Wimberley’s sixth Pride March drew enthusiastic marchers and revelers who lined the streets from the new Visitor’s Center on Old Kyle Rd, through the downtown Square, to its culmination at the Oak Park and Welcome Center.
Ground zero for many spectators was The Let Go restaurant at the corner of Old Kyle Rd and RR12. Sporting all manner of rainbow-themed gear, merrymakers and supporters listened to musician and disc jockey Maxwell Pearl as he spun vintage vinyl for the crowd.
David Martin, a professional photographer who founded the march in 2018, spent considerable energy photographing the event, just as he has done for the past six years.
Since the late 70s and 80s, solidarity and support of the LGBTQ+ community has been represented by the symbol of a rainbow. Artist Gilbert Baker, designer, activist and vexillographer, or flagmaker, designed the original Pride flag in 1978. Baker, who died in 2017, described how he arrived at the rainbow symbol in his book, “Rainbow Warrior.”
“The rainbow came from earliest recorded history as a symbol of hope. In the Book of Genesis, it appeared as proof of a covenant between God and all living creatures,” he wrote. “It was also found in Chinese, Egyptian and Native American history. A Rainbow Flag would be our modern alternative to the pink triangle.”
The rainbow has also been a symbol of ethnic and racial diversity. Various Rainbow Coalition movements have used it as a metaphor for bringing together people from a broad spectrum of races and creeds.
