Atlanta Pride

Background

The Atlanta Pride event first took place in 1970 on the anniversary of riots opposed to a police raid at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. Atlanta Pride initially consisted of a crowd of demonstrators carrying pro-LGBT posters from Atlanta’s midtown to Piedmont Park. In 1976, following a declaration by Atlanta’s mayor that June 26 would be “Gay Pride Day in Atlanta,” attendance at the annual event was greater than 1,000. ²

In 1980, Atlanta Pride was officially known as Atlanta Lesbian, Gay, and Transperson Pride, and in the following year, the event was expanded beyond the original parade to include live concerts, radio shows, art shows, film festivals, history symposiums, block parties, voter registration drives, and an open house hosted at the headquarters of the Atlanta Gay Center and Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance. ²

In 1994, an estimated 150,000 people attended Atlanta Pride, making it the fifth-largest LGBT pride event in the nation that year, according to the Atlanta History Center. Four years later, in 1998, the organizing committee for the festival was established as a charitable nonprofit organization under the name Atlanta Pride Committee Inc. ^{3 2}

Starting in the 2000s, Atlanta Pride began receiving substantial financial support from major corporations, including Coors, Pepsi, Jose Cuervo, Stolichnaya, and Showtime. Later in 2009, Atlanta Pride elected to reschedule the organization’s annual festival from June to October so that the festival’s programming would coincide with National Coming Out Day on October 11. ²

Other Activity

In addition to annually promoting and managing the Atlanta Pride LGBT festival in October, Atlanta Pride Committee also hosts smaller educational, cultural, and community events throughout the course of the year. ¹

Grantmaking

Since 2024, Atlanta Pride has maintained a grantmaking initiative, Pride Across the Peach State, which awards grants of up to $5,000 each to local organizations in Georgia to fund aligned LGBT-focused activities and celebrations. Grant recipients of the initiative include Athens Pride, Atlanta Black Pride, Carrolton Rainbow, Equality Fest Inc, Macon Pride, Pride Lake, Rome Georgia Pride, Savannah Pride Center, Smyrna Pride, Southern Fried Queer Pride, and Statesboro Pride. ^{4 5}

Funding

Sponsoring partner organizations and government entities of Atlanta Pride include Atlanta News First, the government of the City of Atlanta, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Grady Health, Bavarian’s Nordic’s Empowered Against Mpox, Cox Enterprises, Georgia Aquaria, Intuit Malchimp, MARTA, Northside Hospital, IHG Hotels and Resorts, Wellstar Health System, White Claw, the Atlanta Hawks basketball team, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Fiserv, Georgia Voice, iHeart Media, Positive Impact Health Centers, EarthLink, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, PNC, Smurfit Westrock, Southwire, Greystar, Hyatt, Kaiser Permanente, KPMG, Porsche, Ralph Lauren, Salesforce, and Southern Company. ⁶

Leadership

Chris McCain is the executive director of Atlanta Pride. Previously, he was the director of philanthropy at the Bail Project, director of strategic partnerships at the Forum for Theological Exploration, inaugural fellow at the Jessie Ball du Pont Fund, and a staffer involved in foundation and corporate relations at Emory University. ⁷

Steven Igarashi is the director of communications and community engagement at Atlanta Pride as well as a member of the Atlanta Mayor’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. Previously, he was the organization’s director of equity and engagement, chair of the Georgia Prevention and Care Council, founder and executive director of Drag Story Hour Atlanta, a board member of

Out Front Theatre, and a member of the Atlanta Hawks LGBTQ+ Advisory Council. ⁸