2000 to attend Morehead State University in Kentucky.

Reynolds described Lebanon as a place where being queer wasn’t an option. The city has improved, he said, but it is still not a safe place to be out. “The ability to effect change” brought him back to his hometown.

After hearing Reynolds' theory about Lebanon in a video of Reynolds speaking at an event, a former high school classmate he had lost touch with, Brooke Handley, reached out to assure Reynolds that she was not among those who would protest a pride event in Lebanon. The encounter prompted them to reconnect after 20 years since they lost touch. The pair agreed that the time for change is now.

Reynolds and Handley co-founded the nonprofit Lebanon Pride last year and the two began organizing Lebanon and Warren counties' inaugural pride festival. With the support the two have quickly seen, they’re now hoping 5,000 attendees will show up for the community celebration.

Lebanon Pride will be on Saturday, July 20 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Bicentennial Park. The event will include vendors, food trucks, resource booths, a kid’s zone, a beer garden and live performances.

Reynolds said one of the main purposes of the event is to provide a space for queer people and allies to come together and enjoy themselves. He emphasized that many people in Lebanon tend to be “in theory very into LGBTQ+ rights,” but do not take it upon themselves to attend Pride festivals nearby. Reynolds hopes to establish what a Pride festival can look like in Lebanon.

Mixed reactions

The city for the most part has been supportive, with City Council narrowly approving the festival three votes to two.

“We made a very specific case when we spoke with them to help them understand that a Pride festival in Lebanon does not look like a Pride festival in Columbus, Chicago or San Francisco,” Reynolds said. “There are many different ways that people are proud and our goal is to celebrate the people who actually live there who may not understand that there is a network for them.”

With Lebanon being situated in a largely conservative county — over 64% of Warren County voted for former President Trump in 2020 — the Pride celebration is not without its detractors. The pushback and negative comments have been mainly online, according to Reynolds.

“Some of them are anonymous, and some of them are just saying whatever they picked up straight out of a Fox News segment and regurgitating it.”

However, the community has quickly come to the defense of Lebanon Pride. Supporters often respond to negative comments quickly and “with an amount of poise and education” in stark contrast to the haters, Reynolds noted. “The people who are working with compassion and love and kindness are the ones who are very clearly supporting and doing it in a very large way.”

Churches come through

Reynolds was also surprised by the response from local church groups. Being a non-religious person, he had expected church groups to protest. However, this was the first type of vendor the event had to cap, otherwise “it’s going to be an actual church festival if we allow more,” Reynolds joked.

Still, protestors are expected. However, Reynolds contends that they’re looking forward to putting on an event that is hard to criticize. He said they aim to host an event where the only feedback people could give is that it was “well-curated; that people were having fun. It was not the kind of list of three or four things that people love to say are what happens at Pride festivals.”

Fundraising success

Ahead of the event, Reynolds reported that Lebanon Pride hit its fundraising goal, raising $50,000 almost exclusively from private donations. But the group is still looking for volunteers, and, above all, urging people to show up.

“Just come show that you care about it,” Reynolds said. “We have a good line of entertainment. We’ve got all the big stuff that the other big festivals in Lebanon use: the big stage and the big acoustics. It’s going to be really curated and hopefully entertaining”

Reynolds said his opinion about Lebanon has changed, in part, due to his reunion with Handley.

“[Brooke] has definitely turned into a very steadfast, hard-working, there’s-no-such-thing-as-no-for-an-answer kind of person. She is a great woman, a wonderful ally and is the kind of person that will put herself in harm’s way for other people and their civil rights,” he said.

Their relationship and the support that the festival has seen gives him hope that the festival’s circle of impact will continue to broaden and that his theory about the Pride festival will prove to be incorrect.

Lebanon Pride will be held on Saturday, July 20 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in downtown Lebanon. More info here .

There are still more than a dozen Ohio LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations left in 2024. To view The Buckeye Flame’s Pride Guide, click here .

This story was originally published by The Buckeye Flame and is republished here with permission.