Pride Month

Formed in 2018, Sass-a-Brass is Kansas City's only LGBTQ+ street parade brass band, bringing an "infectious joy" to festivals, Pride events and other festivities. The group will host the second annual "People's Pride" on June 23.

Legislatures in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, passed new laws decried by LGBTQ+ communities and their allies. Still, the month of June brought exuberant Pride celebrations around the region.

Kansas City’s first Pride parade in 1977 was spearheaded by Lea Hopkins, whose organizing sparked a wider gay rights movement that continues today. But it was only a few weeks after that successful event that Hopkins found herself on the defense again, when a prominent anti-gay activist came on a crusade through town.