© 2024 WYSO
Our Community. Our Nation. Our World.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Inclusive Fairborn Hosts First Community Pride Event This Friday

A sketch of stick-figure humans of all different colors hold hands around a globe with a peace sign on it. Inclusive Fairborn was founded following George Floyd's death last summer. Since then, they've committed to hosting events that promote diversity and inclusion in Fairborn.
Mawa Iqbal
/
WYSO
Inclusive Fairborn was founded last summer, following George Floyd's death. Since then, they've committed to hosting events that promote diversity and inclusion in Fairborn.

Fairborn is hosting its first ever community Pride event this Friday at the Community Park Amphitheater. The event is hosted by Inclusive Fairborn, and will feature speakers, musical acts and drag performances.

There will also be free food and water, as well as educational and health care resources.

Organizer Anaya Tassey founded Inclusive Fairborn last summer, following George Floyd’s death. The committee organized Fairborn’s first Black Lives Matter demonstration, and have been putting on community events since then.

Tassey is originally from Phoenix, Arizona, and identifies as queer and gender non-binary. They said it was hard to find a community in Fairborn at first.

“With this event, you know, we really got to see a lot of community orgs excited,” Tassey said. “A lot of people across different genders, sexualities, races...coming to volunteer, so it's kind of just showing you how diverse Fairborn really is.”

The event is sponsored by PFLAG Dayton, Have A Gay Day and United Church Homes. Tassey hopes this event will not only provide education and entertainment, but also help community members with basic needs.

“We want to work on harm reduction,” Tassey said. “I would love to have an event where we're able to give out NARCAN, clean needles and food and other resources.”

Tassey says this will be the first in many mutual aid events to come.

Mawa Iqbal is a reporter for WYSO. Before coming to WYSO, she interned at Kansas City PBS's digital magazine, Flatland. There, her reporting focused on higher education and immigrant communities in the Kansas City area. She studied radio journalism at Mizzou, where she also worked for their local NPR-affiliate station as a reporter.