Celebrating Progress at the 18th Annual Columbus LGBT Pride Festival

The moment I got out of the car, I knew my friends and I were in the right place. Strung across the front of Friendship Hall at Flat Rock Park was a line of colorful flags, saved for years from previous Pride Festivals. Held Saturday, September 10, in sweltering 95 degree heat, the 18th Annual Columbus LGBT Pride Festival had dance music, a fabulous drag show, a raffle for tasteful gift baskets from Starship and passes to Club Medallion, and great food, all for the cost of a small donation.

A large RV stood nearby and there were a few small tents with rainbow flags where groups of people mingled; a half-circle of folding chairs decorated with different colors of balloons waited in front of a makeshift stage. In front of the chairs stood a small table with a large tip jar and a machine spewing out hundreds of tiny bubbles, to the delight of small children and lesbians alike. I soon found myself face-to-face with the head honcho, the queen herself, Candy Elizabeth O’Hara (also known as C. Shawn Carter).

O’Hara said that the former CEO of Chattahoochee Valley Pride, Inc., Kevin Blackstock, turned over the reins to her. O’Hara has served on the board for eight years. After closing their center last year (it is now a local Trump campaign headquarters), the group is being rebuilt and renamed Columbus Pride.

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“Atlanta Pride isn’t Fulton County Pride,” reasoned O’Hara, “so why should our organization be named for the county?”

We spoke briefly about the apathy in the Columbus LGBT community. “Some want to be activists, but only when there is crisis,” said O’Hara. “I’m probably going to get some heat for this, but there are people who don’t want to admit we’ve really come a long way. Thank god for the queens of Stonewall who started everything.”

The Queens of Stonewall participated in the Stonewall Riots, also known as the Stonewall Uprising or Stonewall Rebellion, which occurred in response to the constant police raids in the Greenwich Village community in New York City. Tensions came to a head on June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn when gay patrons actually locked police inside the establishment and rioted outside. The riots were responsible for igniting the LGBT civil rights movement. “It’s 2016,” said O’Hara. “I can stand out here looking like a hooker on a street corner and no one cares. This festival is for celebrating how far we have come.”