Frustrated Community Members Question Flagstaff Pride’s Ethics

In the beginning of June, Flagstaff Pride was putting the finishing touches on its annual “Pride In the Pines” celebration: performers were booked, vendors were confirmed, and board members were working tirelessly. 

But 48 hours before the celebration, an announcement was made that completely uprooted the event’s schedule: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden would be speaking. 

The last-minute news caused drag performances to get rescheduled or canceled altogether, and a series of Secret Service-imposed safety changes shifted the tone of the celebration. Community members expressed confusion and dissent online, but those complaints were quashed online when Flagstaff Pride turned off comments on their Instagram posts. 

The decision—which allegedly was made solely by Flagstaff Pride’s President—was a catalyst for a public uproar that called into question the legality of Flagstaff Pride’s charity status, as well as the board’s commitment to the city’s queer community. 

LOOKOUT confirmed the claims made by people in this story through text messages and emails exchanged between them and various Flagstaff Pride board members.

The impact of the decision is still felt today and created a charged conversation around politics in the area, what the community needs are from the local Pride organization, and a call for accountability among Flagstaff’s queer residents. 

On June 12, after spending nearly a year working on the event, then-Flagstaff Pride board member Jason Libby received a call from President Zane Jacobs saying that Dr. Biden’s team had reached out, and Flagstaff Pride had decided to accept their request to have her speak at the Pride in the Pines festival. 

Jacobs told Libby—who organized local performances for the event—that the change would require several performances to either be cut or rescheduled, and that new security procedures would include significant changes, including no sharp items (such as wig pins or earrings). At the time, Libby said JAcobs forbade him to explain to the performers why changes were being made. 

“Honestly, we might have been able to work it out had Jill been discussed with any of us ahead of time,” Libby told LOOKOUT. 

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Libby had several concerns from the start: how many performers would be negatively affected by this decision? How would attendees with certain mobility needs be let through security? Was this decision even ethical for a 501(c)3?

An official statement made by the board claimed the decision was “made collectively” and intended to “highlight unity and the continued fight for equality, not to make a political statement.” 

The statement has since been removed from the main website, and is only accessible using a direct link. 

Jacobs and other board members of Flagstaff Pride declined multiple requests for interviews and comments for this story. 

Libby said the statement posted was untrue, and the decision “wasn’t run by any of us” on the board.

On June 13—the day before the festival—Libby texted all the performers to inform them of the change and then submitted his official letter of resignation from Flagstaff Pride’s board.

He was one of a rotating handful of board members that Flagstaff Pride has seen resign from the organization. 

“I was appalled and frustrated to learn that the FLOTUS was invited—furthermore, invited in place of … local queer entertainment,” Libby wrote in a public statement. “Not only is the visibility of the wife of the US president (in an election year no less!) inherently political, but it is clarified by the Daily Sun’s headline referring to it as ‘A Campaign Stop’ and including many more photographs of Biden/Harris signs than of queer people at the festival.”

In a group text to impacted performers, Libby went on: “This is the last straw of a long escapade of not respecting drag, queer people, me, and local artists as a whole, on so many levels. Asking to essentially fire a bunch of you to make room to support a genocidal war criminal is blatant disrespect and something I cannot morally or politically align myself with in good conscience.”

Libby clarified that he never encouraged performers to make one decision over another—rather, he simply passed along the information and let them decide. 

Libby said Jacobs, along with other board members, later called him and threatened legal action for what they claimed was him “forcing performers to drop out.” 

After Biden’s appearance was announced to the public, planned attendees took to social media to express distaste against the decision. Pride quickly turned off comments from their posts.

Performers were frustrated as well, not only because of the unplanned change, but because of the nature of Dr. Biden’s presence. 

According to community member Soul Yolia, some performers had originally planned to donate their tips to pro-Palestinian organizations or utilize their wardrobe and time to advocate against Israel’s genocidal acts in Gaza. 

However, they were told by Pride that they had to “leave politics out of it,” a hypocritical choice, Soul said, after learning that Dr. Biden would be allowed to have a platform. 

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In light of the backlash, a group of community members—including Libby and fellow former board member Ben Nicholas, who resigned in October 2023—put together “Drag Me To Heritage Square,” a pop-up show scheduled on the afternoon of Pride as a protest and a venue for performers who chose to opt out of Pride In the Pines.

The changes for Pride in the Pines on June 14 was noticeable. Performers had to arrive early to be searched by Secret Service, and attendees were forbidden from bringing certain wheeled mobility aids. 

“Pride’s decision to allow federal security at Pride strips away queer people’s safe space to protest and be themselves.” according to a statement from the Flagstaff Drag community. “Taking away access to umbrellas, animals, chairs, wagons, and anything with wheels causes an extreme lack of accessibility for a variety of groups, not just chronically ill and disabled attendees.”

Meanwhile, Katt Jim, a former Pride board member who was let go in 2020 after 17 years, received calls from friends inside the event who were disheveled by the sudden change. 

