VAP hosts block party for annual LGBTQ+ Pride Month celebration
Crystlll Blue talks to VAP's Pride Month celebration attendees about reaching out to those who are unhappy on June 18.
By LIZZIE BOYD
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — On June 18, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Victims Assistance Program (VAP) hosted a Pride Month Block party outside their office.
Audrey Jim, Victims Assistance Program Manager, welcomed everyone to the event and introduced Miss Sho-Ban Dystnee Rope who also gave a welcome.
There were informational booths set up, vendor booths and program staff gave out snow cones to participants throughout the event.
Various speakers and presenters including Rose Ann Abrahamson shared words about acceptance of the two-spirit people and said, “as Indigenous and Newe we did not discourage or discriminate against the two-spirit people.” Crystlll Blue gave a performance during the event.
Miss Shoshone-Bannock Dystnee Rope gives a welcome.
Shoshone-Bannock tribal member and drag performer Crystlll Blue spoke about who she as a person and her pronouns he/she and how the deference is from her generation to the generation today. She has a good support group when coming out.
“We all need to support if you know a friend or relative and can see they are unhappy they’re not who they really are just talk to them reach out to them,” said Blue. In addition, he wanted to know that he loved himself enough to come out — coming out to his mother the late Doge Osborne, but his mother already knew.
Miss Sho-Ban High School Seth Stacey explains about identity and her
path in running for royalty titles.
Recently crowned Miss Shoshone-Bannock Jr./Sr. High School Queen Seth Stacey talked about identity and how she started her path to running for the high school queen title. Stacey said she learned from her mother on beading and started dancing around 2022. “I first danced at the Veterans powwow in the teen girls traditional where individual people who came up and said I shouldn’t be dancing or I was dancing badly.”
Stacey said she was ready to quit but her amazing family and friends, her support, helped with her dancing steps to give her the confidence to run for Miss SBHS the first time where Stacey finished fourth attendant and then competing for Festival Princess in 2024.
Being a young two-spirited person Stacey said, “You got to be yourself and show that you are not afraid of who you are and not afraid of what comes up in life.” Stacey said two-spirit people have been within our community for many years.
Youth compete in a sack race.
Dr. Rolynn, from Prism Family Medicine, spoke about Gender identities and discussed correct terms for gender identity. She explained how clients come to her and feel like they are not enough, she said, “They feel that they cannot be good enough to be a woman or good enough to be a man.” “The support from a community is huge, also family at home that supports them is huge.” An audience member asked, how can a community become a support system?
Dr. Rolynn responded, “if you get their pronoun wrong, it’s okay just keep trying and ask them what pronoun they like to use and keep trying to train your brain to remember.”
She also spoke about gender expression versus gender identity, “expression is external and is how you express your gender. Gender identity is internal; it’s how you feel about your gender. In society, I can express myself as feminine as I want or masculine as I want that is gender expression. But inside if you feel like a woman or a man, that is gender identity, and no one can tell you how to feel.”
Adult participants play in a shoe kick competition.
The VAP staff also conducted games after the speakers finished where both youth and adults participated in the games for prizes. They played sweep the teepee, kick the shoe, gunny sack races and musical chairs. Once the games were completed, the block party ended around 3 p.m.
