EP 33 – Tess English – Tuscon Pride 2027
Rebuilding Pride in Tucson with Tess English
What happens when a community loses its Pride celebration—but the need for connection, visibility, and belonging doesn’t go away?
This week on the GayPHX Podcast, Bily sits down with Tess English, part of the team behind Desert Pride Tucson 2027, to talk about what it takes to build something new for Southern Arizona’s LGBTQ+ community.
For Tess, the importance of community is deeply personal. She shares what it was like growing up with access to an LGBTQ+ youth center in San Diego, then moving to a small town where she felt forced back into the closet just to get through high school. That experience helped shape a lifelong passion for making sure others—especially LGBTQ+ youth—have places where they can feel safe, seen, and supported.
Now that passion is helping drive the creation of Desert Pride Tucson.
Tess takes us behind the scenes as the team begins putting together the pieces for 2027: working with community organizations, finding the right location, considering accessibility and safety, creating opportunities for local organizations and vendors, and building an event that feels uniquely Tucson.
But this conversation goes beyond planning another Pride festival.
It’s about the difference between being invited and truly feeling welcome. It’s about why Pride remains an important place to discover resources and community. And it’s about recognizing that success isn’t simply measured by attendance—it’s measured by whether people leave feeling represented, connected, and safe.
Tess and Bily also talk about leadership, nonprofit work, the importance of sharing our struggles along with our successes, and why this is a moment when LGBTQ+ communities need to resist division and show up for one another.
Because Pride isn’t just a party.
It’s a place to find each other.
🎙️ Listen now to the GayPHX Podcast, and find more of what’s happening in our community at GayPHX.com.