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One healthcare provider, for instance, told Jim that they were no longer allowed to perform HIV testing due to the rigid security rules forbidding needles, and were forced instead to test outside of the venue despite previous agreements from Pride. 

Other folks in attendance told Jim they noticed many key political constituents and council members were left out of Dr. Biden’s time—constituents who could have potentially represented different politics, a requirement for 501(c)3’s to legally be allowed to feature a political figure. 

According to the statement issued by Flagstaff Pride, they believe that the intention of Dr. Biden’s visit was purely to serve as a dignitary and advocate for equality, and not to campaign . They said that dignitary invite exempted them from 501c3 violations, in addition to the fact that they did not utilize Flagstaff Pride funds to book her. 

Ariel Leonard, a board member of Flagstaff Pride, said in an email to LOOKOUT that Dr. Biden’s visit should not be considered a violation, as Biden appeared as a dignitary representing herself, not President Biden. 

But a YouTube video of her speech uploaded by KAFF News shows that while Biden never explicitly encouraged the audience to vote for her husband, her partisanship was made clear with declarations that “Trump is a bully” and “we must stop him.”

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Meanwhile, crowds gathered at Heritage Square for the pop-up celebration, which Libby said also served as a pro-Palestine rally. Once time came for Dr. Biden to take the stage, many “Drag Me To Heritage Square” attendees marched to Pride In the Pines to protest and advocate for Palestine. In that same YouTube video, cries from protestors can be heard in the background of her speech amidst some voices yelling at protestors to “get out.”

Corbin Malinka, a drag performer and primary creator of the pop-up event, led the march and witnessed people getting kicked out of the Pride in the Pines Festival for peacefully protesting inside. 

“At a certain point, there was so much tension that it didn’t even feel like a festival anymore,” said Soul, who was inside the festival at their work’s booth. “I don’t think there needed to be a removal of people. They should have allowed people to say what they wanted to say. That’s running the line when it comes to a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.”

According to Laurie Liles and Michael Morefield, representatives from AZ Impact For Good, the answer isn’t cut and dry: a 501(c)3 organization’s ability to engage in political activity is extremely limited under what is known as “The Johnson Amendment.” However, there are nuanced circumstances in which it may be permissible, including allowing a certain amount of funds that can be dedicated to lobbying. 

Though the Internal Revenue Code states that 501(c)3 organizations are “prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” it also states that “501(c)(3) organizations may conduct voter engagement or connect with candidates on a nonpartisan basis. This includes encouraging voter participation, educating voters, and talking to candidates about issues.”

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When asked whether Dr. Biden’s appearance at Pride constituted a prohibited political event— especially given the fact that protesters were discouraged from attending and allegedly removed—Liles said the answer is nuanced and not black-and-white. 

“In this case, Flagstaff Pride convened a public forum and invited Dr. Biden to attend,” she explained. “However, this wasn’t technically a candidate forum, so that in itself does not necessarily make it a partisan event. That said, if the conversation did veer partisan, it would need to be clarified as many times as necessary by Flagstaff Pride that that is not them endorsing a certain candidate.”

While potential violations remain unclear, the situation brought the ongoing issue of ethics and transparency within the organization to the forefront. 

In the wake of the Pride controversy, a group of anonymous local LGBTQ+ community members have since come together to advocate for themselves, especially for BIPOC and trans residents.

Deeming themselves Forest Rainbows Network, one of the group’s first acts was to reach out to Pride in the hopes of organizing a town hall to make their concerns heard and engage in restorative, accountable dialogue with the board. But this request was denied by Pride, they said, marking a source of frustration for not only from the network’s representatives, but other queer community members invested in the matter. 

The intention behind Forest Rainbows Network, they said, is to not only hold Pride accountable for their actions, but continue advocating for safer, more accessible spaces for queer people across Flagstaff. 

“When it comes to Pride, I don’t think the board understood what they were doing,” Katt Jim, the former Flagstaff Pride board president, told LOOKOUT. “They put their own pedestal up and left our community behind. They didn’t think of what the perception would be.” 

According to Jim, Flagstaff Pride needs to be held accountable for a variety of actions and decisions that extend far beyond and before this current Pride celebration. 

“What things like this say is that they don’t see us as people, they see us as tokens,” Jim said. “They want to look like they’re one with the people, but they don’t actually care what they have to say. It’s another form of oppression.”

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As a two-spirit Indigenous activist, Soul has a special tie to Flagstaff and the people who they feel deserve to be given more platforms, whether that’s in the community or on stage alongside people like Malinka, the drag performer.

“The main purpose of this whole thing is not to get Pride shut down entirely, we absolutely don’t want that,” Malinka said. “We just want to make sure our board is listening and representing their very small community. If Zane had talked to even one young queer person, he’d know [Biden’s appearance was] generally not a wanted thing.”