d e i l p i t l PRIDE u M PRIDE IN OHIO The movement for LGBTQ visibility, acceptance and civil rights kicked into high gear with the 1969 uprising at New York’s Stonewall Inn. And the annual recommitment to that cause began in 1970 with the first Pride marches in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. This year, Ohioans will celebrate Pride with 17 festivals, picnics and get-togethers in 16 cities from the first weekend in June to the last weekend in August. The calendar of related events includes parties, brunches, movie screenings, networking nights, drag shows, fun runs and a Pride Night baseball game for the Cincinnati Reds. We’ve got info on June’s festivals on Pages 42-45 and also on Page 55 of this month’s Prizm, and we’ve got Ohio’s most complete calendar of Pride events at PrizmNews.com. We’ll also be covering Pride celebrations across the state, so visit our website for more. Cleveland, June 2 Dayton, June 2 Findlay, June 2 Lancaster, June 2 Athens, June 9 Newark, June 9 Zanesville, June 11 Columbus, June 15-16 Columbus Community Pride, June 16 Cincinnati, June 23 Sandusky, June 23 Springfield, June 30 Yellow Springs, June 30 Youngstown, July 21 Mansfield, August 4 Toledo, August 18 Akron, August 25
By JC McElravey
People from all over Ohio will head to Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati this month to be out and proud, to see and be seen, to be counted in support of LGBTQ civil rights, and to buy just about anything with a rainbow on it. But as LGBTQ people feel more and more comfortable living in areas outside the big cities, they’re also more comfortable celebrating Pride in their own hometowns. Pride events will take place in at least 16 cities across Ohio this summer, and they’re not just in places where people have celebrated for decades. In communities such as Lancaster, Newark, Mansfield and Sandusky, they’re now hosting Pride marches on Downtown streets and festivals in local parks.
SIXTEEN OHIO CITIES, BIG AND SMALL, WILL CELEBRATE PRIDE THIS SUMMER. It’s city of 50,000 that boasts two openly gay City Council members and will celebrate Pride on Saturday, June 9. Organizer Trisha Pound says enthusiasm for the event is a reflection not just of the local LGBTQ community but of pride in Newark as well. But the event hasn’t been without controversy. When council member Sean Fennell asked county commissioners to shine rainbow-colored lights on the Licking County Courthouse for Pride, commissioners who had allowed other combinations for observations such as St. Patrick’s Day and the spring equinox quickly came up with a policy they cited to deny the request. “This is not a battle we should have to fight,” Fennell told commissioners at a May 1 meeting.
“Lancaster is my hometown, and it is amazing seeing this community come together with no hate and with open arms,” drag performer Lady Davona says of her Central Ohio community of 40,000. Lancaster will stage its second-ever Pride on Saturday, June 2. Newark and Sandusky are hosting their first Pride festivals this year with musicians, comedians, drag performers and vendors. Among major sponsors for events scheduled June 21-24 in Sandusky is Lake Erie Shores & Islands, the tourism promoter for Erie and Ottawa counties. Sandusky native Jim Obergefell, whose lawsuit led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality decision, will speak on June 21. Three local women planned the events, which one said would offer LGBTQ residents a greater sense of community and others in Sandusky a little greater understanding. “I’m hoping it opens up people’s minds to different things,” organizer Robin Hudnall told the Sandusky Register when they announced plans in February. “We are in small-town Ohio, but I believe Sandusky is capable of way bigger and better things.” Newark, about 30 miles east of Columbus, embodies the changes taking place and the stereotypes that persist in small-town Ohio.
In its fourth year, Mansfield Pride— scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 4—continues to grow. But not too much. “At the bigger festivals you can get lost in the crowd, you can miss things,” Mansfield Pride Association President Todd Rice says. “At a small-town festival, you get to see and hear things you would miss with the larger crowds.” JC McElravey graduated in May from the Arts & College Preparatory Academy in Columbus and will be attending Columbus State Community College this fall. They reported and helped write this story as part of a three-week career-exploring internship with Prizm.
May 2018 PRIZMnews.com |
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