Good news came with the end of Pride Month this year — dozens of small towns across the nation held their first celebrations this year, from Alabama to Alaska. A full list of the cities that celebrated their first Pride can be found at the bottom of this page.
Canyon County, Idaho was one of these towns. The Washington Post followed one of the lead organizers, Tom Wheeler, as he faced threats of violence and was even told to wear a bulletproof vest leading up to his community’s event. However, the celebration was extremely successful, with the only safety concern being too many attendees to fit in the celebration area.
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The other lead organizer, Van Knapp, said in the statement, “Organizing our county’s first public Pride festival for our community gifted me with a deep understanding of what Pride means to me. We expected a couple hundred people to attend the festival and had over 3,000.”
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“The community showed how they truly feel about the LGBTQIA+ population, and it was much different than the loud voices that we were used to hearing. Idaho is ready to become more accepting, and our event really proved that,” Knapp said.
GLAAD collaborated with Good Morning America to honor the LGBTQ+ organization, Pratville Pride, for organizing the first Pride event in Pratville, Alabama with a special award: the GLAAD Special Recognition award.
“Pride is about a sense of community and belonging and allowing people to take up space and be themselves,” said one of the organizers, Caryl Lawson. “It’s so important, especially in today’s climate where our community is under attack. Especially the trans community. It is so important people know they’re not alone.”
Pride 2024 was also a complicated one. It began with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security about possible threats against Pride celebrations by foreign terrorist organizations. The announcement said that FTO threats are “compounded by the current heightened threat environment in the United States and other western countries,” and notes that many FTOs have previously used “anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and targeted LGBTQIA+ related events or venues for attacks.”
This led to some cities, like Pride Houston, ramping up the security at their events.
No terrorist threats occurred during Pride celebrations. Protests in support of Palestine occurred at several Pride Parades, with the Ontario Pride Parade being cancelled midway through after organizers did not meet the list of demands given by protestors. Other events, from the Outright International Gala to the White House Pride also had protestors present. The two protestors at the White House Pride were removed after they began chanting in support of the U.S. ending its support for Israel.
Full list of small cities that held their first Pride events in 2024:
- Prattville, Alabama
- Seward, Alaska
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Fremont, California
- Mission Viejo, California
- Bunnell, Florida
- Topeka, Kansas
- Henderson, Kentucky
- Nampa, Idaho
- Park Ridge, Illinois
- Rockford, Illinois
- Whiting, Indiana
- Mandeville, Louisiana
- Garrett County, Maryland
- Concord, Massachusetts
- Hastings, Michigan
- Warren, Michigan
- Grand Rapids, Minnesota
- South St. Paul, Minnesota
- Haywood, North Carolina
- Hermiston, Oregon
- Lake Oswego, Oregon
- Ross Township, Pennsylvania
- Fort Bend County, Texas
- Park City, Utah
- Woodstock, Vermont
- Harpers Ferry, West Virginia