For two years Watertown, Wisconsin allowed Pride in the Park, with a drag queen show and a drag queen story hour for kids, to be held in its main city park. Last year, protestors showed up ultimately resulting in the City Council needing to address the issue. Once alderpersons got a full picture of how applications for holding events in a city park were handled, they made some changes, including increasing fees for any applicant. These changes resulted in the pride event finding a church to host the event this year, thus removing it from the very publicly accessible city park.
The event organizers said the increased fee structure was one of the main reasons they looked for private property for the event rather than the park. Overall, this venue change is very good for the city and its citizens—especially children.
