Today, the celebration, which spotlights marginalized voices in the community, kicks off Pride Month on the first Saturday in June. Sans dress code, the event was championed as a free-to-attend, queer-er, DIY alternative with a rally, downtown march, and afterparty. In response, a group of queer and trans activists, performers, and artists created Queerbomb in 2010. Dress codes, entrance fees, and the corporatization of Pride left many in the community feeling silenced and excluded.
But the institution hasn’t been without its controversies. In the years since, Austin Pride has grown from a small affair to a week of events capped by a festival, parade, and parties that draws more than 400,000 attendees. Later, in 1989, the March on Austin for Lesbian/Gay Equal Rights united thousands of LGBTQ Texans fighting for equality at the Capitol. The impacts of these coalitions were felt almost immediately when, in June 1976, Mayor Jeff Friedman announced the city’s first ever Gay Pride Celebration Week. In 1970, following the Stonewall Riots in New York City, several local lesbian and gay rights groups like Austin’s Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Women’s Liberation (which broke off from the men the following year) were formed. Though missed, the forced isolation induced by the virus also underscored the value of gathering-and, in the process, provided a vital chance to reflect on the people and moments that delivered us to this point.Īustin’s modern iteration of Pride began in 1990 at Fiesta Gardens, but its LGBTQ communities have been making and defending queer spaces for more than 50 years.
Like countless other events across the country, the capital city’s 2020 edition of Pride was derailed by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving local queer communities unable to commemorate the institution’s 30th anniversary in person.