City of Taylor forms new holiday parade to create inclusive environment

Two holiday parades will make their way through downtown Taylor this weekend.

The Taylor Christmas Lights Parade — hosted annually by the Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance — and the Very Merry Holiday Parade — hosted by the city for the first time this year— are both scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 3, along Main Street.

Routes for both parades begin at Murphy Park, at the intersection of Main and 12th Street, and travel south toward Heritage Square, 400 Main Street, where the city’s annual tree lighting and additional winter festivities will take place. The city-hosted parade will begin once all the floats participating in the Christmas Lights Parade leave Murphy Park.

The Very Merry Holiday Parade was launched by the city after the Ministerial Alliance changed its requirements this fall for accepting float submissions.

New guidelines more selective

This is the first year Taylor will be home to two separate, but back-to-back, holiday parades.

While the annual Christmas Lights Parade has taken place in Taylor for over 30 years, the Ministerial Alliance began hosting roughly 10 years ago after the city’s Chamber of Commerce asked them to, said Jeff Ripple, alliance representative and pastor at Christ Fellowship Church.

The event is permitted by the city, which also previously acted as a co-sponsor for the event by providing safety personnel, blocking off Main Street and assisting in event promotion, explained city communications director Stacey Osborn.

However, city leadership decided to pivot and host their own parade after the Ministerial Alliance changed its requirements to state that entries “must not conflict with traditional biblical and family values.”

“The [Ministerial Alliance] made it clear they wanted to exclude a specific group of people and call that group out and told us that they did not want that group to participate,” Ms. Osborn said.

“We asked them to please reconsider and they said they were going to hold firm and they did not want that specific group to be a part of this parade, so that’s when those conversations [about the city hosting another parade] began.”

The group in question is Taylor PRIDE — an organization supporting members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.

Last year, Mr. Ripple said, Taylor PRIDE was mistakenly allowed to participate in the Christmas Lights Parade. The group’s float featured residents, organization members and two drag queens — an element deemed inappropriate by the alliance.

“The group was allowed in the parade because of an oversight,” Mr. Ripple said. “The ladies who processed the parade entries, fromthebestwecandetermine,didn’t really understand what Taylor PRIDE was. It’s a fairly new group, at least publicly, and they did not mention anything about drag queens in their application.

“Our children had to watch drag queens the whole route of the parade,” Mr. Ripple continued. “We’ve never had this problem before. We’ve never had the issue with groups having entries that would have been controversial in that way. So, what we did was simply put ‘celebrating traditional biblical and family values’ and we ask that entries not contradict traditional family values. We didn’t call any group and say you can’t be in the parade. That was the criteria. From that, this whole controversy has arisen.”

Denise Rodgers, board president for Taylor PRIDE, said both drag queens were dressed appropriately for the event, with one singing holiday songs and the other reading stories in front of an artificial fireplace. The organization did not receive any formal complaints about their float in last year’s parade from attendees or the Ministerial Alliance, she said.

The PRIDE group learned about the new requirement in early November, when they attempted to sign up for this year’s event. Ms. Rodgers said the PRIDE organization alerted the city to the change.

“While [the Ministerial Alliance] is doing this to sort of target our group and exclude us, it indirectly also excluded anyone who celebrates different holidays other than Christmas and anyone who’s belief system is other than Christianity and any family that doesn’t look ‘traditional,’ ” Ms. Rodgers said.

City provides options

Attempting to provide an inclusive parade environment, city council members and leadership decided to organize the Very Merry Holiday Parade, which is now the only city-sponsored event taking place, Ms. Osborn said.

“The city parade is open to everyone who wants to participate,” Ms. Osborn said.

She said some rules do exist. Floats need to be holiday themed and candy cannot be thrown from them. The city also wants floats be “family-friendly,” and should exclude toy guns and other props that may not be appropriate for children.

“Those are the only rules we have and everyone is welcome to participate if they want to,” Ms. Osborn said.

City leadership will evaluate the parade once it is complete to determine future action, she said.

By November 23, the city had roughly 16 floats signed up to participate in the parade, which will begin directly after the Christmas Lights Parade’s last float.

Taylor PRIDE plans to participate in the city-sponsored parade with a float called “From Our Family to Yours,” which is themed after holiday cards and will highlight diverse family units.

“We highly encourage families to come out to either or both parades,” Ms. Rodgers said. “We support the right for [the Alliance] to have their parade as well. We don’t want this to keep people from coming out and enjoying the holiday because then hate wins.”

“We’re not just standing up for our LGBTQ community, but we’re really standing up for the Taylor community as a whole and making sure that everyone’s included in the holiday celebration no matter what you celebrate or how your family looks.”

Mr. Ripple said the Ministerial Alliance has been in contact with the city to communicate about coordination for both parades and will make sure to indicate to crowds when their parade has concluded. He said the organization plans to continue hosting its parade in the future with its new regulations remaining intact.

“The parade is a Christmas parade, a celebration of Christ’s birth,” Mr. Ripple said. “We are churches who believe in the Bible and believe in traditional values. Our intent is not to exclude. Our intent is to guard the values that this parade represents. And we have an obligation, I believe, to do that.”