Omaha community celebrates Heartland Pride Parade

OMAHA, Neb. —

Despite Saturday’s sweltering heat, hundreds of people came to either walk in or watch Omaha’s annual Pride parade.

The theme of this year’s parade was “Pride in Protest.” Event chair Amy Ferris says it’s in response to what’s going on at a national level against the LGBTQ+ community.

“A lot of people try to do a lot of fear mongering that we’re trying to do indoctrinate kids. We’re not. We’re just we’re just trying to just regular people just enjoying our lives. And we just want people to know that we’re here and we’re definitely not going anywhere,” said Ferris.

Like many downtown parades and events this year, streetcar construction altered the route for the parade from prior years.

“It definitely put some kinks into, like, where we’re going, but I think we, we’re rolling with it, and we’re doing what we can, and we’re still going to have a great time out here,” said Ferris.

Ferris said they found ways to work with the new space and the heat.

“We’re going a little earlier to get everybody out of the heat. We have water stations. We have MUD out here with their water truck. We put bottled water on every corner for people,” said Ferris.

People still prioritized showing up in spite of the heat.

Many have a simple reason for coming.

“So we can feel seen in a society who most of the time looks down upon us,” said attendee Ash Burki.

“Because it just feels really nice to be seen,” said attendee Heidi Gentert.

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