Stonewall Columbus Announces 2022 Columbus Pride Theme

STONEWALL COLUMBUS PRIDE 2022
“The People’s Pride: Pride Belongs to the People”

 

COLUMBUS, OH, MARCH 28, 2022 – “The People’s Pride” is the 41^st annual Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and March theme—occurring June 17 and 18. The 1969 Stonewall Uprisings were protests against police brutality; but more so protests against the injustices enacted on a people: the LGBTQ+ community. Columbus’ first Pride march was in 1981 and saw 200 people marching from the Ohio State University to the Statehouse in commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising; in 1982 Stonewall Columbus organized Columbus’s first official Gay Pride. In 2022 Columbus will recognize 41 years of leading the Ohio community in the celebration and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community across Central Ohio.
 
This year’s logo is based on the “Pride Circles” installation outside the Stonewall Columbus Community Center at the corner of 4^th and High in the Short North area of Columbus, Ohio. Commissioned by the Short North Alliance, in partnership with Stonewall Columbus, Pride Circles is a representation of a few of the many pride and identity flags in the LGBTQ+ community represented in the form of a pond of unified ripples. These ripples coalesce around the entrance of Stonewall, creating a symbolic and welcoming embrace around the many voices and identities of the community who enter. Densil Porteous, Stonewall’s executive director, said “Pride Circles is a wonderful physical representation of our community’s interconnected work and the accountability that we must all agree to so as to ensure we create positive ripples of change.”
 
“When invited to create a visual work for Stonewall Columbus in the Short North, I immediately remembered the rift that opened in our community in 2017, during that year’s Pride event. I also recalled that the original Stonewall in New York was the well-known start of a riot, started by Black and Latino Trans people that sparked a national and ongoing conversation about the rights of Trans people, Gays, and Lesbians in America” said “Pride Circles” artist Lisa McLymont.
 
In the state of Ohio, our community can still be denied/evicted from housing or fired from our jobs just because of our sexual orientation or gender identity, so it is important for us to stand up and let our voices be heard. We stand ever firmly in line with the BIPoC members of our community, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our transgender community members, of all ages, we stand at the ready to uplift and make space for all members of our LGBTQ+ community and all our communities that demand inclusion, full enfranchisement, and equality before the law.
 
“As we emerge into the world Stonewall is working to remind our communities, queer and not queer, that our Pride is about the people. It’s about the marginalized, unseen, underappreciated, under serviced identities in our LGBTQ+ community who continue to fight for equity and equality and it is about celebrating and honoring those who have fought to get us here; those who risked their lives simply by living their truth,” noted Porteous.
 
Stonewall Columbus invites the community to join this June 17 and 18 for Festival and March activities. For event, partnership, and volunteer information visit stonewallcolumbus.org/pride.