Crystal Lake hosts first gay pride event Sunday

Last year, Crystal Lake celebrated Pride Month by selling small rainbow enamel pins with proceeds going to a local LGBTQIA+ nonprofit. Now the pride celebrations have grown into the city’s first pride event.

Nonprofit Downtown Crystal Lake/Main Street is hosting the Pride Walk & Social from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Depot Park. The event kicks off with a “simple, joyful, colorful walk” starting at the intersection of Williams Street and Crystal Lake Avenue, Downtown Crystal Lake/Main Street Executive Director Joy Neal said. Mayor Haig Haleblian will kick off the walk with opening remarks.

“We feel like it’s been something the community has been asking for a while,” Neal said.

The walk will reach Depot Park, which will be packed with a market of nearly 30 vendors, three food trucks and three live musical performances. Event organizers are focused on educational and social aspects to share resources available to the LGBTQIA+ community as well as educate the public on the community, Cantina 52 owner and event chair member Jim Tomasek said.

“We’re no different than anybody else,” he said. “We’re just celebrating.”

Tomasek has been playing with the idea of hosting a pride event in Crystal Lake for two years. He started with selling pride pins at The Flag Store last year with proceeds going to PFLAG. The inventory of about 500 pins sold out within 10 days, he said. A new 2024 version of the pins will be for sale at Downtown Crystal Lake/Main Street’s vendor booth.

“We have queer-owned businesses in downtown Crystal Lake. We have queer members of our community that want to celebrate the way that surrounding communities do,” Tomasek said.

The goal is to make this an annual event, but not necessarily create another pride parade similar to Woodstock’s, Neal said. She wants to see it grow organically into something that is “uniquely Crystal Lake.” Organizers roughly estimate to see about 300 attendees, while the Woodstock pride parade usually attracts more than 5,000 visitors.

This event holds great significance for Tomasek after seeing reactions to a 2006 Gay Games event hosted at Crystal Lake that got “pretty ugly.” He remembers hundreds of people protesting against the games, which had a rowing event at the lake, with picket signs reading, “Don’t let your kids swim in the AIDS-infested water.”

“I’m very, very proud of our community for the way that it has come out this year,” he said.

The event partners with local businesses and organizations like Catina 52, Cheshire Cakes, Out of the Box, Crystal Lake Public Library, Habitat for Humanity, McHenry County National Organization for Women and National Alliance on Mental Illness of McHenry County. Proceeds collected from sponsorship will go to Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of McHenry County, which will be distributing funds to various local organizations and nonprofits, Neal said.

“We have high hopes that this is going to be a good, positive event and we think Crystal Lake will really enjoy it,” Tomasek said.

Haleblian will also declare June as Crystal Lake’s Pride Month on June 4 during the City Council meeting, Tomasek said.

For information on the Crystal Lake Pride Walk & Social, visit downtowncl.org/pride.