Why KC Pride merged with LGBTQ nonprofit: ‘Pride has to exist’
For years, the people organizing Kansas City Pride and the people running Our Spot KC were often the same.
Now that overlap has been formalized, and not everyone is happy about it.
Our Spot KC, the LGBTQ community organization led by Star Palmer, has absorbed KC Pride under its umbrella, a move leaders say was necessary to keep the annual festival financially stable and better connected to services offered year round.
The change has drawn criticism from some community members who questioned transparency and the restructuring itself, prompting public debate over who should lead one of Kansas City’s most visible LGBTQ events.
The consolidated group will put on a parade and festival the weekend of June 5-7 at Theis Park.
Star Palmer, executive director of Our Spot KC, said the decision was driven by sustainability, not consolidation for its own sake.
“It takes a little over $500,000 to put the festival on for that one weekend,” Palmer said. “That is a lot when you’re taking 40% to 50% hits.”
She said last year’s event was hit by rain that depressed attendance and by a loss of more than $200,000 in sponsorships tied to anti-diversity, equity and inclusion backlash.
“Pride has to exist. It can’t stand alone anymore and take on hits like that from two different angles,” Palmer said.
Public data from Candid says that Our Spot had revenue over $1.4 million in 2024, the most recent year available. The KC Community Pride Alliance had around $570,000 in revenue in the same year.
Long before the merger became official, Star Palmer and Our Spot KC were already deeply involved with the work of Kansas City Pride. Palmer emerged as one of the leading voices in the 2020 push to replace the previous governing structure, the Kansas City Diversity Coalition, who ran Pride since 2017.
Connections between Pride, Our Spot KC
Kansas City Pride dates back to 1977, when activist Lea Hopkins organized the city’s first Pride march at a time when the local LGBTQ community was fragmented and lacked a visible public movement. What began as a gathering of about 75 people grew over the decades into one of the metro’s most visible annual LGBTQ events.
In recent years, organizers have framed Pride as both a celebration and a point of connection to broader community needs. The festival has offered family-friendly programming, entertainment, health and wellness services, scholarships, vendor opportunities and other resources meant to reach LGBTQ Kansas Citians beyond the main stage.
Among those criticizing the move is Justin Mahaney, a former Kansas City Pride board member and former director of the parade, who said his concerns are not about the work Our Spot provides but about governance and community control.
Mahaney said Pride should remain an independent, community-led institution rather than operating as a program under another nonprofit. He argued the change was made without the kind of public process leadership once promised when Pride was reorganized years ago.
“Pride is an organization that represents everybody, not just somebody.” Mahaney said.
James Moran, who works with Our Spot KC and has also been involved in KC Pride, said the merger reflects a reality that had already taken shape.
“The Venn diagram of Our Spot staff and KC Pride organizers, it has become a circle,” Moran said. “It really was just the obvious choice to bring those two together.”
The reorganization comes as LGBTQ groups nationally face a more hostile political climate and increased strains on funding for programming and public events. Palmer and Moran said those conditions made it harder to justify keeping Pride as a separate entity built around one weekend each year.
“I don’t think anybody can deny that the tides are against LGBTQ folks, especially trans folks, especially the most marginalized in our community,” Moran said. “Pride has become so much more than the weekend of fun to so many people.”
Serving Kansas City’s LGBTQ community
For Our Spot KC, the argument is that Pride should not only be preserved, but tied more directly to the services the organization already provides across the year.
What was once a smaller operation, the building at 2810 E. 80th St. has grown into a broader network that includes housing, food access, clothing distribution, meeting space, youth programming and community events.
“The goal is for this to be a community spot that folks can rent out for low cost,” Palmer said. “In some instances, no cost, for LGBTQ individuals and programs and organizations.”
Inside the facility, Our Spot operates a clothing closet, food pantry, meeting and event rooms, a content studio, workstations for community members and partner groups, and gathering areas used for programs ranging from game nights to support groups. Palmer said the center also hosts walk-in housing assessments, health partnerships and regular giveaways for both LGBTQ residents and the surrounding neighborhood.
