Stonewall Columbus is a nonprofit organization serving the

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

(

LGBTQ ' 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 ...

) population of

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. The organization is located in the

Short North The Short North is a neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, United States, centered on the main strip of High Street immediately north of the Arena District and extending until just south of the University District and Ohio State University. It is an ea ...

district of Columbus. Established in 1981, Stonewall Columbus is the organizer of the annual

Columbus Pride Columbus Pride (or Stonewall Columbus Pride Parade) is an LGBTQ festival in Columbus, Ohio hosted by Stonewall Columbus. The event first took place in 1981, and has grown into the second largest LGBT pride event in the Midwest, behind Chicago. In ...

. The organization operates the Stonewall Columbus Community Center, a building in the Short North. The community center was funded with $3.8 million in donations and opened in 2019. It expanded upon their previous center, known as the Center on High.

History

Stonewall Columbus was founded as Stonewall Union in 1981. It held its first pride parade in 1982, following a small parade in 1981. Since then, the group's annual event,

, has become the second largest pride event in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

. In 2017, a controversy arose when four protesters were arrested during a Stonewall Columbus pride parade. The protesters were blocking the parade from proceeding, and protesting Stonewall's lack of

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...

and the large volume of police at the event. The protesters, known as the Black Pride 4, ignored police orders to clear the street and were then arrested. Three of the protesters were sentenced to community service and probation. The controversy prompted a dispute over Stonewall Columbus's view of racial minorities. Amid calls for the organization's director to step down, the pride festival coordinator resigned, admitting the group is unsympathetic to gay and transgender people of color. Stonewall's director retired the following year. Also in 2018, Black Queer & Intersectional Collective hosted Columbus Community Pride, as an alternative to Stonewall Columbus's event, on the same day. The group hired a black, trans-owned security company to monitor their festival, and refused any corporate sponsors.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://stonewallcolumbus.org/
Columbus Pride
Organizations based in Columbus, Ohio LGBT community centers in the United States LGBT in Ohio Non-profit organizations based in Ohio Organizations established in 1981 High Street (Columbus, Ohio)

History

See also

References

External links