Bryanna Fish: Does She Have the Greatest Pride On Earth?
By Timothy M. McCue

Creating a festival for more than 5,000 people takes a little luck and a lot of hard work. Brynna has coordinated and implemented enough diva performers and funnel cake stands to fill anyone with Pride. Pride is about more than just a party in the park. It requires collaboration, participation, and inspiration. A consummate Pride coordinator, Brynna has been instrumental in coordinating the GLBT efforts in support of Pride and engaging volunteers and community leaders every year.

It can be rare for one individual to stick with a volunteer organization for more than a few years. It's even more rare for one person to persevere through 17 years of participation in a volunteer driven organization. Pride coordinator Brynna Fish has been more dedicated and loyal to the planning process of Cleveland Pride than anyone in the event’s history. For almost two decades, when she is not fulfilling her other obligations as partner, daughter, mother, volunteer in a slue of other organizations, and director of the family violence program at Jewish Family Services, Ms. Fish is planning Cleveland Pride. With the event happening on June 18th, Cool Cleveland sat down recently with Brynna to discuss her past pride and future.

Cool Cleveland: What is your fondest Pride memory?
Brynna Fish: About 12 years ago was when Cleveland Pride was still on Public Square and we were the same weekend as a huge Billy Graham revival at the old Brown’s Stadium. Seeing the looks on the faces of families coming from Terminal Tower passing us on their way to the Stadium was priceless. We, just by being us, having our festival, made a huge impression on those families and on the city. There was NO incident and we all lived!!!

What exactly is the mission/goal of Cleveland Gay Lesbian Trans Pride Inc.?
The mission is to celebrate Cleveland’s LGBT community and build bridges of understanding within the LGBT community and within the Greater Cleveland community.

How are those bridges going? Have you seen a lot of change in the attitude towards the gay community in Cleveland? What has stayed the same?
It’s changed a lot and then, again, hasn’t changed much at all. What's changed is that being LBTG has become more socially acceptable, and we’ve seen the participation in the event and the committee evolve. In the early years, and even up until the past six to eight years, it was difficult to get a wide range of folks involved in the committee. There were times when some of the participants scared others away and that, to me, indicated the vast lack of acceptance of diversity in our own community. I’ve also seen Cleveland birth a vibrant HRC dinner, amazing growth of the North Coast Men’s Chorus, PACT, Blackout, and of course, the Center. I think what’s stayed the same is that ultimately Cleveland is very conservative, and unfortunately, there seems to be a limit of people’s willingness to push the political envelopes in their personal lives.

What were the early Cleveland Pride celebrations like?
Those earliest Prides all were held on W. 29th Street in front of where the Lesbian Gay Community Service Center was located. I used to call it the “in the closet pride” because it was so hidden.

Do you have any bad memories of past Pride celebrations?
About eight years ago during mid-festival, I got a walkie talkie call about a woman who needed assistance at the dance stage. In all the years of being involved and coordinating that was the first and only time we had to call 911. Ends up she was having heart problems and we needed to get her to the hospital fast. There was construction going on at the pier and the ambulance would not drive up as close as I thought they could. We got the EMS folks to her pronto and off she went. The entire rest of the day I did not know if she was ok. The next day I got a call that she was fine and that her defibulator battery had some malfunction. Whew. All was well.

What special plans or surprises does the festival and parade hold for attendees this year?
With the event having a Circus theme this year “the greatest pride on earth”, there will be an AMAZING change to our entertainment with the presentation of Wise Fool Puppet Theater from New Mexico and changes to our site and the whole circus feel.

What obstacles has the committee had to overcome in this and past years?
People [are always] afraid to come, [this year] the economy has had an impact on our corporate sponsorship dollars. It’s harder to raise money.

The event is held at Voinovich Park, what support does the local and state government offer?
Voinovich Park is owned by the Cleveland Cuyahoga Port Authority which provides us a non profit rate and a great staff and location.

What donations or needs do the board/committee still have for this year's event?
We need to raise close to $50,000 from donors, organizations and corporate sponsors to make pride happen, in addition to our income at pride from gate donations, vendors and the beer garden.

If you could have one wish, other than a limitless budget, for this year's event, what would it be?
That people COME to pride with their gay and straight friends and families.

Then it definitely would be the greatest pride on earth.

In addition to her responsibilities with Cleveland Pride, Brynna Fish has run a nationally recognized family violence program at Jewish Family Services for the past 9 years. Notably, she and her partner Sue Doerfer were married 3 years ago and were the first gay or lesbian couple to be married in a synagogue by a rabbi in Cleveland. Brynna is also the founder and very active in the Jewish LBGT synagogue, Chevrei Tikva. In her downtime she is raising her 20 year old son Shiah, spending time with her mother or her pets Stella, Henry, and Sydney.

For more information about this year’s Pride Festival as well as more retrospect from Brynna Fish check out Pride’s website at http://www.clevelandpride.org

Interview by Tim McCue tmccue@saintlukesfoundation.org

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