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Atlanta Pride, also colloquially (and formerly) called the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival, is a week-long annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
)
pride festival A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events ...
held in
Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
(
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
). Established in 1971, it is one of the oldest and largest pride festivals in the United States. According to the Atlanta Pride Committee, as of 2017, attendance had continually grown to around 300,000. Originally a pride held in June, Atlanta Pride has been held in October every year since 2008, typically on a weekend closest to
National Coming Out Day National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an annual LGBT awareness day observed on October 11, to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people ( the LGBT community, sometimes also called the queer community) in "coming out of the closet". First ...
.


Background

The annual pride week began when a group of lesbian, gay men, drag queens, and gender non-conformists joined together. At the time police raids on gay bars were common because homosexual sex was illegal in all but one state in the United States. /sup> On June 28, 1969, the police raided a popular gay bar called Stonewall Inn. Everyone was cooperative until the police began to force three drag queens and a lesbian into the back of a police car. The crowd of bystanders began to throw bottles at the police and fight back. This riot later became known as the Stonewall riot. The riot lasted for several days and began one of the first equal rights protests for the LGBT community. /sup> That riot was the beginning of the LGBT rights movements and the opportunity and gateway for Atlanta Pride. In 1970, a year after the Stonewall riots, Atlanta activists handed out literature at an arts festival in Piedmont Park. During the city's first Pride protest march in 1971, activists were not granted a permit to march; the march took place on sidewalks from Downtown to Piedmont Park. In 1972, hundreds of people marched in the parade, which was covered by local television stations. In 1973, some marchers wore paper bags over their heads to hide their identity, protecting themselves from the dangers they may face and to represent how invisible they felt in their communities. /sup> Since 2010, the event has had an annual economic impact of over $25 million for the city. In 2016, Pride.com named Atlanta Pride one of the eight best LGBT pride events in the nation. Held in October to coincide with "National Coming Out Day," the Atlanta Pride festival is preceded by a variety of events that begin in June to celebrate the
Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...
. Each year, the Atlanta Pride Committee names Grand Marshals, including
Stacey Abrams Stacey Yvonne Abrams (; born December 9, 1973) is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member ...
and Feroza Syed in 2019. Atlanta's
Out on Film Out on Film, Georgia's gay film festival in Atlanta, was established in 1987 and is one of the oldest gay film festivals in the United States devoted to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. The festival is now held in Midtown Atla ...
gay film festival offers a weeklong selection of
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
films by, for, and about the LGBT community. Out on Film runs in conjunction with Atlanta Pride.


Location

Until 2008, it was held in June in
Piedmont Park Piedmont Park is an urban park in Atlanta, Georgia, located about northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. Originally the land was owned by Dr. Benjamin Walker, who used it as his out-of-town gentleman's ...
in
Midtown Atlanta Midtown Atlanta, or Midtown, is a high-density commercial and residential neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The exact geographical extent of the area is ill-defined due to differing definitions used by the city, residents, and local business ...
. In 2008, large events were banned from Piedmont Park due to drought conditions, so Pride was moved to the
Atlanta Civic Center The Atlanta Civic Center was a theater located in Atlanta, Georgia. It closed in 2014. The theater, which seats 4,600, regularly hosted touring productions of Broadway musicals, concerts, seminars, comedy acts, and high school graduations and ...
and delayed until October. In 2009, it returned to Piedmont Park, but kept the October date due to more favorable autumn weather and the difficulty to perform adequate fundraising in only nine months. Atlanta is widely noted as the LGBT capital of the South due to its progressive reputation, highly visible and diverse
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
community, and vibrant LGBT culture. In 2010, The Advocate named Atlanta the "gayest city in America." In 2019,
Realtor.com Realtor.com is a real estate listings website operated by the News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc. and based in Santa Clara, California. It is the second most visited real estate listings website in the United States as of 2021, with over 100 million ...
ranked Atlanta the second best city in America for LGBTQ residents.


Events

"The main mission of the Atlanta Pride Committee is to provide lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender and queer persons with cultural and educational programs and activities which enhance mental and physical health, provide social support, and foster an awareness of the past and present contributions of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons, through community activities and services, including an annual Pride event." /sup> The events that occur at Atlanta Pride range from speeches about violence against women, race, sexual orientation, gender, immigration, etc. The main event is the pride parade which is a march through the city filled with costumes, music, and banners. /sup> It also has marches, market layout and vendors, concerts, dance parties, motorcycle shows, and cultural exhibits.


See also

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Atlanta Black Pride Atlanta Black Pride started in 1996 and is one of two officially recognized festivals for the African-American LGBT community. It is held in Atlanta each year at the end of August and beginning of September (week of Labor Day holiday). Atlanta Bla ...
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Ansley Mall Ansley Mall is an open-air shopping mall in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood of Atlanta at 1544 Piedmont Avenue at the intersection of Monroe Drive near the Atlanta BeltLine trail. Ansley opened in 1964, sending Midtown Atlanta's Tenth Str ...
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Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus The Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus (AGMC) is a nonprofit performing arts organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (US). The AGMC, along with the Atlanta Women's Chorus, are managed under their parent organizationVoices of Note The AGMC's traditional c ...
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Cheshire Bridge Road Cheshire Bridge Road is a mainly north–south thoroughfare of Atlanta, Georgia, USA traversing the Morningside-Lenox Park and Lindridge-Martin Manor neighborhoods from Piedmont Avenue to Buford Highway just north of Interstate 85. While the co ...
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Georgia Equality Georgia Equality (previously the Georgia Equality Project) is the largest LGBTQ rights advocacy group in Georgia. Their mission is to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied communities ...
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LGBT rights in Georgia (U.S. state) LGBT residents in the U.S. state of Georgia enjoy most of the same rights and liberties as non-LGBT Georgians. LGBT rights in the state have been a recent occurrence, with most improvements occurring from the 2010s onward. Same-sex sexual activi ...
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My Sister's Room My Sister's Room (MSR) is a lesbian bar in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is one of the few remaining lesbian bars in the nation. It was opened in 1996 and remains a lesbian-owned and operated bar but welcomes the entire LGBTQIA commu ...


References


External links


Atlanta Pride
— official website {{Portal bar, LGBT Festivals in Atlanta Pride parades in Georgia (U.S. state) LGBT culture in Atlanta 1971 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Recurring events established in 1971