Twin Cities Pride adds more sober events for those abstaining from alcohol
MINNEAPOLIS -- Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend the Twin Cities Pride Festival this week. While it is no doubt a celebration, this year there will be an extra emphasis on sober events.
According to data from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely as the general population to struggle with alcohol use disorder. Experts say it's tied to stigmas the community faces.
Chris "Z" Durant has been sober for 24 years and is helping organize the sober events for the third year.
"Connection, visibility, and sober-safe events is really what we are trying to do," Durant said. "It literally has blown up. It's blown up incredibly to have events going on every single day."
These events excite Donovan Harmel, who understands alcohol addiction well.
"I just had no idea who I was. I came from North Dakota on a farm. I had to do something or I'd die, and I was three-quarters dead already of not knowing who I was."
He did do something and is now 46 years sober, and excited to finally have a place to party.
"Now finally we are able to have some partying going on that the temptation isn't there for some of us," Harmel said.
There will be several ways to get away from alcohol. First, there will be a tent in Loring Park for people to ask questions and ask for help. There will also be a Friday night sober education meeting at nearby Hennepin Road United Methodist Church at 6:30 p.m. And there will also be a Saturday night four-hour dance party, DJ'd by JJ Enblom, who is also in recovery at the Alano Club at 9 p.m.
"This is going to bring the familiarity of recovery with the familiarity of the Pride event they may have experienced in the past," Enblom said.
Because of these efforts, it will be a festival with less alcohol and even more celebration for those needing that.
"We don't want to take away from what anybody else wants to do for Pride, we just want options for people and to show you can have fun being sober," Durant said.
Twin Cities Sober Pride is getting national attention, as the events were just profiled in The Advocate magazine. The best way to follow the events is on the Sober Pride Minnesota Facebook page.
