Pride is culture, community, and historically rooted in action. Our existence is political. Pride is our action and uprising against discrimination and oppression of our LGBTQIA+ identities. Just as our cherished elders gathered in remembrance of the organized riots against Stonewall police raids, People's Pride gathers in remembrance of what Corporate Pride has since forgotten.
The evolution of Pride does not exist in a vacuum. We recognize that visibility, especially when endorsed by large entities, can create a sense of safety and acceptance in the eyes of the majority. But visibility on its own is not enough. When marginalized voices are excluded, visibility becomes unsafe and incomplete. Corporate Pride, while once seen as a step toward familiarity and inclusion, has shifted into a financial grab, a pink-washed, commodified version of our existence.
We find ourselves in a climate that has uncovered the reality that the discrimination we have experienced throughout time, is unresolved and unsurprisingly unsolved by rainbow shirts sold at Target. Our Pride celebrations lead us further from the power and resistance our elders had. We find ourselves further from ourselves and each other, our existences reduced to themed drinks, corporate floats, and heat stroke.
People's Pride has no intention of replacing corporate Pride. We have no desire to be in competition with the scope and intention of large Pride festivals, like Nashville Pride. Our intention is to recover what has been lost and promote community voice. To gather as people, share our stories, share space, center multi-marginalized voices, uplift, nurture, and protect each other. We aim to build resilience and power by organizing local organizations, not for their Pride keychains, but for their skill shares and the invaluable knowledge they've worked tirelessly to provide.
We aim to create a gathering that prioritizes accessibility and truly reflects the diversity of our bodies. We choose to come together peacefully, outside of oppressive systems that restrict our First Amendment rights and undermine the purpose of our organizing through heavy-handed law enforcement oversight. We aim to build coalitions and pool our resources in order to survive oligarchs and fascist regimes. We aim to create space to play, touch grass, and feel connected as only we can do for ourselves. That is the intention of People's Pride.