Pride in the CLE is Live After Two-Year Hiatus

By Meghan K. Donovan

 Pride in the CLE will take place Saturday, June 4, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Malls B and C in downtown Cleveland. This will be the first live Pride since 2019 when more than 30,000 attendees celebrated together on Public Square.

“The Pride Ride  [2020 and 2021’s Pride events] kept everyone safer from the COVID-19 Virus and allowed our community members and supporters to have visibility and celebrate one another. Now that some of the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, we are ready now more than ever for our march and festival,” said Phyllis Harris, executive director of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. “With the current anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been introduced in Ohio and nationwide, the timing is perfect for us to send the message that we are ready to stand up for our rights.”

Flat Out Pride will begin the festivities on Friday, June 3 from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. on Old River Road along the Flats East Bank Waterfront. The next day, Pride in the CLE will begin with a march at 12:00 p.m. and feature LGBTQ+ artists and businesses, main stage entertainment, and community organizers, activists, poets, and artists presenting on the Speak Out Stage. Flat Out Pride will return as an afterparty from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

“Cleveland has a long history of activism towards the rights, respect, and liberation of LGBTQ folks,” said Harris. The first Pride celebration in Cleveland was in 1974. Pride celebrations in the 1970s grew from a picnic in Edgewater Park to include marches and workshops by members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Cleveland Pride launched in 1989, inspired by the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival that began in 1981. Pride celebrations moved downtown in 1994, and the first official Black Gay Pride was held in 1997. “Pride is important to Cleveland as part of the LGBTQ movement and as an opportunity to build a coalition with other progressive social justice organizations and attract LGBTQ people and others to the city related to obtaining jobs, seeking higher education, raising families, and supporting Cleveland in being the diverse, affirming, and amazing city it is,” she said.

“The history of Pride in Cleveland is a tale of love, drama, fortitude, bravery, and resilience,” said Ken Schneck, author of LGBTQ Cleveland: Images of Modern America. This was especially true in 2016 when Cleveland Pride (already postponed to August due to the Republican National Convention in July) was canceled citing “the changing social climate.” The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland took over and created Pride in the CLE, which started with a march across the Detroit-Superior Bridge leading to festivities at Public Square. In 2017, the city celebrated both Cleveland Pride and Pride in the CLE.

“I’m most excited about joining a community and being a visible representation that we’re here, we’re fighting for our rights, and even in the midst of politicized, targeted attacks, we still take time to acknowledge and celebrate our beautiful lives,” said Harris.