SALISBURY — Every color of the rainbow was represented at Bell Tower Green on Saturday during the annual Salisbury Pride Festival.
Previously scheduled for June, this year’s edition of the now-15-year-old event was held in September with an aim to reach local college campuses after students returned from summer break.
Becky Lane is vice president of Salisbury Pride, the organization behind the annual celebration.
“The main reason we moved it was to engage with our student populations,” Lane said in a phone call on Monday. “We attend College Night Out, and there are always students there who are surprised to learn we have a Pride festival because they are not here in June.”
Because so many college students are away for the summer, Lane said they have “struggled” in the past to stir engagement with college populations.
“Making the move to September was trying to engage more with them and for them to have a place and an event that they could go to and feel welcome,” Lane said.
This year, they added bus routes to Catawba and Livingstone colleges to help students without transportation.
“We definitely have students that took advantage of the shuttle, and we had a ton of young people at the event,” Lane said. “Even those that did not utilize the shuttle, we had more in attendance than we have ever had.”
Many of the college students who arrived at Bell Tower Green on Saturday would not know the event’s history or how it has grown since its first year, but a proclamation reading by Mayor Pro Tem Susan Kluttz brought about a full-circle moment. Kluttz was the mayor in 2012 who signed the initial proclamation establishing the first-ever Salisbury Pride event.
“The proclamation, while I was mayor, came across my desk,” Kluttz said. “It was very controversial at the time.
“I did not take it to the council to vote on it. I decided that I had the right to sign it as mayor and that I would do that because it was the right thing to do.”
Kluttz received a lot of flak from people in Rowan County and beyond.
“I was shocked that I got hate mail from all over the country,” she said. “I was shocked when someone sent me something that had been published in the Midwest. They found a picture of me online.”
Kluttz did not waver in her resolve, believing in her position that it was fair and just and, as she said, the right thing to do. However, it did follow her even after she left Salisbury and surprisingly joined Republican Governor Pat McCrory’s cabinet as the only Democrat member, something a News and Observer reporter asked her about at the time.
“They thought that was unusual,” Kluttz said. “I told them then and have said it since, it was just the right thing to do. My feeling as mayor, I represent all people equally and fairly.”
Current Salisbury Mayor Tamara Sheffield indicated that given the connection, she was glad to have Kluttz stand on stage Saturday and read the annual proclamation.
“When she signed that, she did not have to,” Sheffield said. “I think she took some heat for it. We are thankful that she did it and she was happy to do it again Saturday, and I was proud to stand up there with her.”
For Sheffield, it also harkened back to the days when the late Mayor Karen Alexander would ask her to read the proclamation. At the time, Sheffield was the mayor pro tem.
“When Karen did it, after several years, she asked me to read it because she knew it was important to me,” Sheffield said.
Looking around on Saturday filled Sheffield with pride herself.
“I am glad that Salisbury Pride continues to provide that space,” she said. “Everybody that lives here and the allies, that is what it is all about. Gotta love festivals.”
Of Kluttz’s delivery, Lane added, “It was truly a special moment to have Mayor Pro Tem Kluttz read the proclamation. We owe a lot to her. Her support has been unwavering, so is Mayor Sheffield’s and so was Mayor Alexander’s.”
That support does not stop at the executive office.
“City council is always there,” Lane said. “The city manager and deputy manager, and so much support from leadership, from the mayor all the way down. Just grateful for the community that we have here.”
