Last fall several members of Clear Lake’s LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community officially formed their own group, the Clear Lake Pride Committee, and started meeting at the Clear Lake Public Library with the goal of planning a community event.
Dan Bridges, a bisexual man who lives in Clear Lake and manages Tommy’s Car Wash in Mason City, has been attending the meetings since December and is the acting chairman for the group.
“We’re struggling with trying to attract more people and get more people involved,” he said. Although there are 91 members in their private Facebook group, Bridges said that only four or five actually attend the meetings.
“It’s difficult to get people interested because they think, ‘I have to commit to something,’ or they say, ‘Well, I have this going on and that going on,’” he said. “I’m busy. I manage a business. I don’t have that much time either, but I will set things aside because it’s important to me. It was important to me that I started giving back to my community again. I hadn’t for many many years. I struggled with addiction, alcoholism and kind of went that route and then started to get my life back together. I got my job and that forced me outside of my comfort zone and now I don’t have a choice.”
Bridges said that he and his boyfriend are very lucky to live in Clear Lake.
“We can live anywhere else in Iowa and not be near as happy as we are here,” he said. “And there is an LGBTQ community here. It’s just that most people do not feel comfortable coming out and I understand that. It’s tough when you live in any small town, though. I grew up in Dows, which is 500 people. Essentially, in my graduating class, there was 18 of us, and five of those 18 are LGBT…So I think it’s more common than we think, but there’s so many people that aren’t able to live authentically just because they’re so worried about what other people think. I know that I struggle with that too.”
That is one of the biggest reasons why they want to plan an event and be able to gather together. Bridges said that he and the three women of their Pride committee were planning a picnic, something more on the reserved side, but something that’s inclusive for everybody, not just LGBTQ people but their support people as well.
Bridges said that Deb Sharar, a Clear Lake High School counselor, is loosely involved with the Pride committee and she has said that the high school has a program with several LGBTQ+ youth members that would like to be involved as well.
Although plans are still on hold their group does know that they would like to use the lake as the main attraction since that is what makes living in Clear Lake so attractive. They know that they can join with Mason City’s large LGBTQ+ community, but they would be cutting Clear Lake out of the equation. Bridges even said that they don’t have to hold their event in June, although June has been nationally recognized as “Pride month.” The problem is planning around the Pride events held in larger cities and also trying to plan around Clear Lake’s summer event schedule as well.
“We need to put out feelers in the community. We need more support and more help,” Bridges said. “The Chamber, they’re on board. They’ll help in any possible way that they can, but they cannot be a huge part of it just because they have enough going on.”
If you are like-minded and would like to become part of this community group please call the Clear Lake Chamber at 641-357-2159 and ask to be added to the private Facebook page.
