PENDLETON — Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) members Ellen Taylor and Jacob Wallis led the city’s sixth Pride Parade through downtown Pendleton. 

The parade kicked off at 11 a.m. on June 13 near the Main Street Bridge and made its way to the Heritage Station Museum. LGBTQ+ community members and supporters waved to spectators along the route as marchers dressed in rainbow colors followed behind. 

Taylor, the parade’s grand marshal, and Wallis headed the procession, which marked the start of the day’s Pride festivities.

“I’ve never been to a gay pride parade ever in my life,” Taylor said afterward. “It was an honor to be chosen to be one of the grand marshals with Jacob. I have a lot of respect for him because we’ve done a lot of work for the community.”

Taylor and Wallis were nominated anonymously by community members to serve as the grand marshals for the Pride event. Wallis said he didn’t realize he was nominated until he was selected.

“It just so happens we’re both from the Umatilla Indian Reservation, so it’s just really special to be able to be a part of this in that regard,” Wallis said. “To really have a lived experience that I honestly don’t think I would ever have imagined having in Pendleton, Oregon.”

Wallis said he identifies as Two-Spirit and was honored to serve in his role alongside Taylor, who also identifies as Two-Spirit.

Alicia Reynan, the founder of Pendleton Oregon Pride and festival coordinator, said the festivities were meant to be something fun and inclusive for everybody, regardless of who or what they were.

“It’s not just celebrating who you are, it’s a protest,” Reynan said. “If we weren’t here, I think that we wouldn’t have the community we have, so this kind of shows our community that they’re loved, they’re welcome, they’re here.”

The purpose of the festival was to foster community and create a safe space for the LGBTQ+ in the area.

“Changing a person’s life, making sure they feel safe and have a place to go, to have access to the booths with mental and behavioral health, those are really important when people are constantly bullies, harassed or have higher statistics of being hate-crimed or violence in their life,” Wallis said. “There could be one person at this festival, and it’s important.”

For Taylor, expressing pride just meant having fun and coming together to support each other while making new friends, despite any protestations from others.

“The only thing I was disappointed in was that there were protesters, that kind of made me sad,” Taylor said. “Because you want it to be a safe space for everyone who wants to come out, because we’re such a small town.”

Wallis said, for him, pride is in activism, politics and resilience.

“There’s also just the power of love and the power of community that can overshadow so much of the hate and negative rhetoric that we have to hear 365 days out of the year,” he said. “Pride to me is everything. Not only showing resistance, but showing a future and being present, being a human being, essentially.”

In addition to the parade, Pendleton Oregon Pride organized a Pride Festival at Heritage Station Park, where the parade route ended. The festival featured vendor booths, community organizations and live music throughout the afternoon.

Later that evening, 7 Gen, a wellness center and one of the event’s sponsors, hosted the Let’er Drag Show, where a lineup of drag performers entertained attendees and capped off the day’s festivities.

Getting ready for the show

After attending the festival, Wallis returned to a room at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino, where he donned a wig and transformed into Miss Terious, his drag persona.

Joining him was longtime friend and drag mother Kelsey Beers, who performs as Miss Leading. Together, they prepared for the evening’s Let’er Drag Show.

“I’m happy to be back in Pendleton doing drag,” Beers said. “It’s always a wild ride to be in the town that I grew up in and the city that felt so oppressive.”

Beers grew up in the area and has lived in Corvallis for the past 13 years, where she started doing drag with a group of other queens for a show called Damn Right Drag Night.

“I do a lot of campy drag; I do a lot of funny drag. I like to make sure that while things are crazy and things are political — drag is political — there’s a power in being able to laugh together as a community,” Beers said.

Wallis said Miss Terious’ identity, notably, is more mysterious.

“She’s kind of all over the place, but as of right now, I feel like her identity is very much about being sexy; she’s definitely more political, she wants to take up space and she wants to be seen — which is ironic for the name,” Wallis noted. “But that’s the beauty in it, of doing drag: you kind of just find that identity as you go along.”

Once the wigs were on and the lashes were glued down, the strobelights in 7 Gen shifted in shades of the rainbow and the show began. Ten performers strutted around the venue, collecting tips as they lip-synced to arrangements with the lights bouncing off their sequins. The room was full and the crowd showed its support for the dancers with cheers and applause. 

“There are pockets of humanity, pockets of love; I don’t want to say tolerance because I don’t care if you tolerate me,” Wallis said. “I think that’s what’s beautiful about this; I just never thought in a million years this would happen here. I think being a thorn in everybody’s side, being present and just being real, it’s finally come to fruition. It was almost like a dream that I never dreamt and it’s here.”