River City Pride seeks to take Evansville's LGBT celebration to new level

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A new local LGBT advocacy organization said its goal is to fill a void.

Noting large-scale pride events held each year in cities such as Indianapolis and Nashville, River City Pride is aiming high for its first-annual festival, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. June 22 at Haynie’s Corner.

“It’s time here in Evansville that we do something big,” said Emil Lamar, founder of River City Pride.

AIDS Resource Group sponsored an LGBT pride event last June at Haynie’s Corner, but the upcoming festival will take that to a new level, organizers said. AIDS Resource Group remains involved.

A parade will start things off, followed by hours of music and entertainment, vendors, information booths and more. As of last week, the parade had a dozen entries, and many others have shown interest in the parade and other parts of the event, Lamar said.

Information is available at inrivercitypride.org and on the group's Facebook page.

Lamar decided last summer to start River City Pride. He said the impetus was a porch chat among friends about how to better promote LGBT awareness and understanding in Evansville and surrounding communities.

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River City Pride has applied to receive federal nonprofit status and expects that to be finalized this summer. Lamar said a board of directors will be elected by members and stand for re-election annually.

The group met on Thursday night at First Presbyterian Church to discuss festival planning. The festival is River City Pride’s only focus, for now. Organizers said it is possible the group will become involved in local LGBT causes in other ways.

River City Pride’s stated goal is to “provide a safe, loving and accepting environment and to promote awareness, understanding and diversity.”  

“We’re taking this step by step, and we’re learning as we’re going,” said Don Hoffner, River City Pride president.

Questions remain around TSA

Organizers said they also are motivated in part by controversies that have surrounded Tri-State Alliance, an LGBT rights group based in Evansville. Tri-State Alliance sponsors a youth group, a holiday season gift drive for people impacted by AIDS, and other activities.

The Internal Revenue Service last year stripped Tri-State Alliance of its nonprofit status (TSA officials have said they expect it to be restored), and some former board members have questioned the group’s fiscal practices and transparency.

Correspondence obtained by the Courier & Press shows such concerns surfaced as long ago as 1997. At an Evansville City Council meeting last year, two residents with former Tri-State Alliance involvement, Yvon Lauren and the Rev. Paul Mefford, called for new leadership of the organization.

Zion United Church of Christ (also known as Unity Fellowship) of Owensboro, Kentucky, has acted as Tri-State Alliance’s fiscal sponsor while its nonprofit status is suspended. That means Zion is to receive donations to TSA, document them and ensure donor intent is honored.

At a news conference in September, Tri-State Alliance President Wally Paynter said the organization’s board had reviewed its financial documents and donations of recent years and considered them in order.

However, Paynter also said the group would initiate an audit.

Paynter and other Tri-State Alliance officials did not respond to repeated Courier & Press requests for comment in recent days about whether that audit was conducted and what it discovered.

The Courier & Press in recent days also requested names of current Tri-State Alliance board members and asked if the board had met since September.

No response was received.

River City Pride is a new organization with no ties to Tri-State Alliance. AIDS Resource Group also has no affiliation with Tri-State Alliance.

“That is a big reason why we wanted to do this,” Lamar said. “There are a lot of unanswered questions with Tri-Sate Alliance, and we have no involvement with TSA. It did kind of help spark us and get us moving.”

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