Pride is about PEOPLE.
As LGBTQIA+ gain visibility and rights over the decades, more communities and companies are hosting events for Pride Month and throughout the year.
Whether you are a volunteer event planner or have been coordinating festivals for decades, it is important that your Pride activities embrace four central values: visibility, inclusion, economic empowerment, community care, and preparation.
This blog series, written in collaboration with Alli Thresher pulls together decades of wisdom from event producers, performers, and participants for developing an event that truly reflects LGBTQIA+ Pride.
Visibility
Inclusion
Economic Empowerment
Community Care
Preparation
Pride is about VISIBILITY
Pride celebrations are an important rite of passage for many LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies. As queer people together to celebrate, people are opened up to a world of possibility regarding gender identity, expression, and social connection. As a coordinator, you have a responsibility to ensure that the audience feels affirmed and celebrated.
When we say visibility, we mean Put Diversity at Center Stage, Celebrate All Art Forms, and Amplify Your Pride Court.
Put Diversity at Center Stage
When developing your entertainment schedule, ensure that you are representing all of the intersections of LGBTQIA+ identity.
Race and gender identity may be front of mind, but it is also important to consider performers of all ages and experience levels, people with disabilities or identify as neurodivergent, and size diversity.
It’s especially important that our Pride events reflect the trailblazers that are the reason we have rights and visibility, including Black transgender women like Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major, Black lesbians like Stormé Delarverié, bisexual women like Barbara Gittings, and Latine transgender women like Sylvia Rivera.
If you have an open application, add a question regarding intersectional identities, including:
- Race & Ethnicity
- Disabilities (visible and invisible)
- Neurodivergent
- Gender / gender experience
- Age / Tenure
- Size
Though it’s not possible to capture every dimension of diversity on a stage, ensure you have a cast that intentionally reflects the community.
Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.
Celebrate All Art Forms
Joy is a powerful form of resistance.
Creative expression can take many forms, depending on the message and artist’s experience. If you are planning a festival with a mainstage, ensure you are not just featuring drag queens, but also drag kings and things, or burlesque performers for evening 18+ events and parties.
Add variety to the line-up with comedians, musicians, poetry, and dance. Hire a local DJ for ambient music during events and parties. Also, think about how visual art can be incorporated into events, as well as ephemeral art or collaborative art projects that invite participants to contribute to a work.
Ask your community who they want to see at your event, including entertainment for distinct audiences like families or tweens.
Art is an important way for people to share their experience, learn about others, and form bonds. Ensure that your Pride events highlights different styles of art to deepen the experience for everyone who attends.
Amplify your Pride Court
If you coordinate a Pride Court or pageant, ensure that it represents all gender identities, ages, races, and other experiences.
Consider renaming “Mr. Gay Gotham City” to “Gotham City’s Royalty” or other gender-neutral term. All winners, regardless of gender identity or performance style, should have equitable stage time or position in a parade.
Upcoming “Pride is About People” Topics
Visibility
Inclusion
Preparation
Community
Care
Economic
Empowerment
How are you incorporating these values into your Pride event?
Need support planning your upcoming event?
