Adorned in bright rainbow colors and pumping techno-beats, Ann Morrison Park hosts a festival embracing pride as a virtue for marginalized LGBTQ+ Boiseans. The festival’s theme, “Louder than Fear,” sends an apparent message to the community-at-large:
Queer Idahoans refuse to turn the volume down.
“There’s a line from a song by the Bare Naked Ladies that is, ‘If I hide myself wherever I go, am I ever really there?’” said Bert Allen, a member of the Boise Gay Men’s Chorus. “I want to experience this life to its fullest, and if I hide myself, I can’t do it. And neither can you.”
As a Boise-native, Allen has fought for LGBTQ+ rights through decades of advocacy. While working as a typesetter for the Boise-based “Diversity” newspaper in the 1980s, he formatted Queer-focused articles from various news sources and local writers into a monthly issue.
“To be at Pride in Boise, Idaho, is to stand up for who you are in the face of a lot of people who still want to believe that we don’t have a right to exist,” Allen said. “It’s an act of defiance.”
Over the weekend, local and international performers took to the Boise Pride Main Stage. DJ’s Joshua Emara and Black Velvet lit up the crowd, musicians Chrissy Chlapecka and Touk brought uplifting vocals and drag performers Trixie Mattel and Pattie Gonia highlighted the heart of queer cultural identity.
“Drag is an over the top performance, and people view it as sexualized,” said Paisley Davis, a Boise State alumnus. “It’s something that is really easy to target because it’s so loud, bright and offensive.”
Booths from queer and non-queer organizations and businesses lined the walkways of the park. Davis and their team ran the Boise Trans Collective booth, providing pamphlets on transgender-aid in Idaho and free stickers. As a non-profit organization, the collective offers social and financial support helping transgender individuals access HRT and gender affirming clothing.
“I have a lot of privilege to be able to put time and energy into doing volunteer work,” Davis said. “It’s my way of giving back because when I was growing up, I was very low income and utilized a lot of social services — I only went to college and got through college because of scholarships. I wouldn’t be here without people helping me.”
Earlier this year, legislators passed House Bill 752, limiting transgender Idahoans from entering bathrooms that align with their gender-identity in government-owned buildings and private businesses. Bills targeting Idaho’s Queer community aren’t a 21st century-exclusive issue, Davis says.
“[These laws] reach back to the 1940s, like the ‘Walking while Trans’ laws saying that police could go up to you and count how many gender-conforming articles of clothing you were wearing, and if you didn’t match it, they could arrest you.” Davis said. “It is literally a playbook that politicians have written, ‘We distract them by scapegoating minorities.’”
At Mio Pevonka’s first-time at Boise Pride, they can’t help but relate this festival to the one in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. Portland Pride, according to Pevonka, is an extravagant party accepting everyone for their gender-identity and sexuality.
“It was political in the sense that it was prideful,” Pevonka said. “There’s people actively protesting against us being here having a good time. I was expecting it to be a little more solemn this year … but I’m actually really happy to see how positive it is.”
In lew of many corporate sponsors and businesses dropping out of the festival, funding for the event has decreased in recent years. The sharp decrease has forced organizers to include ticketed cover-fees for the second-year in a row, as reported by the Idaho Press.
“Despite the unfortunate mindsets people have about us as people, corporations and local businesses still came through to show how much that they do actually care,” Pevonka expressed. “The more we bring attention to ourselves regardless of what other people on the outside are saying, doing, trying to do [and] funding — it doesn’t matter.”
Boise Pride Festival 2026 engaged Boiseans this past weekend in elevating the Idaho Queer community; a community who often feels like they’re swept-under the rug by legislation and corporations turning a blind-eye. This yearly event is an opportunity to reiterate the LGBTQ+ community’s commitment to be visible, to be “Louder than Fear.”
“Fear is one of those emotions like a little mouse that hides in the corners, and to be louder than fear is to come out of the corner,” Allen said. “I need to be loud because we were not made to exist in quiet spaces. No human was made to exist under repression.”
