GREENSBORO — Community members from across the Triad — and some as far away as Fayetteville — convened in Downtown Greensboro’s Festival Park for a day of entertainment, networking, community building and fun at the third annual Triad Pride Festival.
Organized by the more than 20-year-old Alternative Resources of the Triad, the festival was the culmination of almost a week’s worth of events designed to foster community, build awareness and provide social outlets for the Triad area’s LGBT communities.
Organizers estimated that 1,000 or more people attended the event throughout the day. Dozens of vendors including non-profit organizations, businesses and media packed the small park as festvial-goers listened to singers, watched drag performances and heard activists speak on important pieces of legislation.
Equality North Carolina, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization, was at the festival collecting signatures for a postcard campaign to state legislators. The group is pushing hard to pass comprehensive sexuality health education and fully-inclusive anti-bullying policies for the state’s public, K-12 schools.
Other non-profits present included the Guilford Green Foundation, PFLAG Greensboro, several churches and the Leathermen’s Club.
Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson was one of several speakers, including Addison Ore of Triad Health Project, Triad Pride co-chairs Richard Gray and Joshua McCoy, Alternative Resources of the Triad president Paul Marshall and transgender community activist Janice Covington.
Event sponsors included Warehouse 29, YES! Weekly, American Express, The Q, the Guilford Green Foundation and PFLAG.
I see that you mentioned that there were several churches but left out that there was also an atheist booth. The event was poorly advertised and almost no one knew it was happening (i only knew because i searched at length last year for lgbt events in greensboro and then told everyone i knew).