Goldendale's Got Pride
Pictured: Andrew Halm holds up a pride flag.
Andrew Halm, 36, Goldendale’s first openly Gay City Councilor is on a mission to spread love throughout his community by giving out free Pride flags and helping to organize Goldendale’s first Gay Pride event.
Born and raised in Goldendale he has a big heart for his town. Halm ran for city council at age 25 and has served on the Goldendale City Council for ten years.
That’s right, Goldendale will be hosting its first-ever Pride on July 31st at The Dirty Cowgirl. The event will be family-friendly and all LGBT+ and LGBT allies are welcome to attend.
But at the start of this month, Halm, wasn’t expecting to spend this month handing out free Pride flags to his community. In fact, his previous Pride month plans were pretty low-key.
He had planned to decorate his house and put up flags in his community and maybe attend a Pride event out of town later in the month. He was excited to finally get to celebrate Pride this year after having missed out on the celebrations last year due to COVID. And although he dreamed of having a local Pride event, it still seemed like such dreams were far out of reach.
But when his rainbow flag decorations were vandalized and “literally ripped apart” in what could conceivably be a hate motivated crime he realized he needed to do more than just decorate his home for Pride month. He needed to share that pride with his community and decorate his town with love and acceptance.
‘It started out the first week of June, I was putting up pride flags along the signs on Columbus St and I noticed some of the flags were torn down or taken down. So I thought I didn’t put them up there good enough, so the next couple of times I put them up higher, and then I started noticing they were being ripped down. So then I ordered 700 more flags and then two nights in a row I put between 25-30 flags out and by the next morning there were only like two left,” said Halm.
Halm said he knew at least two of the people who were responsible but that he didn’t want to name them here, saying the vandals had ‘outed' themselves on Facebook and were thoroughly chastised by other Facebook commenters before they deleted their comments.”
“I figure they’ve already been chastised for what they did,” said Halm.
Halm said at first, the destruction of his decorations had made him a bit sad but he still believed that it was the work of “a few bad apples” and that his Goldendale community was still an accepting place with a big heart for the LGBT community. That may come as a surprise to some, but Halm said that despite Goldendale sometimes being referred to as the “conservative heartland” of Washington that doesn’t mean they are anti-LGBT.
“So I decided to start passing out free Pride flags to prove my point. I’m not going to give in to hate or ignorance...I’m going to fight for equality, love, happiness, and pride...not just in the month of June but every single day,” said Halm.
Andrew Halm, stands in front of his 1968 International 1100C which he’s decked out in Pride colors. He has been handing out free Pride Flags every Tuesday and Thursday in front of the Klickitat County Courthouse in Goldendale from 7:00 - 8:30 PM.
In just a few short weeks Halm handed out several hundred flags.
He said it’s been a great experience and he’s really enjoyed getting to have conversations with people from all walks of life in his community.
“The outpouring of support here has just been huge,” Halm said. “I’ve given away hundreds of flags. And it’s been great to get to talk to people. When people see me out here and give me honk and give the thumbs up, that feels good.”
“I had one guy follow me home, kind of creepy at first, but he knew my truck. He told me that he thought it was great what I was doing. He was an older gay gentleman from here,” said Halm. “He said it was hard to be gay in his day and every generation it’s getting better and better, and he said it was great to see me out here doing that, especially since I’m on City Council.”
Pictured: Andrew Halm, Jennifer Dedrick, Cassie Madrid, Hallee Madrid, Isiah Madrid pose for a photo holding their free Pride flags. “This is awesome, I’m glad (Andy) is doing this. A lot of people need to know that it’s okay (to be gay). You can’t judge a person (based on who they love),” said Cassie Madrid who stopped by to grab some flags for her family.
Goldendale’s Got Pride
“We’ve had people honking their horns, and thumbs up and waving, and stopping. Every night that I come down there are people stopping by just to visit and get flags so it’s kind of proven my point that Goldendale is an accepting community. I was nervous the first night...I was like am I doing the right thing, is this going to be bad, waiting for that bad experience and I still have not had it.”
“It’s been - I don’t want to say rewarding, because I’m not doing this for a reward, but maybe humbling? It’s been really cool. The phone calls I’ve gotten, the text messages, the messages on Facebook, the people who’ve come down here, and even people I didn’t think would be supportive have been really supportive. So that’s been very cool to experience first hand and it makes me feel good about coming down here twice a week (to hand out flags). I’m glad that I decided to do this.”
