Atlanta gay pride events

In cities around the state, June is the designated month to honor the LGBTQ+ experience. But Atlanta — considered widely to be the Black gay mecca — moves to its have beat.

Up until 2007, Atlanta’s annual celebration of gender non-conforming identity and rights took place every June, a nod to the Stonewall Uprising in New York City. In 1969, a stretch of protests and riots in response to police discrimination and persecution of queer people helped propel America’s gay liberation movement, inspiring former President Bill Clinton to designate June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month on Stonewall’s 30-year anniversary. (Former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden broadened the designation to include double attraction, transgender, queer, and intersex identities.)

But the tradition changed in 2008, when the city of Atlanta temporarily prohibited large events at Piedmont Park due to a drought, causing organizers to postpone festivities until October, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The timing stuck. For the past 17 years, Atlanta Pride — anchored by a weeklong festival best known for its extravagant parade — has been centered in the early days of autumn, which is fitting for its