Perspective: LGBTQ Pride in the South has been marked by resistance and resilience
As a result of the pressure the CDA applied, Jackson backed away from his Gay Pride Day declaration but continued to show support for LGBTQ people and Pride in Atlanta during his three terms as mayor. Atlanta Pride was still held annually and has continued to receive the support of its mayors — all of whom were Black Democrats. In a short time, the city’s Pride event became the largest in the Southeast.
In Charlotte, Pride celebrations have a shorter and more turbulent history. The city’s LGBTQ activists held local and inconsistent Pride events in the 1980s, but won a hard-fought opportunity to host a North Carolina statewide Pride in 1994.That festival, which included a parade, promised a large amount of revenue for the city. Because the Sunday parade route would proceed near First Baptist Church, parishioners did everything in their power to stop it.
Almost 10 years later, in 2005, the Rev. Flip Benham’s antiabortion and anti-LGBTQ organization, Operation Save America , relocated from Dallas to Charlotte. Benham’s organization harangued the Charlotte Pride festival, working to end the celebration. Wearing bright red shirts, OSA protesters blared religious music and sermons and infiltrated crowds in Marshall Park, the same location near First Baptist where the state Pride festival met resistance.
With support from local religious leaders, OSA successfully pressured Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory to end Pride in a public space. McCrory openly disapproved of his city’s Pride celebration and its public park venue, telling one supporter that he was “insulted” by its “visual and verbal vulgarity displays.”
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