Scores of cars and people showed up for a “pop-up” Pride and Black Lives Matter parade on Saturday, June 6, 2020, in downtown Huntington. The colorful event gathered its resources, including one heck of a lot of balloons, streamers and signs, in the parking lot in front of the St. Mary’s Urgent Care Center. It then proceeded to make a couple of honking circuits in and around Huntington. Here are some videos and photos of the event.
Watch for WestVirginiaVille.com videographer Bobby Lee Messer‘s dynamic, moving shots. At one point he hopped from my car in front of Pullman Square to hitch a ride in a red Jeep. At another, he cracked open my passenger side door to film a bumper-level view of the parade of cars inching along Fifth Avenue (KIDS! DON’T try this! In our defense, we were pacing the parade at about 10 mph at the time.)
After I retrieved Bobby Lee from one of his out-of-car shooting escapades, he fell back into his seat, video camera in hand, exclaiming: “I live for this!” His video will show you what he means. ~ Douglas John Imbrogno
Photographs (click to enlarge)
Transcript of Video
Ally Layman, founder of Huntington Pride:
“The idea of the ‘pop-up’ parade kind of came across watching the birthday parades, and teachers driving around neighborhoods, letting their students know that we love them.
“So, we decided in the beginning to drive around and show the LGBTQ community that they’re loved and thought about.
“Last year was the first inaugural pride festival for the city of Huntington. We expected maybe a couple hundred people and we had a turnout of 5,000.
“When you have a bully that inspires other bullies, it’s going to be a toxic environment.” ~ Ally Layman, Huntington Pride
“The day the festival happens … watching the stage go up … It was great. It was awesome.
“We’ve gone from a place of love to a place of it being okay for people to be bullied. And that’s not okay. When you have a bully that inspires other bullies, it’s going to be a toxic environment.
“And that has to change. We have to have our voice heard through elections to do that. And to have someone in the White House that shows love. And shows that diversity and inclusion is important for the black community, for the LGBTQ community, for the city of Huntington. For the country.
“It needs to change and it needs to change now.”
Additional Video of Event
