Under the shade of the trees at Loudoun Pride, 13-year-old Myka Burke stands with his mom Cleopatra Burke. Draped in a rainbow flag, he smiles brightly.

“I’m just so, so happy,” says Myka, a rising 8th grader at Loudoun County public school. “It’s a very cool sense of community… seeing all of these people who have all of their flags that they’re wearing, showing their identities. It’s really cool to see that because it shows there are other people like you.”

Myka isn’t the only one who is overjoyed. The sense of community is palpable for everyone who walks under the inflatable rainbow marking the entrance to Sterling’s Claude Moore Park at what organizers say is Loudoun’s first-ever official Pride festival. There’s music, dozens of vendors and non-profits, a beer garden, and food trucks. The crowd skews younger, and elaborate dance moves, unicorn tees, pride flags, and sparkly face paint are in abundance. Later that evening, there’s set to be a drag show that just might be the largest in the county’s history.

The event was so hotly anticipated that it sold out over a week in advance. Organized by the non-profit Equality Loudoun, approximately 1,500 tickets were sold with all proceeds going towards education and scholarship programs, as well as a legal defense fund.

Loudoun County Board Chair Phyllis Randall is in the midst of presenting a Pride proclamation on the main stage as several other local officials, as well as Myka and Cleopatra, look on.

“Whereas, Loudoun County is committed to ensuring all persons, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, feel valued, empowered, and accepted,” reads Randall.

This space of collective exuberance is a welcome change after what has been a difficult year for many of Loudoun County’s LGBTQ+ community — especially the students caught in the crosshairs of heated national battles.

Loudoun County schools have been the site of debate over using the names and pronouns of transgender students, a battle to ban a book about gender identity, fights over whether to teach systemic racism, and sexual assault investigations. There were recall efforts to remove county school board members over these debates and subpoenas for student records that may have violated the privacy of LGBTQ+ individuals. The recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has many in the areas’ LGBTQ+ community fearing that their rights could be at risk again.

Cris Candice Tuck, the head of the two-decade-old Equality Loudon and the lead organizer of Loudoun Pride, told DCist/WAMU about a week before the festival that many young people in Loudoun’s LGBTQ+ community are feeling scared, sad, and unsafe.

“This is hurting them,” Tuck said. “They’re having increased rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. A lot of these kids, they feel like they don’t belong anymore, which is especially hard because it felt like rights in our community were getting better.”

It’s all given this celebration of pride an additional meaning.

“This event shows that there are people like you, who will support you, and be there for you,” says Vee Kurtz, a rising 10th grader at a Loudoun County public school who attended with his mom and a few friends and says this isn’t always how he feels in Loudoun County. “You don’t really have to know them. You just kind of know that you’re safe with them.”

That’s the reason Sharon Reith is at the festival. She’s with the non-profit Free Mom Hugs, an organization that is exactly as advertised — offering comfort to anyone who wants one. Reith has a son who is part of the LGBTQ+ community and while she says many Loudouners show their support, she’s also witnessed not so kind acts.

“There are people who don’t show a lot of love to the LGBTQA demographic,” Reith says, clearly emotional. “We just want to step in and let them know that they are loved, affirmed, and accepted.”

The festival came together in just 60 days with the help of 100 volunteers, says Tuck, who adds that after all the community has been through this space for joy was sorely needed.

“This is the day we celebrate each other. We find new friends and make new bonds but tomorrow we will find new missions to make Loudoun better,” he says.

That isn’t to say that Tuck, who has two kids who both attended the event, didn’t harbor any worries.

Pride festivals across the country have been targeted with threats and violence. Tuck says they’ve received messages in recent days that elevated their concern about possible interruptions. Some were threats to vendors who decided to sponsor or attend the event. Tuck told DCist/WAMU that other messages accused organizers like himself of “pedophilia” and “grooming.”

Those fears prompted a note to the community that they were working with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office on a security plan. Thankfully, nothing materialized.

“This is the community responding,” he says. “We want to see Loudoun go ahead into the future and become a place where everyone is truly equal.”

Maria Maldonado is in her mid-twenties and says that when she was growing up in Loudoun, she sometimes felt “shame” for who she was.

Walking around the festival, she’s inspired by the younger generation — spaces like this didn’t exist here even seven or eight years ago, she says.

“It’s really beautiful to see such a shameless place where they feel comfortable to identify as they do and be who they are,” Maldonado says. “It’s that unlearning and breaking those generational shames that [we were] taught.”

There are already plans to bring Loudoun Pride back next year, Tuck says, noting that it will be bigger, better, and “brighter.”

Back under the trees, Myka is still grinning. Cleopatra wraps her arm around her 13-year-old.

“You are a rainbow. You are a unicorn,” Cleopatra says, now fully embracing Myka. “And I love you.”