Seasons of Pride by Jack Valinski

As we move into summer, we also move into the season when most pride celebrations occur. Basically, Pride is celebrated all over the world. A pride celebration can be as simple as a picnic hosted by a college GLBT group in a small town many miles away from a metropolis. To most of us Pride Committee people, a pride celebration can be a picnic, a parade, a festival, or any event that commemorates the Stonewall rebellion in New York in 1969 and celebrates us as GLBT people.

Worldwide pride is celebrated at all times of the year; sometimes this has to do with the weather and sometimes it has to do with a country’s other holidays. London celebrates near the Fourth of July, since it doesn’t have a national holiday then. Sydney Gay Mardi Gras is in February or March (summer there) and is the largest in the world. They draw nearly one million to their parade, and the after-party numbers are nearly 25,000; they would be larger if they were able to find a larger venue.

In North America, most of the largest cities in a particular region celebrate pride on the last full weekend in June, the anniversary of Stonewall. The cities include New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, St. Louis, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Toronto, but not Los Angeles. L.A. moved its event up two weeks so as not to interfere with San Francisco. Other smaller cities in a region celebrate usually in May and early June; these would include Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. And in some cases there are black and Latino pride celebrations within the community.

Here in Texas the pride season starts in early June with Austin claiming to have the largest pride festival (not parade). This year the event will be on June 2 and is sponsored by the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby. Fort Worth and Waco have both parades and festivals in early June. And San Antonio now hosts a night parade and festival in June. Houston, of course, has the largest GLBT event in the Southwest with our night parade. Dallas’s parade is in the late summer, usually in late August.

I would encourage anyone to experience pride anywhere they can. You will learn that the Houston Pride Parade is one of the best. It is talked about all over the world.

Jack Valinski is co-founder of the Pride Committee of Houston and has served on various committees of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Pride Coordinators.

Jan. 15—Feb. 3 Melbourne, Australia

March 2—3 Sydney, Australia (Mardi Gras)

May 10—11 Las Vegas

May 24—June 2 Sao Paulo, Brazil

June 1—22 Brisbane, Australia

June 2 Ft Worth: Gayfest

June 2 Santa Cruz, California

June 2—3 Austin

June 2—15 Providence, Rhode Island

June 14—22 Scotland (entire country)

June 20—29 Rome, Italy

June 21—22 Berlin, Germany

June 21—29 Houston

June 21—30 Oslo, Norway

June 22—23 L.A./West Hollywood

June 23—30 New York City

June 24—30 Honolulu, Hawaii

June 24—30 Toronto

June 29 Vienna, Austria

June 29 Paris, France

June 29 Mexico City, Mexico

June 29 Zürich, Switzerland

June 29—30 San Francisco, California

July 5—7 EuroPride 2002/Cologne, Germany

July 6 London, England

July 19—21 Frankfurt, Germany

July 27—August 5 Montréal

August 1—4 Black Pride NYC

August 1—4 Amsterdam, Holland

August 17—18 Copenhagen, Denmark

September 22 Dallas

September 28—29 New Orleans

October 13 Los Angeles

November 8—15 Bangkok, Thailand

December TBD Cape Town, Sth. Africa

For more info on the above pride celebrations, or if you want info on a city not listed, check out www.interpride.org. (However, for some reason, most Texas celebrations have not listed their event there.)