Out in Ohio: Stonewall Columbus gets ready for Pride 2025
Digital Reporter David Rees hosts 'Out in Ohio' and chats with Stonewall Columbus executive director Densil Porteous, Pride coordinator and business manager Sierra Prince, and marketing and business coordinator Leo Rodriguez.
Porteous explains that the month-long celebration each June recognizes the achievements of the LGBTQ+ community and remembers the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, a series of conflicts between police and LGBTQ+ protesters that stretched over six days. Today, Pride commemorates the Stonewall movement with parades, festivals, memorials and more.
'What we then now see today are sort of ancestors or artifacts of what used to be, our Pride marches today are a little bit of celebration, a little bit of history, and most important, remembrance,' Porteous said.
In the wake of federal measures and Ohio Statehouse legislation deemed 'anti-LGBTQ+' by opponents, Porteous said Stonewall is very 'thoughtful and intentional about the message' for Pride. This year's Pride theme, 'United in Power,' is a call for community members to come together 'to see their neighbors' and 'to be free to live as they so choose and to love as they so choose.'
'It's about saying that when we come together we are stronger, we can accomplish more, we can achieve more and we can move forward faster when we work together,' Porteous said. 'I think in isolation we miss the opportunity to help others get to a place of joy and freedom.'
Stonewall's Pride festival begins at 4 p.m. on June 13 at Goodale Park and runs until 10 p.m. with food, vendors, nonprofit organizations, community resources, and live entertainment. The celebration continues at 10:30 a.m. on June 14 with the Pride parade at Broad and High streets. While the city's first march happened in 1981 with just 200, Stonewall Columbus Pride welcomes more than 700,000 visitors today.
'We're just really excited to have nearly 200 businesses comprised of LGBTQ-owned businesses, community organizations, faith-based organizations that are affirming for our community, and we can bring them all to one place,' Prince said.
As Stonewall's parade expands, Prince said it's 'a bit of an untamable beast' with 17,000 to 20,000 Ohioans taking part in this year's march. But, the Pride coordinator is encouraged and energized to see the annual event continue to grow.
'We're there for a purpose and we're there for a protest,' Prince said. 'We encourage folks to stay through the end because we have so many incredible organizations that right up until the end are marching through and we wanna make sure that their voices are heard.'
Part of Stonewall's Pride celebration includes designating this year's Leader of Pride, recognizing an individual or group who use their voice to speak out in support of members of the LGBTQ+ community in central Ohio and beyond. This year's recipient is Slammers, a storied lesbian bar at 202 E. Long St.
'It's a staple in our community,' Rogriguez said. 'Slammers is one of the last lesbian bars in the country and they're really a pillar of our queer community here in Columbus.'
Stonewall's Pride festival and march also serve as the organization's largest annual fundraiser that secures the needed funds to support annual operations and community programs, like support groups and career fairs, at Stonewall's Short North center at 1160 N. High St.
'We are a community center, first and foremost,' Rodriguez said. 'We have a wide variety of in-house programs and community events, but we also open our doors for other community partners to host their events, typically for low cost or for free.'
NBC4's 'Out in Ohio' amplifies the voices, stories and work of Ohio's LGBTQ+ community. Watch this and future 'Out in Ohio' episodes on NBC4i.com and the 'NBC4 Columbus' streaming app on Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Orders Forcible Hospitalization for Unhoused People
Trump Orders Forcible Hospitalization for Unhoused People originally appeared on L.A. Mag. President Trump issued an executive order yesterday to target homelessness on America's streets. The push will make it easier to forcibly remove unhoused people from the streets of cities, including Los Angeles, targeting those who may pose a risk to themselves or order, just a day before the first anniversary of Governor Newsom's own executive order focusing on encampments, will override state and federal legalities to involuntarily commit people who show signs of a mental health or substance abuse disorder. Additionally, Trump declared he will enforce prohibitions on illicit drug use, urban camping/loitering and urban squatting.'Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe,' Trump said, in part. 'The Federal Government and the States have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.'The work of the Biden administration, which Trump has long lamented, was not diligent enough, according to this executive order. The highest number of individuals ever living on U.S. streets on a single night, 274,224, was recorded during his predecessor's leadership. The overwhelming majority of these unhoused people, Trump said, suffer drug addiction, mental illness, or both.'Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order,' Trump said. 'Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.'Trump also cited a possible loophole in the current Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act, which may not be notifying citizens of sex offenders without fixed addresses. This will also separate registered sex offenders from receiving assistance in the presence of unrelated the first day of her administration, Mayor Karen Bass issued a state of emergency on homelessness in L.A. The city's numbers for street-sleeping were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but a recent announcement from Bass said the number of unhoused people is down for the second year in a row.'Last year, the Governor issued an executive order addressing encampments that was based on the law and the facts, not harmful stereotypes and ineffective public policy. Like so many of Trump's executive orders, this order is more focused on creating distracting headlines and settling old scores than producing any positive impact. But, his imitation (even poorly executed) is the highest form of flattery,' Newsom's office said in a statement to NBC4. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 25, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Massive rainbow flag placed at Reichstag by activists ahead of Pride
