It’s an Atlanta scenario so typical it verges on cliché: Black LGBTQ+ people turn 30, declare pride festivities to be “for the young folks' and shift toward brunches, galas, and other so-called grown and sexy functions.Įven among once hardcore Pride party attendees like Locust Grove lesbian Xmiekl McCollum, the shift seems almost inevitable. “It wasn’t like the crowd we normally get, or we had hoped for.” “We were pushing Atlanta Black Pride during the time they canceled and it affected us,” she says. Moore pointed to lingering Covid concerns, and audience confusion after the mainstream Atlanta Pride was canceled. Amber Moore, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Atlanta Black Pride, Inc., estimates that the two-day park event drew roughly 2,000 people in a city with one of the country’s largest Black LGBTQ+ populations. This year’s Labor Day weekend celebration marked the 25th anniversary of Atlanta Black Pride and included roughly a dozen signature events, in addition to the weekend-ending community festival-held at Old Fourth Ward’s Central Park.
The result is diminished strength for what’s long stood as the community’s highest-profile Black gay space, at a time when everything from racism to gentrification is putting such spaces in jeopardy around the country. For example, the Piedmont Park event Hubbard referenced, while widely associated with ABP, is actually hosted by a different organization. It’s facing a community with ever-changing needs, as well as branding problems that have left Atlanta Black Pride bearing an undeserved reputation for drama. Others, like Hubbard, are leaning into online groups they feel offer drama-free socialization with people who share more in common than sexual identity.Īll represent a pain point for a two-decade-old Black Gay Pride organization actively working to stay relevant amid increasingly diverse demands. Some are attending mainstream, White-organized prides. Yet a vocal segment of people is increasingly opting out of the storied celebration, pointing to rowdy crowds and a general lack of growth that leaves them feeling the event represents them in name only. “I said, ‘I can’t do this’.”Ītlanta Black Pride is lauded as one of the most visible gatherings of Black LGBTQ+ persons in the nation. “The turning point was when I was at Piedmont Park and every other corner I turned, there was a fight,” says Hubbard, who at 37, hasn’t attended Black Pride in a decade. Eventually, for Hubbard, it stopped feeling like home.
“Just being able to be free felt really good.” “I loved just being in a place where I’m not seeking acceptance,” Hubbard says. Then just a fresh-faced youth, Atlanta lesbian Charlotte Hubbard spent her early 20s attending the city’s legendary Black Gay Pride celebration - one of the few places where she felt she could truly exhale.