Pride month in Reno: Here’s some advice from locals on how to be a good ally

LGBTQ+ Pride Month “officially” occurs in June to mark the 1969 Stonewall uprising. But here in Reno, Northern Nevada Pride moved to September a few years ago—because it’s the month with the best chance of comfortable weather.

The list of reasons to fight for LGBTQ+ rights was long enough to begin with, and in 2025, it’s grown longer. For starters, the Trump administration has banned transgender people from military service, and is even denying long-serving transgender service members retirement benefits. His administration has ordered the removal of LGBTQ+ (and other “DEI”) content from government websites and exhibits, and even re-named the USNS Harvey Milk. This fall, the Supreme Court could re-consider nationwide gay marriage rights. And, according to the GLAAD Alert Desk, incidents of violence against transgender people—already disproportionately high—have increased by another 14% this year.

With all of this in mind, the RN&R asked a few locals for their thoughts on how to be good ally in 2025.

Be alert to surging intolerance

Heidi Smith is a hairdresser, a DJ who uses the stage name Heidalicious, and a proud lesbian. A few months ago, a woman in a public restroom warned Smith’s girlfriend that she was in the wrong bathroom, apparently assuming she was a man or a transgender woman. She is neither. The interaction left Smith worried about growing intolerance.

“It’s just the attitude of people that it’s OK to shame people or put people down for who they are, and then they’re teaching their kids that,” Smith said. “It’s just becoming OK.”

Make people feel seen and welcome

How can someone be a better ally, in Smith’s view? Be like her colleague, Krissy Garcia, at Sanctuary Boutique Salon.

“She’s an excellent ally,” Smith said. “She always asks people’s pronouns. She’s just very empathetic, very understanding. She doesn’t assume things about anybody. She always asks a lot of questions, which I think is really important. … A lot of people don’t understand pronouns, and so they make judgements instead of trying to learn on their own.”

Garcia and other good allies, Smith added, “make people feel seen and heard and welcome and comfortable.”

Stand up against casual bigotry

Allen Ratliff is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Reno, and an Our Center board member who uses they/them pronouns. Ratliff is in favor of you writing to your officials to voice your support for LGBTQ+ rights—but that’s not all.

“I think, in some ways, it’s almost more important to be standing up for communities at the micro-individual level—that when we have friends or co-workers or family members who are making statements that are derogatory toward queer or transgender people, that we should be standing up to those people, that we are past the time of trying to make nice with our neighbors and our family members,” they said. “What we’re talking about is the lives and well-being of queer people.”

Ratliff added: “We should be calling out hatred and bigotry against transgender people in every context that we hear it in.”

Mind your own business

Ratliff has provided therapy to transgender youth and their families for more than a decade, and is considered by many to be the foremost expert on transgender health in the state.

“We’re seeing increased rates of transgender youth experiencing suicidal ideation and even experiencing loss of life,” Ratliff said. “We know that the loss of gender-affirming health care does impact the life expectancy of youth. Gender-affirming health care saves lives.”

To those who question “whether or not gender-affirming care is necessary or transgender identities are necessary,” Ratliff said: “We should be making sure that everyone has access to the health care that they need access to. … We are not experts in other people’s experiences. … Unless you are literally a parent or a child or a doctor or a therapist of a transgender young person, you don’t have any right to say what’s best for that person.”

Think intersectionally

Chris Daniels is a certified life coach, a drag performer known as Miss Ginger Divine, and the interim artistic director at Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company. He identifies as queer.

“When I look at 2025, I see the interconnectedness of it all,” Daniels said.

Some previous LGBTQ+ activism has focused on a single issue—marriage equality, for example—and Daniels said that needs to change.

“I think to face 2025 and beyond, we have to look at the systems. We need to see the intersectionality of our collective struggle,” Daniels said.

LGBTQ+ rights, Daniels said, are closely related to the struggles of immigrants and others. “Denying people basic rights, access, wages, health care—I think those are the issues that impact all of us and where we should put our attention and focus,” he said.

Patronize queer-friendly businesses

The website PublicSquare was originally billed as a place for MAGA-inspired consumers to support like-minded businesses. It also served more left-leaning shoppers—as a list of businesses to boycott.

Daniels recommends that local shoppers “put their money into businesses that support people, and take their money out of businesses that don’t share those values, because those have really big impacts.”

There does not appear to be a comprehensive list of queer-friendly businesses in and near Reno, but a quick search on Google or Yelp will get you off to a good start.

Watch people’s backs

As a drag performer who has read stories to children at Washoe County Library events in recent years, Daniels has seen a rise in “vitriolic violence” close up. While it’s always been the case that an occasional driver would shout a slur as they passed by, such incidents have felt more threatening in the last year or two, as haters have become more emboldened.

“I was recently at a mall, and somebody drove by my friend and screamed, and then drove around, like, aggressively, made a loop and came careening back toward us and screamed it again,” Daniels said. “You always think about safety—but now even more so, as you hear reports of increasing violence. Suddenly, you are even more cognizant of being in public.”

If you witness a situation like this one, and you have an opportunity to speak up, to set an example, or to help someone find safety in numbers, do it.

Northern Nevada Pride will take place on Saturday, Sept. 6. Admission to the parade, which begins at 10 a.m. on California Avenue between Arlington and Virginia streets, is free. Admission to the festival, which take place from noon to 8 p.m. in Midtown, along and near Virginia Street, starts at $10. For tickets and for information about these and other Northern Nevada Pride events, visit northernnevadapride.org.