Good Shepherd at Capital City Pride

by Amanda Dlugo
“Everyone should be loved! God created me gay. Kindness matters. Pride is for everyone. We will scream for those not heard, defend those in need, and love everyone!”  These are just a few of the many comments visitors wrote and pasted onto our comment board at the Capital City Pride Festival held this past Saturday, June 28, 2025, on the downtown Olympia waterfront.  Over twenty Good Shepherds staffed the booth throughout the day and greeted hundreds of visitors.  We put on our welcoming smiles, offered home baked cookies shaped like offering hands, refreshing dill-ightful pickles, "you are beautiful" stickers, pet blessing invitations, magnetic “Love Has No Measure” rulers and more. But more important was just the good show of how we at Good Shepherd enjoy and take our support of LGBTQIA+ persons very seriously.  This was Good Shepherd's third year participating in this event and it has grown each year.  Along with Good Shepherd a number of other local churches were grouped together and regardless of denomination, we shared the same message of an inclusive inviting Christ. On a more serious note the organizers noted that attendance was down this year and felt it was due to the fears the Queer community is facing in the current political environment. This observation underlines the message the LGBTQIA+ put forth at Good Shepherd’s June 15 “Loving the LGBTQIA+ Community” forum where we encouraged everyone to up their allyship, because it’s really needed right now and YOU CAN do something.