The outpouring of support has come from all over.
“I think this is great, I’ve always supported Andy, I support the LGBT community,” said Waymeth Boyes, 40, and the mother of a transgender child
Milo Boyes, 13, a trans youth in Goldendale said that “I love seeing Pride stuff all over.”
LGBT youth are more likely to end up houseless than their straight counterparts and their struggles for acceptance are often compounded by having a lack of power to enact change in their communities.
Boyes said that other LGBT youths in the community have confided in him that they don’t feel safe coming out to their families. “We’re a small town. It kind of makes me mad that we’re so close-knit but people still don’t support their kids if they come out. I’m always like, come to my house dude. I’m lucky to grow up with a mom who’s so supportive. Love is love.”
“We’re all a little fruity,” joked Boyes.
Pictured: Mayweth and Milo Boyes pose with their free pride flags.
Boyes's mom said the Goldendale Middle School has been supportive and uses Milo’s correct pronouns and Milo still gets to enjoy playing sports in school.
Boyes's mom said the Goldendale Middle School has been pretty accepting.
“We’re just dipping our toes into the whole transition part of it but they use his proper pronouns, and his name so I think they’re supportive. There are a few teachers that have stood up for him,” said Boyes.
“Miss Marisa Bateman is absolutely the best person I’ve ever met in my entire life and I love her,” said Milo Boyes. “I love her; she is my favorite teacher. She’s a very big supporter.”
He also still gets to enjoy playing sports in school. Although, Milo admitted that he chose not to come out to his coaches until after the season was nearing its end because he wasn’t sure they would still allow him to play.
“Hopefully next year our middle school will start including LGBT issues in health education,” said Boyes.
Culture Shift: LGBT Acceptance Not as Simple as Red vs Blue
In 2019 the State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in Goldendale took some heat for flying the Pride flag during the month of June. This month, they are once again flying the flag.
But this June it feels a little different.
It seems like the LGBT community is receiving more widespread support from many people in the Goldendale community. Including conservatives.
“Just because someone is conservative doesn’t mean that they don’t support LGBT people,” said Halm. “I have some very conservative friends that are my best friends that do not care that I’m gay. I know that there are some of the bad apples that don’t agree with any part of the LGBT community but I’ve noticed in the last 2-3 years, especially during June that there are more and more Pride flags in Goldendale than I’ve ever seen. There are so many good people here who will help anyone, regardless of their race or sexuality but those few bad apples make so much noise at times that- that is what people perceive Goldendale to be. What you don’t hear, maybe they aren’t as loud, are the people that are accepting. And that’s why I wish more people would speak up and support the gay community, especially in rural Washington and Oregon.”
“Everyone assumes that Christians don’t like gay people and that’s not the truth. I go to the Lutheran Church and I call them my church family and a lot of them are very accepting,” said Halm
Although Halm admitted he has had encounters with people who are trying to work against LGBT equality in the area. Most recently he had an encounter with one person who tore a flag down and told him “We don’t need this sh*t in our town” presumably referring to LGBT people and LGBT pride.
“So there are a few people who are against it obviously, but honestly I’ve had more of an outpouring of support for this than over anything else, so it kind of proves to me that Goldendale is an accepting town,” said Halm.
Goldendale’s First-Ever Gay Pride
“The other cool thing to come out of this is Goldendale is planning its first gay Pride,” said Halm. “There’s a lot of details to work out but we know the date and where it’s going to be.”
That’s right, Goldendale will be hosting its first-ever Pride on July 31st at The Dirty Cowgirl. The event will be family-friendly and all LGBT+ and LGBT allies are welcome to attend.
It will be a historic event for the local LGBT community.
Halm said he was looking forward to the event and was grateful for the outpouring of support and the help of the Pride planning group he was working with.
Halm wanted to extend special thanks to the team helping to plan this year’s Pride event: Kory Geddes, Skylar Liam Newkirk, Kent Apostol, Kurt Ross, Sarah Bartell, and Gabriel Kieren Ogle.
“I’ve been wanting this for so long, but I’d been too afraid to do it myself. But this has put fuel on the fire for me. I’m glad to be doing more for my LGBT community” said Halm.
Pictured: Andrew Halm.
