LGBTQ+ groups are using Macon’s outdoor spaces to build community in nature. See how.

A couple dozen Maconites gathered on a cool Saturday morning at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, diverse in age and outdoor experience.

Despite their differences, they were there for a day of solidarity and service at this year’s “Pride in Our Parks” event.

Pride in Our Parks started as a collaboration between Macon Pride and Ocmulgee Park, seeking to bring LGBTQ+ people into outdoor spaces through volunteer opportunities at Ocmulgee Park. Southern Queer Folk Hikes, a Macon-based LGBTQ-friendly hiking group, joined the event last year and remained a partner this year.

“It has a queer core,” said DeMarcus Beckham, co-founder of Macon Pride. “It’s to have queer people connect with their environment.”

Pride in Our Parks goes beyond Macon

Pride in Our Parks is a national initiative spearheaded by the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of the National Parks Service. It began four years ago, and Macon was quick to follow with a localized event of its own a year later.

Projects in past years have included covering trails with gravel and picking up litter. This year, Pride in Our Parks volunteers identified invasive plant species and surveyed the park’s dragonfly population. Dragonflies are a key indicator of ecological health.

Pam Pinkston, founder of Southern Queer Folk Hikes, said this year’s event was the largest ever, with about 25 people attending. This was around twice as many as previous years’ numbers, largely due to more park staff helping run the event.

While previous years saw plenty of interest, Pride in Our Parks at Ocmulgee Park had to turn people away due to not having enough staff to supervise volunteers.

Dressed in rainbow attire and bulky chaps meant to keep snakes off their legs, volunteers split into four groups accompanied by park employees and rangers. In addition to their duties, volunteers were encouraged to look out for wildlife and enjoy an inside look at the park’s scenery as they worked.

“This event is growing every year,” Beckham said. “I’m very excited.”

‘Why we need Pride in our Parks’

Macon isn’t a place that’s known for its LGBTQ+ scene. The city’s last bar dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community closed in 2017, and there are few businesses that advertise themselves as queer-friendly.

Even more challenging is that LGBTQ+ people face barriers to outdoor spaces. Many queer people feel that they don’t see themselves in outdoor spaces, Pinkston said, causing fear that they may face alienation or even outright discrimination.

Ryleigh Palmer, Ocmulgee’s volunteer ambassador and one of the first openly non-binary people to work at the park, said they feel holding an outdoor-based pride event in Macon is especially important to build visibility in outdoor spaces and beyond.

“People have this idea that there aren’t these vibrant, proud communities in the South because we are in the Bible Belt,” Palmer said to the assembled crowd before they marched into the woods. “How can we change the perspective? By continuing to show up, just like we are doing now.”

Pinkston said this year’s event felt especially consequential due to a memo the National Parks Service issued in May forbidding parks employees from participating in Pride events in uniform.

The memo contradicted previous NPS guidelines, which permitted uniformed park employees to appear in Pride events alongside police officers and firefighters, many of whom also wear their uniforms.

A second memo was sent out shortly after the backlash to the move, clarifying that parks employees would be allowed to appear in uniform at Pride events.

While Ocmulgee is not a national park, it is a national historical park, which is controlled by NPS.

Pinkston said when the memo was first released, she worried it would endanger Pride in Our Parks. The guidance was quickly changed and the event was able to go on without concerns, but Pinkston said the memo was still upsetting.

“I just (felt) anger at the beginning of it. Like, why now?” Pinkston said. “This really goes to show why we need Pride in Our Parks.”

How does it impact the community?

Volunteers finished their work and reconvened at the front of the park just as the midday heat set in. They were sweaty, aching and leaving with a few bug bites as souvenirs, but they had a sense of accomplishment.

Organizers said they hoped attendees felt a new sense of belonging and support after the event, and that the newfound confidence might translate beyond the park’s boundaries.

“(Being outside) can be one of those ‘aha’ moments,” Pinkston said. “When you get to be authentic and everyone around you is supporting that, you realize, ‘Maybe I can do that in life as well.’”

Pinkston also said despite the initial hurt she felt after the NPS memo, she still feels parks are an important space for advancing inclusiveness.

Palmer echoed a similar sentiment, and emphasized the work that Ocmulgee and other NPS-controlled sites have done to make people feel welcome. These efforts include asking visitors their preferred pronouns, adding features that make trails and attractions accessible and researching LGBTQ+ history.

“I think it’s really important, being able to kind of set a precedent where people do feel safe and included and welcome in these areas,” Palmer said. “The outdoors has always been inclusive, the trees don’t care about who you kiss.”

This story was originally published June 12, 2024 at 11:31 AM.