Scott Hosner speaks at 2021 Salem Gay Pride event

Last night my wife heard about a mostly unpublicized Gay Pride event in Riverfront Park.

We checked it out this afternoon, taking our canine companion along to mix our support for the LGBTQ community with a park dog walk.

It was a colorful event. I snapped a few photos.

I enjoyed Scott Hosner's seven-minute talk. A video is below. He spoke about how far the gay community has come from his days in high school, when coming out wasn't an option. Now he feels that Salem embraces LGBTQ people.

Near the end of his talk Hosner says that he hopes future Gay Pride events will be public, not private as this one was. It does seem a bit incongruous that a Gay Pride event would be in the shadows, so to speak.

He notes that this was done because of Covid and security concerns, though the get-together was outdoors and it's unlikely that anyone would cause trouble. Here's the video I made.

In a masterful stroke of online shopping, after seeing a Facebook ad for Keen Uneek sandals I ordered the most colorful pair. They came this afternoon, just in time for the Gay Pride event.

In his talk, Hosner mentioned a Gay Pride flag flying over South Salem High School. Yesterday a friend sent me this photo of the flag.