As we say goodbye to Summer, we cannot say goodbye to our PRIDE. Celebrating who we are is a year round activity. Yes, many of the larger cities overlap during the same June weekends fighting for our Pride plans and money, and some skip all that and plan celebrations in July.
You’ll find most of the June/July Prides are held in northern US cities since a) there’s good and more reliable weather and b) it’s more traditional to align with or near the historic Stonewall Riots anniversary. Once you leave June and July, you’ll find pride being celebrated more south.
What you will also find is that many of these cities are not as large as the June/July celebrants. From the list below, Fort Worth and Las Vegas are the largest venues where as most of the others cities’ populations are below the half million mark.
In talking with organizers of some of the southern prides, you’ll find that these prides do not have the scale or direction or presentation that the northern summer prides do and that is totally fine with us! There is usually more of a local feel to these prides, cities don’t loose their charm and identity because they are overrun by circuit parties and rainbow cannons, different than a pride that looks to be an event that desires to draw national and international celebrants. Most of these Fall prides are also not as old as the June/July Prides.
We’ll give you the list of October and November Prides we found. We included some other pride-filled events, but contact us if we missed yours. After the list, we’ll highlight some of the ones we have on our radar to attend.
OCTOBER
- Oct 1-15: Hispanic LGBT Pride – Miami, Florida
- Oct 4-6 Gay Days Disneyland – Anaheim, California
- Oct 5: South Carolina Pride – Colombia, South Carolina
- Oct 5-6: River City Pride – Jacksonville, Florida
- Oct 5-6: Tarrant County Gay Pride – Fort Worth, Texas
- Oct 10-13: Aloha Maui Pride Festival – Kahului, Hawaii
- Oct 11-12: Las Vegas Pride – Las Vegas, Nevada
- Oct 11-13: Atlanta Pride – Atlanta, Georgia
- Oct 12: San Gabriel Valley Pride – Pasadena, California
- Oct. 13: Orlando Pride – Orlando, Florida
- Oct 19: Central Arkansas Pride – Little Rock, Arkansas
- Oct 19: Honolulu Pride – Honolulu, Hawaii
- Oct 19: Ocala Pride Festival – Ocala, Florida
- Oct 19: Winston-Salem Pride – Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- Oct 21: Acadiana Pride – Lafayette, Louisiana
- Oct 24–26: Savannah Pride – Savannah, Georgia
NOVEMBER
- November 1-3: Palm Spring Pride – Palm Springs, California
- November 2–3: Phoenix Rainbow Festival – Phoenix, Arizona
When you think out of the box and outside of the traditional Pride months, amazing things can happen.
Oct 1-15: Hispanic LGBT Pride – Miami, Florida – Miami is a young city when it comes to officially celebrating Pride with Miami Brach Pride turning 11 years old in 2020, but other groups and festivals have been embracing and celebrating LGBTQ lives, love, and talent for longer.
For many proud Latinx Americans across the nation, Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to reflect on the centuries of positive impact from Hispanic immigrants. Now more than ever, as the national spotlight shines on issues of immigration and diversity, Unity Coalition | Coalición Unida (UC | CU) showcases the creative contributions of LGBTQ Latinos during Hispanic Heritage Month.
On the front lines to protect and promote human rights, UC | CU announces the Celebrate Orgullo 2019 lineup of events. The stellar, queer-cultural events take place throughout Miami’s artistic enclaves, from October 1-15.
Since 2002, UC | CU has advanced equality and fairness for LGBTQ Hispanics and other disenfranchised groups through education, leadership and awareness. The Celebrate Orgullo festival has showcased LGBT causes every year during Hispanic Heritage Month, since 2011.
This year’s annual gala for Celebrate Orgullo features Angelica Ross, the star of Pose and American Horror Story 1984. She will be honored in Miami with the 2019 Trailblazer Award on October 12 at the Art of Fashion Gala. This year’s Gala takes place at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, site of “Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989.” The groundbreaking exhibition honors the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprisings, making major headlines and national acclaim.
Oct. 13: Orlando Pride – Orlando, Florida – Ever since I moved to Florida, I’ve wanted to attend both Miami and Orlando’s prides, but unfortunately, I’ve been traveling elsewhere during those weekends. I even pregamed Orlando’s Pride by previewing a place to stay (Travel Thursday: From Soothing Opulence, Grand Performers, And The Best Location In Town, The Grand Bohemian Hotel Orlando Is The One!). I will make it there some day!
Throughout the years, the Pride Chamber (previously the Metropolitan Business Association), Central Florida’s LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce, saw the need for a Pride festival that focused on building unity and an open dialogue within the local community, as well as encouraging the rest of the country to rally by our side while we worked to influence Florida legislators to create more inclusive laws. In 2005, Come Out With Pride, Inc. (COWP) was formed as its own corporation under the chamber. This allowed the new organization to have their own board of directors and mission for the community. COWP is a 501c3 all-volunteer nonprofit organization led by a board of directors and a production team.
Since that day in 2005, COWP has grown into a major Pride event, becoming one of the largest Pride festivals in Florida. Between the marketplace, entertainment, kid zone, parade, fireworks and variety of food and beverage choices, this event caters to the diverse communities that make up Central Florida. – Orlando Pride / comeoutwithpride.com
Oct 24–26: Savannah Pride – Savannah, Georgia – Visiting Savannah, Georgia has always been a dream and goal of mine, even when I lived in Maine. The history, the haunts, the southern charm, the southern men, the city mystically beckons you to visit. Some smooth operator in Savannah decided to combine two of the biggest gay celebrations into one weekend, PRIDE + HALLOWEEN!!! Yes, the plans are currently to visit Savannah during the last weekend of October to show our Pride as well as get our ghoul on.
We missed SPLASH 2019 but have tickets in hand to attend MASQUEERADE 2019 as well as the other events of the Savannah Pride weekend.
Masqueerade – A Legendary Ball
Celebrate the iconic ball culture as we recognize the many contributions of queer and trans people of color. This fabulous Savannah twist on the classic ball is hosted by Jason Rodriguez, star of POSE.
What has been your favorite Pride? Was it one of the larger national prides? Was it one not in the summer? Let us know which prides we need to check out for ourselves.