'It's good to be here': Austin Pride celebrations return in full glam

Tens of thousands gathered with rainbows, flags and glitter to celebrate the return of Austin Pride after a two year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This was the first Austin Pride event since the pandemic began. The 2020 event would have marked three decades of the festival, but organizers are celebrating Austin Pride's 30th event this month.

Despite the heat, attendees were in full celebration mode. Couples, families and friends walked the festival, with many showcasing their pride with flags, shirts or dyed hair and enjoying the drag shows and booths.

Organizers estimate that more than 40,000 people attended Saturday.

For Salix Fite, it was the first time attending the festival and an ideal place to interact with the LGBTQIA+ community.

"It's good to be here," Fite said. "Crazy, but exciting."

Fite said the festival shows that the community is not going away.

"We are here; we've always been here," Fite said.

The history of LGBTQ pride events in Austin is long, as the American-Statesman's Michael Barnes chronicled in 2015, the 25th anniversary of official celebrations in the city.

In April 1970, the year after the uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York, “the first publicly promoted meeting of Austin homosexuals drew only 25 brave souls to the University Y on Guadalupe Street,” Barnes wrote.

In June 1976, Mayor Jeff Friedman proclaimed a Gay Pride Week Celebration, which brought a parade to Second Street and Congress Avenue. The first Gay and Lesbian Pride Fiesta was held in 1990, marking the beginning of the city’s annual celebration. The official Pride Parade came along in 2002.

It was Yuhua Hamasaki's first time at Austin Pride, and she said seeing the younger generation celebrating made her know that everything is going to be OK in the future. After not having the opportunity to attend a festival at a younger age, seeing this filled her joy, she said.

"This is great," Hamasaki said. "It's very family-friendly, and they get to see a little bit more of the world out there."

Pride events are a place for communities to come together and celebrate and support one another, Hamasaki said. Festivals such as Austin Pride allow for people of "all different background, cultures and sexual orientations, identity" to celebrate, she said.

She added that pride events "normalize" being different and "celebrate progress."

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Having attended Austin Pride for the five years before it was postponed, Lela Lambirth said it was great to see people out and celebrating.

"We're here; we have voices; we have a big community," Lambirth said.

Having lived in Austin for five years, Adam Williams said he had never been to Austin Pride. Williams said he moved to Texas from north-central West Virginia and added: "That's primarily why I came to Austin. It's because we aren't accepted there. Whereas here you can be who you are and you don't have to worry it."

LGBTQ pride gatherings have also caught on in smaller surrounding communities. Taylor's inaugural Gay Pride Festival was held last year; 2022 has seen Round Rock, Leander, Bastrop and Pflugerville follow suit.

Pride Month is celebrated around the country in June to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which kicked off the modern LGBTQ rights movement. So why is Austin Pride later in the year? The Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation moved the event to September in 2011, when more university students were in town. It’s been held in August since 2015, and that helps organizers attract more entertainers than if they tried to compete with other Pride events in June, foundation President Micah Andress told public radio station KUT in 2019.

Now living in an area where pride is celebrated, Williams said he was delighted to see the turnout.

"People coming out here with their kids. ... Having a community that welcomes you means a lot," he said.

Additional material from American-Statesman staff writer Eric Webb.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin Pride celebrations return in full glam