Our Mission
Pierre Area Center for Equality serves the Pierre area and surrounding central South Dakota communities by educating about the Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ community and identities and advocating for greater LGBTQ+ rights.
History
written by Lydia Kanz in collaboration with Mack Snow
In May of 2017, a Pierre resident named Malcolm McLeod made an inquiring post on the Pierre Area Business Page on Facebook asking if Pierre was planning a Pride parade or any other festivities within June Pride Month. The post was met with an onslaught of negative, hateful, and homophobic comments from other Facebookers who questioned why anyone would want any celebration of that sort in the small rural town of Pierre, SD. Luckily, many other community members came to Malcolm’s defense on the post stating that this sort of celebration was exactly what the Pierre/Fort Pierre community needed.
From there, a group chat was forged, and our founding members Mack Snow, Josh Penrod, Peter Kleinpass, Sarah Edee, and Malcolm McLeod combined forces and began to plan. The team met up for coffee to brainstorm an event that would suit our small town. The idea of a parade was pretty quickly ruled out as there were permits to acquire and a gnawing fear of the reaction of the more conservative community of the Pierre Area. They decided upon a small festival held at the Ramkota Hotel convention center, which was donated for the very first Pierre Pride Festival, set in 2018 so they had a year to prepare.
Our founders worked diligently to understand what our community might want to see at a Pride festival– they contacted South Dakota drag performers in Sioux Falls and beyond to perform in two shows, created a photo booth, invited a face painter and local vendors to sell their wares. All that was left to do was… put it on. And with that they put on an amazing Pride Festival full of laughter, embraces, and sickening dance moves. With over 500 people in attendance that weekend, it was safe to say that Pierre was absolutely ready for this big bold move.
Since then, PACE as an organization has had its fair share of growth and setbacks. After another successful Pride in 2019 at the Ramkota, the future looked bright for our young organization. Unfortunately, the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic proved to be one of the greatest challenges ever sent to the group, and to the world. Needless to say, Pride festivals were cancelled that year or held at a distance. And with the uncertainties we still faced at the beginning of 2021, we thought our small organization might be doomed to wither away.
With a new set of board members and one veteran leading the way, however, PACE was able to come back with a Fall Pride celebration in November of 2021 at the Missouri Avenue Event Center. It sparked the Pride renaissance in Pierre leading the group to continue with an even bigger Pride festival at Drifter’s Bar&Grille on July 16, 2022. After the hiatus of 2020 and summer of 2021, the event had a humble restart. But year after year this celebration becomes bigger, better, and more renowned in the cities of Pierre, Fort Pierre, and beyond!
In the now 8 years of PACE’s existence, the group has experienced great successes, educational moments, community criticism, significant growth in community connections, greater visibility, and even a full breakdown and rebirth of the board and its by-laws. Every challenge has been an opportunity and PACE is stronger and more organized than ever.
Past Pride Dates:
July 7 2018
July 20 2019
November 20 2021
July 16 2022
July 15 2023
June 22 2024
July 12 2025
Board Members
President: Sarah Kanz
Secretary: Heather Kent
Treasurer: Aviana Knochel
Committees
Rules and Policies
Code of Conduct