Kayte Teel stood in the shade at Haddad Riverfront Park Saturday, a rainbow flag draped over her shoulders.
This was the 16-year-old's first time at Charleston's Pride Parade, a annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people that has been going on since before she was born.
A small group of protesters showed up this year with megaphones to try and drown out the celebration. Another impromptu group of people showed up to protest the protesters. Each group screamed and argued with each other for hours as the celebration continued, unfazed by the noise.
"It's a mess," Teel, of South Charleston, said. "Why argue? Some of these people - I understand they're trying to say it's OK to be gay, but everyone is just taking it too far. If they want to argue and yell, they can do that. I want to enjoy today."
Dozens of local organizations and some churches paraded down Kanawha Boulevard Saturday afternoon. After the parade ended, local drag queens took to the stage to perform.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones stopped by to visit celebration and reflect on his many years in office. When he first came into the office, Jones said, people resisted him supporting the rights of LGBT people.
Last summer, Jones switched his party affiliation from Republican to "unaffiliated." He did so for several reasons, including what he called at the time an "obsession of the West Virginia House of Delegates' leadership with the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act."
"There will come a time when you have more than one mayor down here to greet you," Jones said. "Times are changing."
Dave Faber, 62, knows firsthand how the state has changed. Before he moved to Texas years ago to teach music at a small college there, he grew up in Morgantown. He returned the Mountain State this year to attend the pride celebration and see how his home state has changed.
"When I grew up, we were all in the closet," Faber said. "You didn't know about other people, which made it very difficult to be gay or bisexual. It's interesting - I keep running into people now who were gay back then. If only we had all knew and could have been there to support each other. It would've been a much easier place to live."
In his work, he has become a role model for younger LGBT students who are coming out of the closet or looking for support. Not only has he lived out and proud as a gay man for decades, he grew up heavily involved in church and helps his students who feel shunned by their parents.
He decided the best way to counteract the protesters was to ignore them.
"We have to feel good about ourselves and who God made us to be and to celebrate it," Faber said. "I feel sorry for them. God loves them. God loves all of us and they have kind of missed that."
Reach Jake Jarvis at jake.jarvis@wvgazettemail.com, Facebook.com/newsroomjake, 304-348-7939 or follow @NewsroomJake on Twitter.