Twin Cities Pride’s Executive Director – Andi Otto

Andi Otto was primed for the position of Executive Director. His vision for Twin Cities Pride is an ambitious and grand one.

Some have said that it was about time that the festival expanded its footprint beyond the crowded Loring Park. It was also said that our main Pride celebration needed to be reflective of a wider community within the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

Otto’s vision is wide and clear, and has been for 16 years, since joining Twin Cities Pride. Along this path, he became their Volunteer Coordinator. And, now, Otto is in the driver’s seat and has already made his mark on the region’s largest Pride celebration.

Who is Andi Otto? As he described himself, “I’m a parent of two beautiful children. I’ve been married to my partner, Dana, for eight years. We’ve been together for 15.” Moreover, Otto also described his household as a “hockey family.” And, one that is full of pets. “We have three dogs, a cat, two rabbits, two Guinea pigs, a hamster and a fish,” said Otto.

While spending time driving Twin Cities Pride, Otto would say that he lives a normal family life. Yet, his background also helped to frame the current trajectory of Twin Cities Pride, such as his stints in retail and in employment recruitment.

Through the 16 years leading to his ascension as Executive Director, Otto can state that he has the experience towards creating a better Pride for us. Otto has worked security, the parade, and organizing volunteers to handle everything from pre-Pride events to keeping the parade flowing down Hennepin Avenue.

Now, it is all change at Twin Cities Pride. Perhaps, a change in a more positive direction. As Otto admits, “We haven’t always done things right. As an organization, we’ve screwed up. I don’t know of any organization that hasn’t screwed up in the past.”

How will Twin Cities Pride correct themselves? “One of the things that I wanted to make sure that I did when I came on as Executive Director is to make sure that every single voice was heard in our community,” explained Otto. “They needed to be heard. We haven’t always done a good job at that, and we’ve made mistakes.”

Otto also has a plan towards organizational correction for Twin Cities Pride, and it is already in motion. “There were three things I wanted to do,” explained Otto. “The first one is make sure that every single person that comes to Pride feels welcome. It does not matter which part of our community you are, where you come from, what your background is, anything like that. I want you to feel like walking into the park during the festival is like home and you feel safe, and you feel welcome, and you find the resources that you need and have a little fun by doing that.”

“The second thing I wanted to do is I’m a big advocate of two heads are better than one,” Otto continued. “Four heads are better than two. So, I wanted to make sure that with the other community leaders that we started working together, because that’s how we make a difference. I can’t do it alone. They can’t do it alone. But together, we can make a really big impact and support our community in ways that is one, needed and two, that we’ve never done before, so that was important to me.”

Lastly, “Pride has been known as this celebration in June and that’s it,” Otto explained, “but we are so much more than that. We are Pride 365 days a year. So, I launched programming that will happen 365 days a year because that’s what Pride is. Pride isn’t just a month. Pride isn’t just a weekend. It is about living our life the most authentically that we can, 365 days a year.”

This is more than just a grand plan to make Twin Cities Pride an improved experience and vital resource for the LGBTQ+ Community in the Twin Cities and across the Upper Midwest. Otto is serious about doing more than just putting on an event every year. This includes ensuring that LGBTQ+ youth are protected, all communities are welcome regardless of identity, and to connect with every organization across the region – including small town Pride celebrations and their organizers.

“We’re this big Pride,” Otto explains. “We’re huge, but these little Prides have so much to offer. If I can help them in any way, I’m going to do it. We meet once a month as a group to help each other out like, ‘Hey, I’m struggling to find entertainment,’ or ‘Hey, how do I deal with protestors?’ or ‘I’m struggling to find sponsors,’ or ‘I have this expense,’ and so it was important for me to create this group to say, ‘How can we help each other? How can we help grow? How can we boost each other?’ So, this year, you’ll see some things differently. These amazing human beings and some of them in not very welcoming cities, right? We look at Wright County this year, that’s going to be a tough Pride for them. I will be there every single day to support them because they deserve it.”

In the past, Twin Cities Pride would have a booth for small town Prides to table at Loring Park. Only a few would utilize this booth. Under Otto’s leadership, expect to see a banner listing all of the small town Pride celebrations across the region, including dates, locations, and sponsors. Moreover, Otto wants Twin Cities Pride to actively support these small Pride celebrations. “I’m tired of the thought process of competing,” said Otto. “It’s not about competing. I don’t want to compete.” Furthermore, “Prides are amazing,” continued Otto. “I got such amazing human beings running these Prides.”

As stated above, it is also important for Otto and Twin Cities Pride to stay connected with the many organizations serving the LGBTQ+ community locally and beyond. “[W]hether it’s Transforming Families, Queerspace, Reclaim, all of them, we have to work together,” explained Otto. “We’re stronger together than we are apart, and we can make changes together much more impactful than we can trying to do it on our own.”

“Now we have a Trans Refuge coalition where we all come to the table and we’re talking about how do we help these families that are moving here from states that are posting bills that are anti-LGBTQ?,” Otto further explained. “We are so much better together and I will do it every single day. I will show up at the table and do what I can and use this platform to elevate those voices. We can’t sit back.”

While building bridges between organizations and creating a better LGBTQ+ community with Twin Cities Pride, Otto recognizes that there are some challenges ahead towards ensuring these bridges are open to those who have been hurt by the organization in the past. “There’s some serious hurt feelings against Pride,” explained Otto, “and my biggest challenge is showing those who don’t love us, the differences that we’re making, that I heard them, I’ve heard them all along, and my commitment to them is to address those and make the changes that I can make. I can’t promise everything. But, I will listen, and I want to hear those things.”

“The biggest barrier,” Otto continues, “or the biggest challenge I’ve had is sometimes knocking on those doors. They don’t always open, but I’m persistent. Even if I can get a toe in the door, I will keep trying until I break down that barrier and earn the trust back that we haven’t always deserved.”

What does success look like for Otto? If these challenges are met, how does envision what an outcome will be? “Success to me is being able to sit back and watch people’s lives flourish because of one simple thing that I created a space for,” answered Otto. “There is no better feeling than to walk around Pride and you’ll see me do this. You walk around Pride and you look at everybody’s faces and just how genuinely happy they are to be authentically themselves, to not have to worry about walking down the street and getting negative comments or changing their appearance because their family maybe doesn’t accept them or anything like that. That to me is success, when I get to look out and I get to see someone living their true, authentic life, or maybe it’s a business that is LGBTQ owned and I gave them a boost.”

When you talk to Otto about Twin Cities Pride, there is a passion for it that is imbedded in his soul. Otto is all about signal boosting – from underserved populations to small businesses to people he calls “friends.” The latter is important, because he truly believes that all are welcomed and all will become friends. It is something that has been missing in the LGBTQ+ community – a wider sense of the whole, rather than some.

As Otto states: “I am so determined to whatever is missing in our community to figure out a way to supplement that, so whether it is partnering with Transforming Families and developing programming that helps our trans youth get lifted up, whether it is working with Reclaim or Bridge for Youth or gosh, any of the organizations, if we need to create programs around things that the community needs, then that’s what we need to do and that’s how I’m going to push forward.”

Looking beyond Twin Cities Pride weekend, Otto intends turn his and the staff’s work into a year-round commitment. Not just for the parade and festival, but to bring together resources for those looking for them. “We’re going to continue to create those programming around what the community needs and push the envelope every day,” said Otto, “do the things that people don’t expect us to do.”

Andi Otto is serving, leading, and bringing us all together. Hence your introduction to the Executive Director of Twin Cities Pride.