It isn’t always easy to show one’s LGBT pride in Tennessee, or to be proud of being a Tennessean as an LGBT person, but despite it all the community and its allies have persisted in doing so over the years. We’ve all sort of decided that we aren’t going to let the haters take that away from us completely, and so, despite it all—despite the Susan Lynns and the Stacey Campfields, the David Fowlers and the Family Action Councils—LGBT Pride has taken root and grown in this state.
The big cities—Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis—each host LGBT Pride festivals that speak to the distinctive culture of the city.
Memphis’ 13th Annual Mid-South Pride Festival will again take place in the heart of downtown Memphis. Mid-South Pride has been held annually since 2003 and features more than 100 vendor and informational booths, great food, and of course, the Pride Parade rolling down Historic Beale Street. This year, the festival will be held on Saturday, September 24, beginning at 10 a.m.
Knoxville PrideFest 2016 will be held in the World’s Fair Park Performance Lawn in downtown Knoxville on Saturday, June 18, 2016 from 12:00 pm–8:00 pm. The Pride Parade is at 11am. Knoxville Pridefest touts itself as an open celebration of music, entertainment and speakers focused on promoting equality and Inclusion of all people. This year’s entertainment lineup in Knoxville promises fun for all, with performances from artists as varied as the Knoxville Opera to Pop Rox! and Chely Wright. RuPaul’s Drag Race alums Coco Montrese and Derrick Barry will, no doubt, slay.
But Pride is no longer confined to the state’s bigger cities. A number of smaller cities and even towns have begun hosting festivals, either one off or regularly. Chattanooga’s Tennessee Valley Pride is one of the largest of these, and it is probably the last of Tennessee’s Pride festivals of the year. The event is an intimate, hometown celebration of a strong and growing LGBT and allies community in the region. TVP has boasted the support of community organizations from PFLAG and Chattanooga CARES to Jewish Congregation Bnai Zion and UTC’s Wesley Fellowship. Held near the Tennessee River and the Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga’s early fall Pride is a beautiful event held in comfortable temperatures.
Two of the newest celebrations bring Pride to even smaller communities where tensions can run higher. Upper Cumberland was held on Saturday, May 14, 2016, in Cookeville. The festival, first conceived of by R.G. Cravens and Beth Thompson, was founded in 2011 at a Tennessee Equality Project meeting in Crossville, Tennessee, and the first Upper Cumberland Pride was held in 2012. This year’s festival was again held in the Hyder-Burks Agricultural Pavilion and hosted over thirty vendors.
Tri-Cities has one of the newest festivals in Tennessee, having just hosted its second annual Pride Spring Music Festival, also on Saturday, May 14, 2016, at the Willow Tree Coffehouse and Music Room in downtown Johnson City. This event featured local musical acts Chameleon Red, My New Favorites, Us If, Love Unit, Soul Sauce, & Comet Conductors. The goal of events like this one is more akin to much earlier Pride festivals—local solidarity, enjoying being free together for a moment from having to be afraid because of who we are, and building hope for a better tomorrow in our small towns and rural enclaves.
Some people look forward to a time when “we don’t need Pride anymore,” but I disagree. Well, I look forward to a time when LGBT people everywhere no longer need such events to feel like they aren’t alone in their world, but I hope when that time comes Pride doesn’t disappear. I hope that the LGBT citizens of any small town will continue to get together to celebrate their diversity and put faces on difference. I think Pride is good for humanity.
Photo by Kevin Reed