Winchester’s first ‘Y’all Ball’ reveals diversity, acceptance in our community

This sto­ry was sub­mit­ted by guest con­trib­u­tor David Johnson.

We had the most mag­nif­i­cent evening last Saturday night right here in the heart of Winchester, Ky. 

Upon mov­ing here 17 years ago, the first thing I noticed — and fell in love with — about Winchester was the friend­ly diver­si­ty in the com­mu­ni­ty. Walking down Main Street you could expect to see busi­ness own­ers, hip­pies, punk rock­ers, skate­board­ers, lawyers, and so many walks of life all being friend­ly and show­ing respect for each other.

We have a mul­ti­tude of busi­ness­es cater­ing not to just a spe­cif­ic clien­tele but to every­one. Coffee shops where we can gath­er and get to know one anoth­er. Open mic nights bring­ing in all gen­res of music lovers and cre­ators. Arts and Crafts stores that teach class­es about their pas­sions to any­one inter­est­ed in learn­ing more. A craft brew­ery invit­ing the whole com­mu­ni­ty in to sell their wares in an open night mar­ket. A won­der­ful the­atre host­ing events in full sup­port of its var­ied clien­tele. Local restau­rants, each with their own brand of eats and treats not found any­where else. A tru­ly pub­lic-fund­ed park where chil­dren are both safe and able to learn about the nat­ur­al world. 

All this and not one sin­gle sign telling peo­ple they can­not par­tic­i­pate. This grow­ing town is all about acceptance.

Last Saturday, Winchester native Brack Duncan host­ed Winchester’s first ‘Y’all Ball’ at the Winchester Opera House. This event made it abun­dant­ly clear to me that our town is all about open­ness and accep­tance of everyone. 

We had a mix of young adults, spir­i­tu­al lead­ers, and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers — all gath­er­ing in the truest sense of pride. Pride in all of us. Yes, we had full rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty in all our bright col­ors, but we had so much more than that. We had the very things that give us all the strength need­ed to grow: sup­port, love, and stand­ing together.

I was thrilled to find sev­er­al queens talk­ing freely with every­one they met. A whole slew of peo­ple dressed in the clothes they feel com­fort­able in. Elders shar­ing laugh­ter and joy with the younger gen­er­a­tion. Together we shared a night of danc­ing to the mod­ern music cre­at­ed by the artists of today as well as many clas­sics from the days of our youth. A fan­tas­tic blend of tunes show­ing us there real­ly is not as much of a gen­er­a­tional divide as we some­times think. 

The only ones miss­ing were pro­tes­tors spew­ing out hate­ful words. But then who could take pride in protest­ing a com­mu­ni­ty stand­ing proud­ly togeth­er? Feeling proud of our indi­vid­ual selves is some­thing we can all take pride in, together.

I am proud of this town!