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FeedPoint of Pride
Motorcyclists, flag-twirlers and drag queens converge each June for the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival, an annual check-in for the area’s LGBT community and its allies. The parade/concert/festival/dance party is a summertime staple here as well as one of the largest gay-pride events in the Midwest, second only in scale to Chicago’s.
Karla Rothan, executive director of organizing group Stonewall Columbus, expects to see 250,000 people for the celebrations centered in Goodale Park on June 15-17.
It’s also a place to reflect on battles for LGBT equality won in the past year and a rallying ground for what’s to come. The politics can’t be avoided. They’re ingrained in the DNA of the 31-year-old event, which began as a 70-person visibility march and slowly grew alongside Stonewall. Now, Rothan says the event is as much about visibility as it is about welcoming people, from LGBT teenagers seeking supportive community organizations to the elderly fighting for partner rights. Hence this year’s theme: “Allies and Equality.”
A celebration of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will get a prime spot in this year’s parade, with openly gay veterans and soldiers marching down High Street. A few nods will also be made to the now-sputtering effort to repeal Ohio’s ban on gay marriage: Two of its biggest backers, Equality Ohio and Freedom to Marry Ohio, will be around to collect signatures from supporters. And Pride sponsor Barefoot Wine will supply an inflatable, 20-foot-tall rainbow-decked wedding cake that also happens to be a slide.
Also new this year will be the “Pride Patio” on a stretch of the I-670 cap, which will feature a deejay and a dance floor, and a Sunday brunch honoring Mayor Michael Coleman. The events, Rothan says, help people from across the country see Columbus as an accepting place. “With Pride, everyone can come out and be gay for a day,” she says.
