PRIDE begins tonight in La Crosse

Events with drag show at La Crosse Center 

It’s been a huge undertaking to get this weekend’s PRIDE events ready for this weekend.

It will be the largest LGBT event in the La Crosse area this year, and it’s all been organized by the The Center: 7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection in La Crosse.

“I would say that for the size of La crosse that we do see several allies who are willing to speak out on LGBT issues,” The Center director of operations Jessica Polacek said. “We do have people that are friendly to the LGBT community.

“We just want to live our lives doing the things that we need to do and find happiness. When you have a community that is supportive, that makes it a whole lot easier.”

Just in the last week, however, The Center was vandalized by someone who pulled down the rainbow flag at the organization’s building downtown.

“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions but I would hope that we’re not being specifically targeted for being an LGBT community. It’s hard, again, not to automatically jump to a rash conclusion that, yeah, somebody did this out of spite, out of hatred. There really was that gut reaction when we first saw that in the morning.”

PRIDE weekend action kicks off at 9 p.m. Friday with the “So You Think You Can Drag” show at the La Crosse Center. Tickets range from $20-40.

From 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, PRIDE in the Park takes place at Riverside Park and Sunday wraps up at Copeland Park with the PRIDE family picnic. Both Saturday and Sunday’s events are free.