Lea County Pride

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  • Deb Haaland visits Lea County

    On Saturday, July 19th, 2025, gubernatorial candidate, Deb Haaland came to Lea County to talk to the members and visitors of the Democratic Party of Lea County about her campaign. Given that the community at large did not receive prior information about her appearance here in Hobbs, a good number of people did show up to see her. Deb gave a short speech regarding her background and her qualifications for governor (e.g. she was a child of two service members, one a Marine, the other the Navy, her time as a poor, single mother who needed to use Medicaid and SNAP, her Native American and Norwegian heritage, her transgender child, and her time as a Congresswoman and then as the United States Secretary of the Interior).

    Deb then answered questions from the audience. It was obvious that Deb does not yet have a cohesive plan for the future, but since the election in more than a year away, that is expected.

    There were a few things that occurred during her speech that those from Lea County Pride might find interesting.

    1. Deb, as a mother of a trans child, is very pro-LGBTQ+ and will do all in her power to keep LGBTQ people in New Mexico safe and protect our rights to fair and equitable treatment in all facets of our lives.
    2. Deb also expressed interest in talking to Lea County Pride via Zoom to discuss our needs and concerns with her.
    3. Clayburn Griffin, the Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Lea County and a member of Lea County Pride, noticed that somewhere between a third and a half of the people who attended Deb’s talk were members of Lea County Pride. In fact, it seems that a majority of active members of the DPLC are of the LGBTQ+ community. How cool is that?!

    If you are interested in learning more about Deb’s run for governor of New Mexico for the Democratic Party, check out her website here.

    Finally, here are a couple of pictures of Lea County Pride members taken with Deb at the event.

    Deb giving her speech
    Deb with Polly Weinheimer
    Deb with Jackson Keys and Bill Raabe

    Jackson, Clayburn, and Sam listening to BJ talk to Deb

  • Summer BBQ and Swim Day

    July 5th was our annual Lea County Pride BBQ and Swim Day. This year, we decided to add an end-of-the-day fire pit. Although the day was warm, everyone had a good time either playing in the pool, hanging out with friends, or both. This year the BBQ decided to die on us, so everything had to be cooked inside. No matter; the food was good. Thank you to everyone who brought food, helped decorate, and take down the party. You rock!

    Here are a few pictures of members chilling around the fire at the end of the party.

    Stephen, Emma, and Sam

    Stephen, Emma, and Sam

    Sam, Emma, Matt, Polly

    Jackson

  • No Kings Day

    June 14, 2025

    Samael Burchett, President of Lea County Pride, organized No Kings Day. No Kings Day, also known internationally as the No Dictators or No Tyrants protests, were a series of demonstrations that took place on June 14, 2025 in all 50 states and in many territories of the USA.

    No Kings Day was a protest against Donald Trump’s policies and actions that have occurred during his second presidency, including his fascist tendencies and associated democratic backsliding in the U.S., his wholly illegal removal of immigrants, and his atrocious policies against the LGBTQ+ community. Organizers estimated that more than five million people participated in more than 2,100 cities and towns.

    Our protest took place in Hobbs at the corner of Bender Blvd and Grimes Street. As part of the protest, Lea County Pride invited a number of organizations to participate. No organization showed more enthusiasm than Somos un Pueblo Unido, an immigrant-led organization dedicated to advancing worker and racial justice at the state and local levels. In addition, the Democratic Party posted the event on their Facebook page for those who wished to attend.

    The protest took place from 9 am to noon and nearly 100 people showed up to show their dissatisfaction of the Trump regime’s platform on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights.

    While the protest took place, we received so many heartfelt agreements of the protest signs from passing cars. I believe a great time was had by all who attended.

    On the the following Tuesday, reporter Azure Mitchell’s article and photos of the No Kings Protest were published on the front page of the local newspaper, the Hobbs News-Sun.

    Below are a few of Lea County Pride’s own photos of the event.

  • Interesting week

    Lea County and Lea County Pride had an interesting week. This last week (June 1 – 7) was packed with political activities. First off, the governor of New Mexico was at the Junior College to give a Town Hall Meeting. Since Lea County is a very red county, it is nice that she decided to visit us and give us a chance to discuss what is happening at the federal, state, and local area.

    In addition, Somos Un Pueblo Unido had a gathering at City Park to figure out what is to be done about ICE in our community. Lea County is one of the few non-sanctuary counties in New Mexico, and that is quite depressing. ICE has been in Lea County a couple of times in the last six months and have disappeared people, including children. Admittedly, there is something very wrong when a federal agency can pick up people without a warrant, without due process, and make them disappear. In addition, they are covering their faces and not providing proof of their agency when they pick up people. Whether that is illegal or not, I don’t know. Is it disturbing? Absolutely. Hopefully Somos and others can come up with a way to combat this weirdly fascist activity by ICE.

    On Friday, Samael, the President of Lea County Pride, had a article printed in our local paper, The Hobbs News Sun. He discussed gender-affirming care that should make sense to cisgender people. It is well known that cisgender people make use of gender-affirming care all the time. To try and make gender-affirming care a trans issue only is quite suspect.

    Finally, on Saturday, Lea County Pride held a Visibility event in Lovington to show that LGBTQ+ people and their allies live throughout Lea County. This was our second Visibility event this year. Hopefully, this will attract more members to Lea County Pride, both LGBTQ+ individuals but allies as well.

  • Art In the Park

    Today, May 24th, 2025, Lea County Pride held an art day at City Park in Hobbs. Sam did a fantastic job of organizing the day, and everyone who attended had fun. Some people made paintings, while others created bracelets. Drinks were served to keep people cool and hydrated. Maybe we’ll do this again soon?!

  • Writing Our Representatives

    On Saturday, April 19, the United States had a Day Of Action to protest the Administration of Donald Trump. Thousands of people across more than 700 locations in the United States demonstrated against President Donald Trump on Saturday, protesting his administration’s policies during the second “day of action”.

    As part of this “day of action” Lea County Pride hosted a Postcard Campaign to write to various representatives at both the state and federal levels. We created over 40 postcards that were mailed on Sunday, and other members took postcards home to create additional postcards.

    Every time a Representative receives a letter, postcard, phone call, petition, it lets them know what their constituents are worried about and how, if they wish to keep their job, they need to vote. Taking action is critical at this time in history. Never has the United States been so close to the edge of fascism. If we don’t fight now, we might never get the chance to fight again.