KANSAS CITY, MO — As an entertainer and Grand Marshall of KC’s 2023 Pride Parade, Aniseto Herrera-Lyell is on a mission.
“It’s so imperative in our nation that we are providing safe spaces and places where people can feel loved and safe in their own skin,” said Herrera-Lyell.
An area native and an elementary school teacher in Kansas City, Kan., Herrera-Lyell takes pride is creating those spaces for his community.
“The queer community, we are being attacked right now and our safe spaces are dwindling and slowly being lessened,” Herrera-Lyell said, “So spaces like pride, spaces like a classroom where I teach can help people feel safe in their own skin and provide a community are so, so important.”
For Herrera-Lyell, those safe spaces are so important to him after he came out at 16-years-old.
“It’s the most rewarding thing in the world, especially for someone who came out so young in 2006,” said Herrera-Lyell.
Now known as KC Sunshine, holding the title of Mr. Gay America, he is happy to see his community continue to grow.
"It’s beautiful that they feel safe enough and they feel accepted enough to come out and say this is who I am, and I need a community and I am looking for a community,” said Herrera-Lyell.
He is now hoping those in the LGBTQIA+ community and others can live together peacefully and with pride.
“All we are wanting to do is live authentically," he said. "We are not trying to convert anybody, we are not trying to indoctrinate anybody, we just want to live authentically as ourselves. It’s about diversity, diversity is love and through that we can make this world a more amazing and beautiful place .”
