LEICESTER, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Blue Ridge Pride will commemorate the second anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising with a celebration filled with music, merriment and conversation.

The 2nd annual Blue Ridge Pride Stonewall Gala will be held from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturday, June 28 at a wedding venue in Leicester, N.C.

Tickets include specific location details and can be purchased here.

“The theme this year is ‘Resilience and Resistance,'” said Amy Upham, executive director of Blue Ridge Pride. “That reflects both on our recovery from Helene, including the work that Blue Ridge Pride did in that moment, and the ‘Resistance’ is the piece on the rollback of DEI and the cuts to LGBTQ federal funding, as well as the erasure or attempted erasure of trans people.”

The event will feature several luminaries from the WNC queer community, including featured speaker Daniel Downer, a Racial Equity Consultant for Blue Ridge Pride, Anne Coombs, a two-time Grammy nominated music educator, and Beulah Land, the reigning Miss Blue Ridge Pride. Bill Kaelin, of Bill Kaelin Marketing, will also be recognized as the Blue Ridge Pride Volunteer of the Year.

The evening will be hosted by emcee Ganymede, a local drag queen and DJ, and catered by Céline & Company.

Upham said that the importance of celebrating Pride is greater than ever, not only for the queer community, but for humanity writ large.

“I think it speaks to the need, that queer people in particular have, to know that they have a community that supports them when so many are still oppressed and or closeted by their families, by their faiths. Obviously now by laws,” Upham said. “I mean, for any time of human and for any type of movement, being with other people in solidarity and in celebration is how we as humans make it in the world.”

Funds raised by the gala, whether through tickets or a silent auction, will go to support future Blue Ridge Pride programming.

“We have a food pantry. We have mental health counseling available. We are just about to launch a queer library to respond to all of these book bans,” Upham detailed. “We have events year round. We have several events in June that cater to a variety of different types of interests, and we also have a virtual Pride center for people who are more rural or don’t have transportation, and they can see what’s out there and who might be queer-friendly as far as businesses go.”

For more information about the Stonewall Gala and the rest of Blue Ridge Pride’s programming, visit www.blueridgepride.org.