Phoenix Pride (formerly known as Phoenix Pride March & Rally, Desert Pride, Arizona Central Pride, and Phoenix Pride Festival) is a

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

and festival held each year in

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, Arizona to celebrate the lesbian, gay,

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

(

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 ...

) people and their allies. Unlike other pride parades in major US cities, which is held in June to commemorate 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 ...

, Phoenix Pride has been held outside of the summer months in Arizona since at least 2004, due to high summer temperatures.

History

Phoenix has had a history of hosting

gay pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sham ...

-themed events even before the first pride parade was held in 1981. In June 1977, the first gay pride week was organized in Phoenix by the city’s LGBTQ+ community at the time. The first pride parade in Phoenix took place in 1981, and it was organized by the Lesbian & Gay Pride Planning Committee, which was led by Kirk Baxter and BJ Bud. The first parade was a march from Patriots Square Park (now the site of

CityScape In the visual arts, a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a painting, drawing, print or photograph, of the physical aspects of a city or urban area. It is the urban equivalent of a landscape. ''Townscape'' is ...

) to the

Arizona State Capitol The Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, was the last home for Arizona's Territorial government, until Arizona became a state in 1912. Initially, all three branches of the new state government occupied the four floors of th ...

. The event was a politically focused march that aimed to bring awareness to

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...

issues in the Phoenix area. Newspaper reports at the time estimated 600 to 1,000 people attended the evening march, although later research has put the figure to over 700 people having taken part. From 1983 to 1985, the march took place on a portion of Phoenix's

Central Avenue Corridor The Central Avenue Corridor is a significant stretch of north–south Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of c ...

, and the event in 1987 became politically focused once again, as it was combined with an event aimed at recalling controversial

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Evan Mecham Evan Mecham ( ; May 12, 1924 – February 21, 2008) was an American businessman and the 17th governor of Arizona, serving from January 5, 1987, until his impeachment conviction on April 4, 1988. A decorated veteran of World War II, Mecham was a ...

. A non-profit organization was established to coordinate the pride festival in 1991. That same year, after a decade of hosting the event in Phoenix, the pride festival was moved to

Tempe Diablo Stadium Tempe Diablo Stadium is a baseball field located in Tempe, Arizona. It has been the spring training home of the Los Angeles Angels since 1993, and it is the home field for night games of the Arizona League Angels. It was the spring training home ...

. The event was moved to Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix in 1998, and moved to

Steele Indian School Park Steele Indian School Park is located on the northeast corner of Indian School Road and Central Avenue in Encanto Village, Phoenix, Arizona. Geography Indian School Road, on which the former Phoenix Indian School and the current Steele Indian S ...

in 2003, where it is still being held to this day. In 2020, the parade and festival was impacted by the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, with event organizers saying they will reschedule the event to a time during the fall. Days after the announcement to postpone was made, organizers announced an alternative date of November 7 and 8. 2020's parade was later rescheduled to 2021, in effect cancelling Phoenix Pride for 2020.

Event by year

Immigrant Rights Protesters at Phoenix Pride 2017-1

Criticism

Activists who disrupted 2017's pride parade have criticized Phoenix Pride as being overly commercialized, in its present form, and accused organizers of straying from its original theme of standing up for the rights of people. Similar criticisms have been leveled against other pride parades around the country.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Pride parades 1981 establishments in Arizona Annual events in Arizona Festivals in Phoenix, Arizona Pride parades in Arizona Recurring events established in 1981