Kansas City News Blog

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI

In June, Pride Revolution Events hosted a blow-out gathering up at Smithville Lake. Dozens of gay, lesbian, bi- and transexual campers enjoyed an evening under the stars -- imbibing alcohol through beer bongs and mingling with friends as a mobile DJ pumped out music. The party was a huge success, organizers say, and the park rangers were nothing but courteous of their guests' festivities.

So, the second weekend in July, Pride Revolution planned a second campout at Longview Lake. That gathering was tame in comparison, but more than 50 campers were evicted after just one night's stay. The rude dismissal caused outrage and allegations of discrimination on the part of the Jackson County Parks employees. This morning, though, a meeting in the Jackson County Courthouse might have cooled the controversy -- and mitigated the threat of a lawsuit.

Heidi (who didn't want me to use her last name), one of the co-owners of the Pride Revolution Events, says they had concerns before they even arrived at Longview Lake. Three days before the gathering, a parks' employee called the group to say she was looking at Pride Revolution's Web site and wanted to be sure organizers knew Longview was a "family" campground. Despite what they considered a discourteous phone call, more than 50 people occupied 11 campsites the first night. Heidi says most of the group hit the sack before midnight after some low-key drinking and socializing.

The next morning, the majority of campers were in their tents, playing cards to avoid the rain, when a park ranger told them to pack up and hit the road. Heidi says the parks' attendant wasn't forthcoming with an explanation as to why the group was being kicked out. She says the employee was aggressive and disrespectful, insulting the organizers' intelligence and calling them "slow."

Jeff Gilmore, the Chief of Jackson County Parks and Recreation, says the attendant was concerned about the condition of the camp sites occupied by Pride Revolution, including beer cans littering the area and tents draped in toilet paper. One woman had allegedly urinated in the bushes.

Following the incident, campers met with civil rights and LGBT advocacy groups, considering a lawsuit in response to what they believed to be an outright act of discrimination based on the group's sexual orientation. Jackson County officials also started an investigation, calling on advocates such as Tim Degnan and Lisa Pelofsky of the Four Freedoms Democratic Club, a gay political organization, to review the reports and transcripts related to the incident. Based on what they saw, Pelofsky and Degnan said it wasn't clear if the eviction was an act of outright discrimination. But either way, they agreed policies needed to change.

This morning, campers, activists and county officials sat around a table to put to rest the incident that has burned up message boards in recent weeks with headlines like "Jackson County Parks & Rec = Gay Haters." Calvin Williford, a spokesman for Jackson County, said officials have been working on a new personnel policy for the past six months, which would include non-discrimination protections for members of the wider LGBT community. (He couldn't say when that ordinance would be introduced to the county legislature, though.)

The parks' department is reviewing new camping policies that would make it easier to identify and evict a single camper causing trouble, rather than booting an entire group for one individual's behavior. In addition, Gilmore said parks officials would create a more defined procedure for evicting wayward campers so it wouldn't be based on one official's assessment. And that call Pride Revolution organizers got warning them of the "family" environment? That kind of loaded language won't be tolerated anymore, either.

Pride Revolution organizers were still adamant that they weren't the loud and rowdy crowd the park's attendant had described and that plenty of people were offended by the treatment. But they were satisfied that the county was making an effort to deal with the problem. Hopefully, Heidi says, the promised changes aren't just a bid for good publicity and will be implemented quickly. In the meantime, the Pride Revolution campers would sure appreciate it if the county refunded them the fees for that second night they never got to enjoy at the lake.