Pittsburgh Pride Week

Different local LGBT groups organize two parades, many alternatives

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In June 1973, the LGBT community of Pittsburgh held its first pride march, from Market Square to Oakland’s Flagstaff Hill. Forty-five years later, multiple LGBT community groups are organizing Pride events this week, including two marches, a bar crawl, musical performances and outdoor markets.

Since the Delta Foundation took over Pride Week festivities in 2008, it has faced criticism from the LGBTQ+ community for being focused on cisgender white gay men, excluding people of color, lesbians and transgender individuals. This has prompted other LGBT groups to plan their own Pride events in addition to the large-scale 10-day Pittsburgh Pride, organized by the Delta Foundation, that concludes Sunday.

After advertising a new multi-day Pride Rocks PGH, which would feature musical headliners on Friday and Saturday, the Delta Foundation, as of Tuesday night, had yet to announce the Saturday performer, prompting complaints from some in the communityabout disorganization.

Nevertheless, thousands of people are expected to attend the Pittsburgh Pride events planned in celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, said Christine Bryan, director of marketing See Pride Week schedule at postgazette. and development at the Delta Foundation.

This coming Saturday and Sunday, the Delta Foundation will host Pride Fest on Liberty Avenue between Sixth and 10th streets. It will feature more than 175 vendor booths from nonprofits, churches, LGBT organizations and businesses, as well as children’s activitiesand health education.

Pride Rocks PGH on Friday will feature Troye Sivan, an Australian performer who rose to fame through YouTube. Mr. Sivan, who came out as gay on YouTube in 2013, has performed at Pride celebrations across the U.S. The performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. on the Pennsylvania Lottery Stage, 10th Street and Liberty Avenue. Tickets: $35 online. Minors must be accompanied by an adult.

The Delta Foundation, the dominating LGBT nonprofit in the Pittsburgh area, has come under scrutiny by members of the community for some of its partnerships, namely EQT, an oil and natural gas company that has backed non-LGBT-friendly political candidates.

That concern, along with a sense of exclusion in Pride events and a lack of what some believe is financial transparency, spurred a grass-roots alternative pride movement, led by groups such as SisTers, a nonprofit that serves transgender and nonbinary youth and adults in Pittsburgh. Ciora Thomas, who founded SisTers PGH because of her own past struggles with homelessness as a black transgender teen, hopes to provide an alternative space for marginalized members of the LGBTQ community who don’t feel considered by Pittsburgh Pride.

For the second year, a separate march organized by SisTers — the People’s Pride — will be held. Last year’s inaugural alternative march drew 1,200 attendees and this year’s is expected to be larger.

“People’s Pride is a place where those community members can be heard and issues can be taken seriously,” Ms. Thomas said. “It’s not a competition, it’s not about the money, it’s about creating a safe space for our LGBT community.”

Another alternative event — the Shadyside Pride bar crawl — arose under different circumstances. In the past, the Delta Foundation has organized a bar crawl among local LGBT bars. When Michael W. Mann, a member of the LGBT community, noticed that no bar crawl was