A Fire Was Lit...The Birth Of Chelan Pride

‘I don’t like the idea of my son going to school and being told by other kids that his mom’s going to hell.’

By Ron Evans

Chelan. The strange little burg nestled in one of the most absurdly beautiful landscapes you could find on planet Earth. A tourist town. A mecca for award winning wines. The flip-flop capital of Washington State (prove me wrong). And a place that over 4000 people call their year-round home. It’s here where, not long ago, an unexpected spark of activism ignited a movement.

It was 2022 when a local church’s sermon series targeting LGBTQ+ communities pushed one queer Chelan resident past her breaking point. What began as vocalized frustration in a small brewing company would soon transform into Chelan Pride - a true grassroots organization that would prove that even the smallest communities can create powerful forces for change.

The angry activist was Jenna Navin, a “country queer” mom who had moved to Chelan seeking a peaceful setting and a quality environment to raise her child. But Navin understood that peace sometimes requires standing up and making some noise.

With her friend Gloria Groves, a local librarian, she gathered a group of like-minded individuals who were tired of being marginalized, even demonized. Their first meeting at Stormy Mountain Brewing wasn’t just a gathering - it was the birth of a focused community that would challenge assumptions, push back against bigoted bullies and create a safe space for LGBTQ+ residents in a region not known for its progressive stance. It was the birth of Chelan Pride.

I chatted with Navin to learn more about this new, but potent organization.

Tell me about your history in Chelan and talk about the first sparks of inspiration for organizing Chelan Pride.

I had actually moved to Chelan in 2008 to be near my parents, and I had my son there. But I found the area to be not quite right for me at that time so I headed to the west side for a few years. My partner, Kelcie, and I moved to Chelan in 2015 and we weren’t really seeing much of a queer community at all. So for a while, we just kind of kept to ourselves.

In 2022, this local church was really going after the LGBTQ+ community and just blaming queer people for all the evils and problems of the world.

Those damn gay folk, always wreckin’ the world.

Right? We’re literally just over here trying to live our lives, but sure. We’re ruining the world.

Not all churches share this viewpoint, thankfully. But for some...it’s kind of like a creepy obsession.

It really is. So we really were like…we have the right to be here. We have decided that we are basically “country queers,” and we wanna raise our kid here. I don’t like the idea of my son going to school and being told by other kids that his mom’s going to hell. That really lit a fire under me. I’ve always been activist-minded. But I was ready to start some shit. So Gloria and I talked about getting some like-minded people together to go to the church where they were holding these sermons. And we got quite a few people involved. Co-workers, friends…I even brought my neighbor. It was a real grassroots movement. And we all met up at Stormy Mountain and basically had our first Pride meeting. Karen Jeanette Stanfield was also very influential in helping to form the group in its early stages.

It was so cool, people really got behind the cause. Individuals started donating funds, businesses started donating — and the really amazing thing was, all these queers just started coming out of the woodwork.

That happens a lot. And people sometimes say, “where did they all come from?” But it’s really just a matter of having a safe space with like-minded people. They were there all along, just waiting for someone like you to start the movement.

Yeah, and it’s grown so fast.

Did that initial protest that you organized at the church lead to any confrontation or conversations with them?

Nope. Nothing. No one wanted to say anything to our faces. Interestingly, that church is no longer there. The building’s still there, but it’s a whole different church now.

You eventually got your non-profit status. Talk about where you went from there.

Technically the first Chelan Pride event was that church protest. We all met in the park, protested and plotted the future. We decided to reach out to some people we knew that were doing art fairs and farmers markets and we put together our first public event in the park. We had eight booths that first year, which was great. But it’s really grown. The whole community really showed up. Then we knew we could do this every year. Last year we had grown to 65 vendors.

Wow. That’s a massive growth in three years.

Yeah, like I said the community has just been amazing. We also do smaller events — we have game nights where we can all have some fun and bullshit and blow off steam.

I love that. Because as important as activism, protests and awareness campaigns are — it’s really important to remember to have fun and not let the bastards get you down. That’s all part of staying strong and unified.

Absolutely. Especially right now. We have actually lost some of our support just because certain people or certain businesses are afraid of negative backlash for being involved. That’s new. And it sucks but, things are scary right now. We get it. And those people can still show up in some other ways. Maybe just not so publicly.

That really does suck. That people are feeling intimidated into not supporting something they clearly believe in goes against everything this country is supposed to be about. And this is a time when Pride needs allies more than ever.

Exactly. It’s disheartening but…like I said, we are getting lots of support. We could use more though. But we have lots of other things going on that have been a lot of fun. We have been doing these cultural nights where we feed people food that’s based on the culture we are featuring. We have done Palestine and Turkey so far. Free food, we have had movies — staying out of the political aspects with these. Just trying to understand and appreciate other cultures in a meaningful way. Not in any kind of watered-down appropriating way.

You do have a lot going on. Is your zine Strange Garden connected to Chelan Pride?

You know, I wanted it to be at first but honestly, I think some of the voices in the zine might be a bit too radical to be associated with an organization! So I decided to keep it separate.

That’s a good idea, that way you can stay freaks when you’re writing. How has it been having a non-profit board to navigate?

Well we just went through kind of an ugly situation with a particular board member and he was just…not someone we could work with. We tried. And he just made it too hard so he’s no longer on the board. And as shitty as all that was, there was a lot of learning. [LAUGHS]But now we have a super solid group, diverse, passionate and we are all working well. It’s a labor of love – and it’s hard work.

Are you looking for people to get involved? Event volunteers?

Always. We need more people helping year round really. We need help in finding more sponsorships - because I hate doing that!

It takes a certain constitution for sure.

It does. The direction we would like to go is to set up different committees for the different events. That way we can have people doing what they are good at, and not what they don’t get joy from. Again, being a labor of love — there has to be joy. So there will be all sorts of ways for people to get involved. Jenna@chelanpride.org is a good way to reach out.

Anything new for the event this year?

Aside from the vendors in the park event, we are trying to extend our Pride activities this year. So we will have Queertopia (drag queen performance) at the Ruby Theatre with Cafe Columbia doing some fun catering. We are also coming to Methow Pride and Wenatchee Pride. Just a big tour of Pride!