Tens of thousands show up and out for Atlanta’s 55th annual Pride

Last weekend, crowds gathered for another edition of the South’s oldest Pride event. And as one attendee put it, nobody was scandalized.

Atlanta Pride Parade, 9 October 2011
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Last weekend, LGBTQ+ people and allies in Atlanta took what felt like a collective exhale. On a flawless autumn weekend that locals described as having the year’s best weather, tens of thousands filled Midtown and Piedmont Park for the 55th annual Atlanta Pride festival — a celebration of identity, joy, and endurance that remains both the oldest Pride event in the South and the largest free Pride event in the nation.

On Saturday and Sunday, the skies were clear, a gentle breeze drifted across the lawns, temperatures hovered near 75 degrees, and the usual Atlanta humidity was conspicuously absent. It was, in every sense, an invitation to gather.

A Southern spectrum

Under the theme Rooted in Resistance,” the festival sprawled across the park’s lawns and streets, drawing an astonishing array of humanity. Organizers said the theme was meant to honor the legacy of queer activists as well as the courage of everyday individuals, because, as they put it, “the very existence and celebration of LGBTQ+ lives are acts of resistance.”

Families of every configuration and with kids of all ages, furries and leather aficionados, drag queens, athletes, teens in glitter, and elders in sun hats all mingled freely. The soundscape shifted from house beats to laughter to the hum of conversations in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi, and German. People of every gender expression and sexual orientation converged on the pristine green space to be in community and to allow the troubles of daily life to melt away.

It made for a portrait of the South that too rarely makes national headlines: plural, kind, unafraid.

Atlanta Pride organizers estimate the weekend drew more than…

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