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Bastrop County’s LGBTQ nonprofit organization has set their eyes on Elgin, bringing queer community involvement and pride events to the city.
Brett Douglas, chair and founding member of Bastrop Pride, the county’s first official pride organization, claims this to be the “year of Elgin” for the three-year-old group.
The team has already found success in Bastrop and Smithville with drag shows, their pride festival and The Topic, Bastrop Pride’s flagship support group.
The Topic’s first Elgin showcase comes to downtown’s Chemn Café Oct. 24, intended on “starting the conversation,” Douglas said, and is open to the entire city.
Douglas believes that the group’s focus should be on supporting the county as a whole, not just the queer community.
“I don’t want anyone to feel like there’s exclusivity in Bastrop Pride,” Douglas added. “Everyone is invited, it doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, polka dotted. I want everyone to feel a part of the community.
— Bastrop Pride founder Brett Douglas It’s all one, and the reason we have this is because we don’t have that kind of connection. Hopefully, one day prides will be obsolete.”
The founder believes people are beginning to realize that the LGBTQ community brings money in and supports their cities through these events, having received praise from neighbors with only a handful of unkind comments said online, which he ignores.
“The gay community is fiercely loyal to those who are loyal to us,” said Douglas.
Now an official nonprofit, under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, Bastrop Pride is beginning to look for corporate sponsors and is set on donating scholarships to students in 2024.
Following October’s The Topic meeting, will be their Hogeye Halloween Drag Show.
Excited to be a part of the city’s swine celebration, Bastrop Pride looks to work in tandem with Elgin and its festivities, rather than compete for attention. This alleviates the time and money it would take to generate a large event themselves, as well.
“Elgin is silly, I love that,” said Douglas. “I have seen the participants of Hogeye Festival, and they know how to have fun. Half the people that attend Hogeye are in drag already.”
The show starts at 8 p.m., Oct. 27, at downtown art gallery and studio, Clever Tiger, coinciding with the event’s street dance. The theme is “pretty in pink,” with awards for the best pig costume and pink costume.
The group hopes that this will be the start of another Hogeye tradition for Elgin, however, they are slightly nervous about how big it may be.
Bastrop Pride was born out of a necessity, Douglas said, the space was there in the county.
“I wasn’t going to live in a town that didn’t have a pride group,” he added, moving away from Austin. “You can kind of get lost in a city as an individual, it’s a lot harder to do that in a small town, to me, I love that. You get to know everybody.”
The organization doesn’t have a parade, just festivals, street fairs and shows. Douglas believes that to be emblematic of what they are trying to achieve. People can show up as they are, coming together as a city.
Striving to create and grow the community for LGBTQ members, their families, friends and allies and raise awareness for queer issues in Bastrop County, the team’s mission celebrates everything that makes the area unique and brings everyone together.
With a lot more to come, the founder is looking forward to when Bastrop Pride is a self-sustaining county institution, and he can step down to enjoy the work he’s put in.
There is a placeholder set on the board for an Elgin representative, and Douglas encourages anyone interested to reach out at [email protected].
The Topic group meetings are typically the last Tuesday of every month, switching between Bastrop and Elgin. For more details, visit https://bastroppride.org.
