East Central Minnesota Pride Puts a Mark on History

With a population of around 4,000 residents, Pine City, Minn., is a rather small community known for its beautiful landscapes and quiet residential atmosphere. However, despite its size, Pine City is home to a very active and supportive community of LGBTQ+ people and allies. Each year, Pine City hosts East Central Minnesota (ECMN) Pride, America’s first rural Pride.

Since its start 21 years ago, ECMN Pride has continued to build upon itself, growing larger, livelier and more inspirational with each celebration. This year, ECMN Pride organizers were able to do something even bigger than before: honor and mark LGBTQ+ history with a commemorative plaque.

Aaron Bombard, chair of the ECMN Pride planning committee, has been working with other organizers on getting ECMN Pride recognized as the first rural Pride celebration. Coming from the metro area, Bombard was unfamiliar with what it would be like living in a small town. However, after he arrived in Pine City almost 15 years ago, he soon realized how welcoming and special the community is.

“I’ve gotten involved with East Central Minnesota Pride, and that’s been exciting to do because I think that was one of my biggest fears about moving to a small town,” Bombard shares. “It’s really easy to find acceptance and find cliques and groups in the cities, and my perception was that that was not the same in a small town, and I know Pine City is a little bit more unique than most small towns, but it ended up being the opposite here.”

It was within the welcoming community of Pine City that Don Quaintance decided to bring a group of gay, bi and questioning men together in an organization he called East Central Men’s Circle. Starting in 2000, members of Men’s Circle would come together to celebrate Pride with one another over small dinners and events.

By 2005, Men’s Circle had decided to extend this event to surrounding allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community. This decision not only brought forth years of celebration but also marked LGBTQ+ history.

“Don Quaintance and Randy and Nate, I think, are our three final remaining members that are original to the start, but they all were a part of what was called Men’s Circle, which still exists, which is a group for queer men in the area,” Bombard explains. “They started just kind of getting together at a local restaurant, just kind of a social thing to stay connected to people, and then about five years into that they decided, ‘Hey, let’s start something official.’”

This first ECMN Pride event was hosted at Voyageur Park and only consisted of about 20-40 people. However, according to Bombard, the event has since grown so significantly that it has moved to the larger Robinson Park.

“These days we do it in Robinson Park because it has a little bit more space since we’ve grown, but it was originally just kind of like a picnic in the park, kind of potluck … I think they had said the original had like 20 to 40 people at it. It was a lot of people from the Men’s Circle,” Bombard shares.

Two years ago, Bombard and other organizers of ECMN Pride were preparing to bring to life their 20th annual celebration. The group already believed ECMN Pride to be the first rural Pride event; however, there was no official recognition of this status. But, with this exciting landmark nearing, some within the group discussed starting the process of getting historically recognized.

“Some of the group had decided … we should really try to figure out how to commemorate that we were the first rural Pride and, you know, we don’t take credit necessarily for the Pride movement as a whole, because there’s so many major cities that have put a lot of work into that,” Bombard says. “But, since we’ve started our Pride, I mean, I feel like even in the last 10 years, you’ve seen so many rural Prides taking off and a lot of them have reached out to us to ask us, ‘Hey, how are you doing it?’”

Soon, the organizers connected with multiple universities to establish the necessary documents and evidence needed to present to the Minnesota Historical Society as proof that ECMN Pride is the first rural Pride event. From their research, they felt more confident than ever that ECMN Pride was the first rural Pride event, and they composed a proposal for the Minnesota Historical Society detailing their findings.

“They awarded us a historical and cultural heritage grant which would cover the cost of the historical marker,” Bombard explains. “So, we will be a true historical marker just like you would see with a lot of different elements in Minnesota, where history is honored, will be on the map of historical landmarks in the state … and it’ll be the first LGBTQ+ marker in the state as well.”

Bombard hopes that the plaque will stand as a marker that recognizes the overall community of Pine City as the welcoming and fearless city that it is. With so much of history being lost to time, having a plaque honoring this significant and unique event is extremely valuable to ECMN Pride and Pine City itself.

“I hope that for the people who do already live here that they know that this is something that the community as a whole has worked towards, right, not just the LGBTQ+ community here, but also all of our allies that have fought fearlessly to defend Pride and keep it what it is,” Bombard shares. “It’s being recognized as something that’s historically important for our community, which is often overlooked in terms of the historical sense of honoring our steps that we’ve made towards equality.”

A ceremony for the plaque is being held where it all began, Voyageur Park in Pine City, Minn., on May 28. Because the hard work and research have already been completed, all that is left is to celebrate. Attendees can expect live music, decadent rainbow desserts and speeches from many prominent figures, including Kent Bombard, Minnesota’s only openly gay mayor and husband to Aaron Bombard.