2012 will be the 34th Pride Festival held in Kansas City, MO. Over the years this event has been held at Liberty Memorial (Penn Valley Park), and in 2010 it was held at Berkley Riverside Park.

Kansas City Pride was named one of the top 10 Pride Festivals in the nation by The Advocate in 2008, however it has taken a downward turn recently. Some changes have taken place within organization what led to yet another change of venue in 2011. The Power & Light with Pride went from a one night event in 2010 to completely taking over Pride in 2011. June 3-5, 2011 led the LGBT community into a environment much different than in past years.

Not all of us use pride as an excuse to get drunk and lay around half naked. Some of us enjoy taking a break from the everyday routine and insane pace of life. Some people don't have the luxury of taking vacations or the time to, and while it may sound silly, the days of Pride can provide the comfort of getting away on a mini-vacation/break.

Pride is about a community coming together to celebrate the achievements made throughout the year/s, not about injected our life into people and telling them "we're here to stay and a force to be reckoned with."

Pride is something each person defines within, each day they live, and by how they interact and respect their person around others. It has nothing to do with congregating for 3 days and then vanishing for another 362 days.

I'm expressing discontent for the direction that Kansas City Pride is going. It's becoming commercialized at the expense of true pride in order to line the pockets of local businesses that fail to engage with the LGBT community the rest of the year. Conforming for three days out of the year is not progress, it's revenue for a district within the city that requires business to justify the expense of the venture.

I encourage you to "LIKE" this page and show the board members of Gay Pride KC (http://www.gaypridekc.com/) that our community wants to celebrate at Liberty Memorial or at the Riverside. We want to abandon the congestion of Power & Light for the comfort of a beautiful park where families of all types can spend quality time together.