OKC Pride celebrates its history and more
by Lori Honeycutt
OKC Pride President
Last year OKC Pride celebrated its 30th year anniversary. Since then, we received emails from many people that it wasn’t the 30th year but the 40th year.
So, we dug into the depths of our history and concluded, the first documented gay Pride event in Oklahoma City was a block party held in the 39th Street District in 1977.
Following many movements and accomplishments towards equality in Oklahoma, the first OKC Pride Parade was held in 1988 drawing an estimated 700 participants, making 2018 the 30th anniversary of the parade.
OKC Pride values the input from our community and volunteers. We are listening.
You also told us you want more family-friendly events with OKC Pride so we’re partnering with Frontier City and White Water Bay to have Pride days, June 16-25. Discount tickets will be available to purchase from the OKC Pride’s store at the end of May. We are excited to add this event to our opening week along with wine bottling at Water’s Edge Winery and bowling at Dust Bowl.
Building community is a key aspect of OKC Pride. We are trying to bridge the gaps between all community organizations. As part of this, we have announced a new “honorary organization” parade entry this year. OKC Pride has chosen the Q-Space, a division of Northcare to be our very first honorary organization.
Our parade Grand Marshal this year is Kaye Thomas, owner of Partners. Along with the honorary organization, we will also have other nonprofits in our community working our famous beer tent.
This year we are again excited to have The Winds House, Norman Pride, Edmond Pride, AIDS Walk, Pit Bull Rescue of Oklahoma and The Diversity Center.
Further, we have partnered with Eddie’s Bar and Grill in Edmond for a fun night of giving back to Pride and a show, Queens with Wings. Eddie’s is famous for their “mouthwatering” wing’s. Have dinner on May 24, after 5 p.m. and stay for the show. All ages are welcome and 15 percent of the total sales that night will be donated to OKC Pride. We will have some never seen guest performances and a few surprises.
Every other Thursday, OKC Pride holds their planning meetings at the Diversity Center. They are open to the public.
This would be your chance to get with one of the committee chairs and volunteer. The closer we get to Pride weekend 2018, the more help we need.
We are giving you entertainment all three days of the festival, rather than one and a larger festival area.
Your experience at OKC Pride will be more entertaining, and it will be easier for you to walk around visiting and enjoying the vendor booths. We’ll also have more food trucks, which means more choices of food!
We are very excited to announce we are holding a Mr. and Mrs. OKC Pride pageant. More OKC Pride updates will be released soon.
For more information, visit www.okcpride.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Copyright The Gayly – May 6, 2018 @ 10:15 a.m. CDT.