Iowa City LGBTQ+ leader shares message of love and support through pride festival

IOWA CITY — Joe Reilly never set out to be a leader in the LGBTQ+ community in Iowa City, but this year he led the city’s biggest pride celebration in its 52-year history.

Reilly, president of the Iowa City Pride Board, aimed to promote positivity and self-love at this year’s pride festival amid divisive rhetoric over transgender health care for minors and LGBTQ+ themes in Iowa schools.

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“There's all these different experiences that are part of LGBTQIA and we felt like we're kind of under attack and everything seems negative, and it doesn't feel good,” Reilly said. “So we wanted to be put something out there that's positive and affirming and look inward to our community and love ourselves.”

Reilly, who is also the current “nighttime mayor” for the Iowa City Downtown District, moved to Iowa City to perform but stayed to lead.

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A performer at heart

Reilly, 37, was born in Council Bluffs, where he attended St. Albert Catholic Schools from preschool through his senior year of high school. During his formative years, Reilly had a knack for the arts and for leading his community at his church.

Reilly said he felt loved and accepted in his community and in his church, but since he was a gay man he had to wrestle with the contrast of acceptance from his local community and the “guilt of Catholicism.”

“I just felt like at that time, to get those messages where people of the church want to be affirming toward me, but the church itself is not affirming toward me as an individual,” Reilly said. “ … I can't have one mouth talking to two sides.”

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Reilly no longer attends Catholic Mass and said his exit from the church has been a positive influence in his life. Reilly now attends the United Church of Christ in Tipton, with his husband, John Mathias, that is supportive of LGBTQ+ congregants.

Reilly relocated to Iowa City in the mid-2000s to attend the University of Iowa to obtain a bachelor’s in theater arts. While in school, Reilly started working part time as a customer service agent at The Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids.

After finishing school in 2010, Reilly remained in Iowa City and eventually became a customer service manager at the airport for Allegiant and Frontier airlines.

Although Reilly grew up performing, he fell in love with leading and community organizing.

During his time as a customer service manager for almost a decade, Reilly said he really enjoyed his job and looked forward to making it a life long career. However, in 2017 the Iowa City Downtown District posted a job for a “nighttime mayor” — a liaison to nightlife, arts and culture inspired by similar roles in Europe — but the role was only part time.

With Reilly’s unpredictable schedule as a manager, he did not have the availability to take advantage of the role at the time. But in 2018, when the first Nighttime Mayor Angela Winnicke resigned and the role was made full time, Reilly knew it was time.

Reilly now fosters nightlife in downtown Iowa City, and caters to the needs of the various bars, clubs, and restaurants that dot downtown.

Reilly joined the Iowa City Pride Board in 2019, after a suggestion from his former boss Nancy Bird to be one of the at-large members.

After a few members of the leadership of the Iowa City Pride Board made their exit from the board, Reilly stepped in to lead the group through 2024. Reilly said he didn’t intend to lead the organization when he first joined, but he found that he finds his way to leadership roles quite often — because he cares about the organizations he is involved in and wants to make sure its succeeds.

“I feel like just having that care and attention and want to make something better, always automatically drives me to the center of things and organizations,” Reilly said. “I don't ever show up and say to myself, ‘I want to be the leader of this,’ I just want to make sure that it is cared for and is in good hands — coincidentally that happens to be how you get into a leadership position.”

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