A major part of the organization’s mission is housing. Palmer said Our Spot operates transitional housing for LGBTQ adults and families and is working on a larger development near 61st Street and Swope Parkway. The project, she said, grew from an estimated $3 million construction bid to more than $5 million as it moved through the city process.
“This will be used for LGBTQ individuals and families,” Palmer said. “We have bedroom types ranging from studios all the way to three bedrooms.”
She said the need remains urgent because many LGBTQ people, particularly those who are transgender or otherwise highly marginalized, still struggle to safely access traditional shelters or mainstream housing systems.
“You can have all the policies in the world at an organization, but you can’t account for how that person will be treated by their peers and by staff that don’t agree with them, their lifestyle, their existence,” Palmer said.
A new model for Pride in KC
That year-round work is central to how Palmer describes the Pride merger. Under KC Pride’s current model, she said, the organization has directed money into local entertainers, scholarships, community sponsorships, health programming and services at the festival itself. That includes wellness space, youth and family areas, artist support and housing assessments for attendees who need help beyond the event.
“We were being very intentional on bringing not just the party aspect, but the resources to the event,” Palmer said.
Our Spot KC plans to answer the funding issue by raising money for Pride Fest year round as to not have to rely solely on business sponsorship as much.
Moran said that approach changes what Pride means.
“It’s not just going to see my favorite Drag Race star on the stage,” he said. “It’s, ‘I am in community, I can breathe.’ It’s, ‘I know every church I approach, every hot dog vendor I approach, every health practitioner I approach is going to accept and affirm me.’”
Concerns about Pride merger, transparency
Still, the public response has not been uniformly supportive.
Mahaney said he first learned of the restructuring through a news article sent to him by a friend, not through a direct public process.
“Pride is not the format to announce something important of this magnitude,” he said. “Everybody else is focused on celebrating and staying safe, and most people are probably a little intoxicated.”
He said his broader concern is that folding Pride into another organization could weaken transparency and reduce the community’s voice in how Pride is governed and how its money is distributed.
“Where’s the community vote and voice in this?” Mahaney said. “Where do the community land at?”
Though Moran pushed back on that criticism, noting that Our Spot is a nonprofit subject to public disclosure rules and has kept committee structures and community involvement in place.
“We have to be as transparent as the law dictates,” Moran said. “There’s nothing stopping anybody from looking up our tax records and really digging into our finances.”
Palmer was more blunt about the online response, saying some of the criticism came from people who already had ways to reach leadership directly.
“My line is always open,” Palmer said. “You have my number, you have my email, you have all these avenues.”
She said the public criticism was especially frustrating because she sees it as a distraction from the larger work of serving LGBTQ Kansas Citians in a period of mounting outside pressure.
“I believe that infighting is problematic to our community and doesn’t move us forward,” Palmer said. “We definitely don’t need it inside.”
Palmer also framed the moment through the lens of leadership and inclusion. She said both Our Spot and her work with Pride were shaped by seeing what happened when LGBTQ people, particularly trans people and women, were sidelined from decisions that affected them.
“When we build this new table, we’re not doing that,” Palmer said. “Everybody will be heard. Everybody will have a chance to make an impact.”
‘Been this way’
Both leaders said the structure of Pride planning has not fundamentally changed. Committees still help shape entertainment, the parade, health programming and family activities. The difference, they said, is that Pride now sits inside an organization with paid staff, broader infrastructure and a year-round mission.
“It’s basically been this way the whole time,” Moran said. “Now we’re just getting the bankers and lawyers involved.”
KC Pride Fest will take place on June 5–7, at Theis Park.
For Palmer, success this year is not just a dry weekend and a large crowd, though she wants both. It is whether Pride continues to function as an entry point to care, safety and community for people who may not have those things elsewhere.
“Imagine coming to Pride not knowing where you’re sleeping at and finding a booth that says, ‘I can help you,’” Palmer said. “That’s what success looks like for me.”
