Winter Pride Event in Cook County

On Saturday, March 16th the Cook County Pride Committee hosted the 2nd annual Winter Pride Celebration with the expressed intention of celebrating the diverse community of LGBTQ+ folks that call this place home. Similar to last year, the event featured an afternoon of activities for people of all ages. 

The Cook County Pride Committee is an organized group of local residents that has slowly grown over the last few years and recently launched a website identifying their mission and initiatives in the community. 

One feature of the winter pride event is an all age’s story hour. The hour-long story-time mixed the reading of children’s books with songs and games. For the second year in a row, a drag queen named Isa was the guest of honor to read children’s books provided by Grand Marais’ local book story, Drury Lane. Isa was born and raised on the Iron Range and is quite familiar with the uniqueness of rural Minnesota communities. Similar to Cook County’s Pride Committee, Isa has worked to create her own spaces of belonging with like-minded people on the range. 

Another initiative of the Pride Committee is collaborative civic engagement for the well being of our local LGBTQ+ neighbors. Toward that end, one guest speaker at Saturday’s event discussed the important connection between local policy and the state capitol. 

Pride committee members discussed their personal values that motivate their work in the community. These values centered around showing love, care and appreciation for the diversity of our community, with emphasis on the youth.

Watch the video below to see highlights from the day or listen to the full length audio feature at the bottom of the page.

M Baxley March 21, 2024