For years, people kept asking the same question: Why doesn’t Greensboro Pride have a parade?
Christien Harden, co-director and co-chair of IMPAQT GSO, the organization behind Greensboro Pride, said there were several reasons it hadn’t happened. Downtown Greensboro is only so big, the organization has limited staff and resources and there had also been talk over the years that the city wouldn’t allow another parade.
Last year, Harden and IMPAQT GSO Executive Director Jesse Taylor decided to ask.
“We were in the meeting with all of the city planners, and they all kind of just looked at us and were like, ‘You can have a parade. You want a parade? You can have one,'” Harden told Qnotes.
The answer was yes. Unfortunately, the timing was off. IMPAQT GSO was going through a board changeover, Taylor had come in as executive director, Harden was elected co-director and the organization was moving much of the festival into LeBauer Park because of its size.
“We had our hands full,” Harden said.
Organizers looked to the following year instead.
“When we got the green light last year, we thought, ‘Next year’s our 20th anniversary,’” Harden said. “Let’s kick that off with a bang.”
On September 12, that parade will become a reality, kicking off at 10 a.m. and traveling through downtown Greensboro before the Greensboro Pride Festival begins at 11 a.m.
For Harden, the parade is about more than adding another event to Greensboro Pride’s 20th anniversary celebration.
“It’s the more public-facing and civic-minded component of the Greensboro Pride parade and festival,” Harden said.
The route moves through Elm Street, which Harden described as the hub and heart of downtown Greensboro. It puts the event in front of people working downtown who may not be able to attend the festival and takes the parade past businesses that Harden said missed having much of the festival there last year after its size required organizers to move into the park and other parts of downtown.
More importantly for Harden, organizers are approaching the parade as a march.
“This is explicitly framed as a march, even though it is tied to our 20th anniversary,” he said. “The theme is that we are marching because that is what Pride is about.”
Harden connected that idea to the history of LGBTQ+ protest, including Stonewall and subsequent marches for LGBTQ+ rights.
“It is, of course, a celebration of the community, but it is a march in solidarity for those that are not with us, who fought for us, for all of the things that came before that allow us to do what we can now,” he said.
The march is expected to last about an hour, with more than 40 entries including vehicles, floats and marchers. Organizers intentionally capped participation for the first year.
“What people are not seeing are the countless hours devoted to acquiring permits, working with the fire department, working with emergency services, working with the police department, ensuring that parking is closed off, ensuring that other parking is available, making sure that ADA access routes are available any which way,” Harden said.
While IMPAQT GSO has two decades of experience producing the festival, this is the organization’s first time producing the parade. Harden said staff have spent hours researching and coordinating with Pride organizations around the country that already produce parades.
Greensboro city officials have also helped organizers navigate the process. Harden said when IMPAQT GSO approached the city about holding a parade, the response wasn’t simply permission.
“We really have to tip our hat very heavily to the city of Greensboro and all of those involved.”
The parade also comes as attendance at Greensboro Pride continues to grow. According to Harden, roughly 95,000 people attended the festival last year. This year, he said organizers and the city are anticipating 100,000 people if attendance continues its upward trend.
That’s a long way from Greensboro Pride’s beginnings. As Qnotes previously reported, approximately 400 people and six vendors attended the first Triad Pride Festival in 2006.
For Harden, keeping the event connected to Greensboro as attendance grows starts with the people putting it together.
“Local volunteers, local entertainers, local vendors,” he said. “This is the Greensboro Pride Parade and Festival.”
“They build this. They make it. They staff it. They perform for it,” he said. “That is at the root of all of this. This is by Greensboro for Greensboro.”
For people standing along the route September 12, Harden knows what he wants the parade to look like.
“A Fourth of July Memorial Day parade, but much gayer,” he said.
He also knows what he hopes people take away from it.
“We want our community members to have a real sense of pride, to walk away with that warm feeling of community, of acceptance, of understanding,” Harden said.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
