What Happened at Snowball 2024?

It was supposed to be a quirky ball for adults. Then children got involved.

The annual Snowball event was mired in controversy this year over what some deemed an inappropriate event for children.

About a dozen men showed up to pray and reach out to attendees entering the ball’s venue, the Twisp Valley Grange. According to one of the event organizers, Kelly Edwards, about 200-300 people attended the event. At least one pastor counted 40 children, according to Jason Getzin, pastor of Methow Calvary Chapel Fellowship in Methow.

Tensions flared, then rescinded, but not before one of the attendees pushed a pastor and tried to pry his fingers from the railing.

Both sides preached love and both sides, depending on who you talk to, felt disrespected.

Benign Origins

It wasn’t supposed to get to this. Snowball was a quirky event started ten years ago by a group of friends in the valley. Edwards described it as an “awkward adult prom in late winter when people are getting stir crazy.” They wear ridiculous clothes and big taffeta dresses. “We don’t get to do that very often as adults anymore. By the end of February, beginning of March, everyone is getting a little stir crazy,” said Edwards.

The idea to bring it to the valley came from a similar event in Bellingham. Other mountain communities put on Snowball events. Edwards pointed out a town in Alaska that puts one on for an avalanche association.

The Methow Valley Snowball took a hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Some of the original organizers left the valley. A group of people that had attended the event wanted to bring it back and decided it would be better if it were run by an organization instead of community volunteers. Given the quirkiness of the event, Methow Pride picked it up as their main fundraiser. Last year was the first year the event was organized by Methow Pride.

“It’s the only fundraiser that we have, really, throughout the year. We were able to bring in funds to support some of the work that we do and the pride festival in June,” said Edwards, who is one of three co-leaders at Methow Pride.

Edwards said she received positive feedback from gender queer teens who attended the event last year. “They felt it was the most affirming place they have ever been in, which is what we want. That’s why we decided to keep it. We could make it 21 and over but it was so impactful for the teenagers last year to know in a rural area that they are not alone and that they are welcome in their community. I think it can literally save someone’s life because we lose too many teenagers to suicide and substances because they don’t feel their gender identity or sexuality is accepted, especially in a smaller rural area. It became especially important that the kids felt like we accept however you identify. We accept you here. You belong here.”

Snowball’s Honeymoon Comes to an End

Not everyone saw it that way. For some conservatives in the valley, the ball took a horrible turn. They saw the all-ages event as a venue for predatory behavior, an orgy that doesn’t just normalize sex but glorifies sexual deviancy without any bounds, and they saw it as grossly inappropriate for children.

Four churches between Twisp and Pateros organized a group of men to stand outside the Grange to talk and pray with attendees. Valley resident Mike Liu, who was one of men, said he wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for the presence of children. He shared his concerns with Dwight Filer, vice president of the Twisp Valley Grange, after the event. 

“I told him if the event was for adults only, I would not have been there in person because I was not trying to push my own faith and moral beliefs on others. I was there for the minors who don’t know better and don’t really have a voice to say drag shows are not appropriate for minors, regardless of faith, background or gender,” Liu wrote in a text. “I was there to also demonstrate Christians can be respectful and love individuals regardless of sexual orientation and gender while disapproving of certain activities such as drag shows that included encouragement to bring minors.”

Things got heated. Filer, who was at the event, declined to comment for this article, but Grange board member Judy Brezina, in her opinion piece in the Methow Valley News, said she asked the men to move off the Grange property several times before she, as she writes, had “had enough.” 

“I literally had to peel his fingers off the railing, put my hands on his chest, and gently push him away (well, I didn’t exactly have the advantage),” wrote Brezina.

Liu, who witnessed the altercation, puts it this way. “The individual from the grange communicated she felt we were trespassing and needed to leave the Grange property. The pastor in question failed to move and tried to convince the women not to force us to leave the porch. The older and much smaller woman did push a much taller and larger man to get off the porch. If you want to call it a shove, it was a wimpy one.”

“I left the property and stood on the town easement adjacent to the road to be non-confrontive and respectful. Had the pastor done the same, he wouldn’t have been pushed,” added Liu.

