Tucson Pride keeps celebration alive with skating night, club event
With the annual Pride parade postponed until February, Tucson Pride is filling the gap this week by hosting two community-focused events to keep queer spaces active, visible and connected.
Tucson’s Pride parade may be delayed until February, but the celebration isn’t on hold. Tucson Pride is stepping up this week with a pair of community-driven events designed to keep queer spaces vibrant while the city waits for its rescheduled festival.
This year’s Pride parade and festival were postponed after the original November date conflicted with El Tour de Tucson..
The group is hosting its fifth Rainbow Rollers skating event on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in partnership with Skate Country on East 22nd Street. The event is Tucson’s only LGBTQ+ skate night and is open to all ages.
On Saturday night, Tucson Pride will take over midtown venue La Rosa for Club Pride, a 21-and-up event featuring an all-local lineup of DJs, performers, dancers and makers.
Tucson Pride board member David Hoffman said that with safe spaces for queer people dwindling in Tucson and beyond, hosting events like these has become a priority for the organization.
“One of my goals as being on the board and part of the leadership of Tucson Pride is creating more spaces for our community to come together,” Hoffman said. “Doesn't always have to be, you know, a gigantic festival, like we do every year.”
The partnership with Skate Country came about organically after the family that owns the rink reached out, offering a public space for Pride-focused events.
“They wanted to be very clear that Skate Country was a very inclusive place. It was a very safe place for the community,” Hoffman said. “And they really wanted to do something for Pride, because Tucson has blistering hot Junes. We don't do tons in June for Pride.”
National Pride celebrations occur in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall uprising and celebrate LGBTQ+ identity and rights.
June’s inaugural Rainbow Rollers event drew about 300 attendees, which Hoffman called a massive success.
“We had kids, we had a whole range of attendees, and it was just really a cool kind of cross section of Tucson, the LGBTQIA community, all coming together to skate and listen to music and be with your friends,” he said.
After three more events between June and September, Hoffman decided to bring Rainbow Rollers back and hopes to make it a quarterly gathering, given its popularity and high demand.
He especially values offering family-friendly, all-ages events that allow queer families, and families of queer youth, to show up together.
“It's great. It's been a really nice thing, and especially for the families,” Hoffman said. “It's nice to see them getting a space to come and be around other families. That's been kind of a warm fuzzy (to come) out of all of this.”
Many attendees don’t skate at all, he added. They come to enjoy the atmosphere, the snacks and the community, often dressed in elaborate costumes. Rainbow Rollers has quickly become a space where everyone fits.
“It is stressful right now. Our community is definitely under attack, and especially our trans brothers and sisters,” Hoffman said. “Part of our mission with Tucson Pride is creating those spaces and those opportunities for the community to know that you're not alone, you are visible, you are acknowledged, you are celebrated, and you are defended.”
While Tucson Pride regularly hosts 21+ events like Saturday’s Club Pride at La Rosa, Hoffman stressed the importance of offering accessible options and finding ways to welcome queer youth into the community.
He said Rainbow Rollers also creates overlap among different parts of the queer community that wouldn’t often mix in traditional nightlife settings.
“I think it's imperative that we come together as a community, whether in large groups or small groups, because there is power in numbers, there's safety in numbers, and there's also that sense that you're not alone,” Hoffman said.
Where: Skate Country, 7980 E. 22nd St.
When: Wednesday, Nov. 19; 6 to 8 p.m.
Tickets are $5 at the door and skate rental costs an additional $5. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Tucson Pride.
Where: La Rosa Tucson, 800 N. Country Club Rd.
When: Saturday, Nov. 22; 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Tickets are $15 online or $20 door. Funds raised benefit Tucson Pride.
Emma LaPointe is a journalism, political science and German Studies major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at emma.m.lapointe@gmail.com.
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