For years, Mid-South Pride (and before that Memphis Pride) held the city’s annual Gay Pride march and festival in mid-June. That’s because June is National Gay Pride Month, chosen to commemorate the June 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan.
- Bianca Phillips
- A scene from the 2009 Mid-South Pride parade
However, this year’s local festivities have been pushed back to Saturday, October 16th due to organizers’ concerns about extreme summer heat.
“We wanted to make the festival more comfortable for everyone by switching to a fall date,” said Jason Houston with Mid-South Pride. “We received a lot of feedback [about the heat] in particular after last year’s festival, so we felt it would be best to respond by moving the date.”
The October 16th date was chosen due to its proximity to National Coming Out Day (October 11th). Though most major cities hold Gay Pride events in June, a few other cities such as Richmond, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina, hold events later in the year.
For more information on Mid-South Pride 2010, go here.