In her article, Brezina admitted to using the f* bomb, but that’s not what stood out in Getzin’s mind.

“Stay away from the angry white men,” he recalled hearing at the venue. Standing outside his church in Methow on a recent Sunday morning, his demeanor grew quiet, wholly unlike the man in the pulpit.

The temperature that night fell to below zero. Getzin said he and the other men stayed until 8 pm, when the number of children entering the Grange dwindled.

“We do not have a code of conduct.”

Wendy Braden, president of the Twisp Valley Grange, didn’t see a way out of the predicament.

“We have to rent to everyone. We cannot discriminate,” she said. “We have National Grange bylaws. We do discuss whether a meeting is appropriate. We do this on a case-by-case basis. We do not have a code of conduct.”

When asked if she would allow a heterosexual bachelorette party that involved male dancers, Braden said she would have to talk to the board about that.

Filer referred this writer to a letter to the editor signed by the Twisp Valley Grange Board of Directors that was published in the Methow Valley News a few weeks after the event. The board did not mention Snowball by name, but said they were “proud to support a truly inclusive organization, one which from its very inception in 1867 led the way on issues of equality and nondiscrimination in this wonderful country. Following National Grange bylaws against discrimination, our byline is “ALL WELCOME [sic].”

“Both of us are there for loving reasons.”

Inside the event, things couldn’t have gone better, said Edwards.

“It was amazing. It was incredible to have 200-300 people come through the evening, of all ages. Elders and kiddos. It was a real community event. We received a number of comments like that throughout the evening and afterward about how it really felt like a community-centered event,” she said.

“Initially, there was some concern about their [Christian men’s] presence,” she continued. “I think there has been so much anti-trans violence across the country that there was concern about what the intention was from this group. Three women who grew up in this valley approached them, who had known them from different church groups, and approached them for a conversation. They said it was a good conversation to have. The group could share that they were just there to promote love and the things their church community was caring about and the local women could share this event was also about love and they should come inside. I think they invited them inside.”

None of the men went inside, according to Edwards.

“One of our volunteers came out and I know he talked to them for about 45 minutes and I think they hugged each other in the end. We viewed it as an important opportunity for more conversation and exchange if both of us are there for loving reasons. They’re there for loving reasons from their church and we’re there for loving reasons for our community. We’d have more in common than in difference.”

Family Event Versus All Ages

Edwards dismissed associations between dancing performers and asking attendees to bring cash. 

“Cash was needed for everything. Cash was needed for entrance, for the bar, for the performers. Nobody was taking clothes off. They were just dancing,” said Edwards. “The drag element- their show is about so much positivity. They are lip syncing and dancing to songs, but it’s ultimately up to their parents if they felt like it was a good place for their kids to be.”

She also said it was up to the parents to decide if the event was appropriate for their children.

“It wasn’t advertised as a family event. It was advertised as all ages. All ages being welcome up until 9, then it’s up to parental discretion. It was totally in parental control. Whoever came in to that all ages portion, it’s up to their parents whether that’s a positive thing for their kids or not.”

Aftermath

Edwards said the letters to the editor published in the Methow Valley News did not reflect the positive conversations that also occurred between the two groups.

“It ended up being positive from our perspective,” said Edwards. “It was a place of dialogue. It was not a place of violence. I think there was an initial concern not knowing what the intention was. There was an initial concern that it could be violent because of what has happened nationally, but I think because we’re a small community, you rely on your personal relationships and there are people that grew up together so we could rely on those personal relationships.”

“We were a little disappointed that some of the letters to the editor seemed to emphasize more of that us versus them dynamic, which is not what the Methow Pride leadership would have wanted to say,” said Edwards. “Everybody is truly welcome.”

The event, however, does not sit well with some people.

“Jesus loves trans people, but He died so they could be saved from that lifestyle. He rose again, He rose again, died and rose again so that He can give them a new life, a new identity. A new identity doesn’t have to be a trans person. A new identity can be a son or daughter of God,” said Getzin.