Activists unfurled a massive rainbow flag on the lawn in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin in protest against the government's decision not to hoist an official rainbow flag for Pride. The flag, organizers say, measures 400 square metres, nearly the size of a basketball court. They held a demonstration including speeches and music with numerous attendees waving rainbow flags. The decision against hoisting the flag for the celebration of Christopher Street Day (CSD) as Pride is known in Germany, was made by Bundestag President Julia Klöckner. Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the Bundestag's decision, saying, "The Bundestag is not a circus tent." In a related protest, the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in the conservative-led governing coalition, hoisted a flag in front of the Willy-Brandt-Haus, the party's headquarters in Berlin. SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf, along with Carola Ebhardt and Oliver Strotzer, the federal chairpersons of the SPDqueer working group, raised the Progressive Pride Flag for CSD. The flag is an evolution of the classic rainbow flag, incorporating additional colours to represent trans people and queer people of colour. The term Christopher Street Day is used in Germany to refer to Pride celebrations for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ+) communities. It is a reference to the location of the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village neighbourhood, where a protest against police discrimination on June 28, 1969, kick-started the gay liberation movement. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
First Minister disappointed to not attend Belfast Pride this year
Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said it is with regret that she will stay away from Belfast Pride this year. It comes after the Belfast Pride organisers asked political parties to not attend the parade this year in an official capacity, after Stormont backed a ban on puberty blockers. The parade started in 1991 and over the last 30 years has grown to be the largest single parade in Northern Ireland. The theme for this year's event is No Going Back, as organisers said there must be 'no turning back from the advances made in visibility, legal protections and societal recognition'. Alliance MLA and Stormont Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir, who is gay, has said he will be attending the Pride parade in a personal capacity, describing it as an important event. First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she will mark Pride in her own way, and hopes to be able to return to Belfast Pride next year. 'For me, Pride has always been about love and friendship, about celebrating people's identity and promoting inclusivity, and I have always been an advocate for equality and human rights, so it does make me sad that they have taken the decision that they have taken,' she told the BBC. 'However, I will continue to work with the organisers, I'll continue to work with all the organisations out there that represent the whole LGBTQIA+ community, and I would say to them all that whilst they celebrate Pride on Saturday, I hope that next year I also will be celebrating Pride with them. 'I will do so this Saturday in my own way, and I'll send them all, all the members of the LGBTQIA+ community that I, as your First Minister, am your ally, I will continue to be your ally and Sinn Fein as my party will also continue to be an ally.' Meanwhile, earlier this week it was reported that the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Jayne Brady, was told they would be 'open to the charge of acting politically' by taking part in Belfast Pride. Ms O'Neill said she felt that as a major employer in Northern Ireland, the civil service should be represented, however TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said there was 'deep unease' among Christian civil servants. The First Minister said: 'We are an inclusive employer and I think it is absolutely appropriate that the head of that service should be there and walk in the celebration that is Pride on Saturday. 'We can't promote inclusivity and employ that many people, and not actually turn up on the day of celebration, so I commend that as the right approach to take. 'The civil service is an employer, and they're an employer of over 24,000 staff, many of those staff will be members of the LGBTQIA+ community so therefore, I think it is appropriate that the head of the civil service will be there and actually celebrate on Pride with many of the staff.' Mr Muir said: 'I came out just under 30 years ago and, at that time as a young gay man struggling with my sexuality, I was looking to my employer, and my employer was saying, 'we're going to take part in Pride, we're going to show our support for our fellow LGBTQIA+ employees'. 'I'd be thinking, 'that's somewhere I want to work, that's somewhere I want to feel included', and I think that is really, really good, and I want to commend the leadership of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. Mr Gaston said he has written to Ms Brady to voice his concern after being contacted by Christian civil servants. 'Their concerns are not rooted in prejudice but in a principled belief that the Civil Service, as a publicly funded and supposedly apolitical body, should not be endorsing what is an overtly political and highly divisive campaign,' he said. 'Belfast Pride is not a neutral celebration. It is a platform for contentious political demands, including positions on gender ideology, family, education, and religious freedom, that are strongly contested. 'When the Civil Service appears to publicly align itself with such a movement, it sends a clear and troubling message: that one worldview is officially sanctioned, and others are to be marginalised or silenced. 'The Civil Service must be impartial, not just in its public actions but in the culture it cultivates within.'
