MISSOULA — There will be many Pride events hosted in Missoula throughout the month of June.
Some of the first include a Pride-related beer returning at Draught Works brewery and a Pride-related film festival at the Roxy Theater.
The Roxy Theater in Missoula will be hosting the first-ever Queer West Film Festival from June 1 until June 3 to help kick off the events of Pride Month. The event's artistic director, Charlotte Macorn, explains the film festival is about showcasing a demographic that's often not represented on the big screen.
“We have a fantastic lineup of films from all over the country and over and covering over 111 years of cinema history. We are showing films that struggle with the question of how we present and represent queer people in the American West," Macorn said.”
The festival will feature more than just films. On Thursday night the Roxy will be host to a drag show from House of Mysteries which look to push the boundaries of traditional drag shows by introducing different entertainment genres.
Draught Works is joining the Roxy in kicking off Pride Month by bringing back their signature "Say Gay Beer" for the second year in a row. The beer was created in collaboration with Western Montana Community Center, which wanted an official beer for last year's Pride weekend.
The Juicy Pale Ale is available through June with a portion of the proceeds going to the Western Montana Community Center.
Andy Nelson, the Center's director, says the support of Missoula businesses during Pride sends a strong message.
“It shows that they’re a safe space which is very important to some people in our community to visually see that right now to know that when they enter a business or an establishment that those are open and affirming people.”
There will be many more Pride events this month, occurring at a time Macorn believes is more important than ever.
“Right now when we’ve seen unprecedented collaborative attacks against our freedom of expression, our freedom of assembly and our larger transgender and queer communities. We feel it’s more important now than ever to remember the message of pride which is the message of coming together to stand up against oppression and to push back against that by showing that queer people have always always always always been existed here in Montana and that’s what this festival’s about we’ve always been here, we’re here now, we’re not going anywhere.” - Charlotte Macorn
With many events scheduled throughout the month from a baseball game to a parade, Missoula Pride organizers need all the help they can get. People who would like to volunteer can visit https://www.missoula-pride.com/.
