Hundreds of people braved the scorching hot weather on June 25 to celebrate who they are, and who they love. OKC PrideFest is happening all weekend at Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City.
When a Fox 25 crew asked attendees what makes this year's celebration so important to the LGBTQ+ community, a lot of people had current events on their mind. Torie Simon says after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Friday, June 25, raising awareness and being in a loving community just became even more important.
"It's all about just coming together," Simon said. "Even with the Roe v. Wade thing, we all just really need to band together right now. Even if you're not gay you can come to PrideFest and support people."
A distraction from a celebration. First it was Roe v. Wade, now it's Justice Clarence Thomas saying the court should reconsider protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex, and using contraceptives. It's what Drew Walters didn't want to hear.
"That's really, really scary because we thought we were past this," Walters said. "This is weighing very heavily on the minds of a lot of people right now. Even in Oklahoma where it might be viewed as a more conservative place, there's so many people here at PrideFest. There really are that many people who celebrate or support same-sex love, same-sex marriage and the other things that go under the umbrella of pride."
The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. Katelyn Lentz tells Fox 25 she remembers this happening seven years ago.
"It's scary, especially after what happened in Alabama with the transgender bill," Lentz said. "It's scary to see that our rights can be taken away so easily."
It also scares Democratic candidate for Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District Joshua Harris-Till. But, he says he thanks the Supreme Court.
"This is the catalyst that's going to start the next big social movement," Harris-Till said. "People are rightfully pissed off, and they're righteously ready to go to war with this system to make sure that people are taken care of. I'm a part of that movement. I'm at PrideFest to celebrate my friends and family because they deserve to be able to live their authentic lives. Also, women deserve to make decisions for themselves. It's common sense to the rest of the world, but it's starting to become more political and less about the Constitution, as it's supposed to be. We all think that interpretation was horrible and we think it was political instead of how they've always done precedent. That's just bad for our country as a whole."
All things considered, this made the OKC PrideFest celebration more meaningful than ever before.
"It makes it so much more important, by everyone just showing up, showing their love for one another, sharing how much they care, support each other, how big of an issue this is and how many people it affects," Walters said. "It really shows this is not just some small group or something. It's so many people, and so many people that people care about. It affects lots of real, human lives."