‘The more Prides the better’: Houston’s New Faces of Pride commemorates first celebration

Houston’s New Faces of Pride kicked off its inaugural Pride festival and parade Saturday, themed “Rainbow Revolution,” welcoming thousands of queer Houstonians to celebrate love, authenticity, equality and LGBTQ+ pride.

Hundreds of vendors lined up along Walker and McKinney streets to sell everything from food, to psychic readings and local secondhand clothing. Organizations like Equality Texas and the Greater Houston LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce were also on hand. The six-hour festival also had several cooling and water stations throughout the area.

“It’s very well organized,” said Nicole Aponte, who frequently utilized the cooling stations located  within two stationary Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County buses. “And having the police around, everything seems so secure.”

Officials with New Faces expected roughly 5,000 to 10,000 attendees for the ticketed festival, which started at noon and ended at 6 p.m. They expected roughly 20,000 to attend the free parade.

However, both portions combined brought an estimated 20,000 people. Despite that, organizers considered this first year a “huge success.”

“We’re very happy with how everything went,” said Bryan Cotton, founder and president of New Faces of Pride, just as the parade was preparing to start. “Attendance will grow in time as confusion settles down. So, I’m very happy.”

Attendees made themselves at home, dipping their feet in the shallow fountain in front of City Hall to stay cool amid the hot and humid weather, as country singers Billy Gilman, Lauren Sanderson and Chris Housman performed from the main stage in front of City Hall.

The parade began at 7:30 p.m., with organizers announcing the parade countdown from the startline. More than 50 parade participants — from elected officials, to corporate representatives, to government agencies and community organizations — passed by on floats, cars and walked as they waved and threw beads, rainbow fans and koozies, and more while attendees danced to music from a live DJ.

Protestors at the parade

Just as the parade began, dozens of Pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom are queer, marched toward the center of the parade to raise awareness about the ongoing war in Israel.

A handful of groups chanted, “There’s no pride in genocide,” “Free, free Palestine,” and “We’re here, we’re queer, we want a revolution,” to protest Chevron, one of the parade’s sponsors, which has made significant investments to increase natural gas production to the country.

“It’s really hard for us to celebrate Pride right now when our comrades, our queer Palestinians, whose family is experiencing genocide at the hands of a country that continually pink washes its crimes,” said Anna Rajagopal, a recent Rice University graduate and member of Rice Students for Justice in Palestine .

“Even though the spirit of this pride parade is celebration, we hope that people remember that pride didn’t begin as a celebration. It began as a riot, as a revolution, as an uprising. So we’re hoping to also harken back to the roots of pride.”

Despite the protest, the parade continued. However, the Houston Police Department arrested two individuals, one on a misdemeanor for obstructing a highway and the second on a felony charge for an attempt to assault a peace officer, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. They were released on bond Sunday morning.

Double the pride, double the fun

New Faces of Pride launched last summer vowing to restore transparency after the reputation of  46-year-old legacy organization, Pride Houston 365, took a hit when former executive director and president Lorin Roberts was accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the organization and misappropriating more than $50,000.

In the months leading up to Pride, the two organizations had publicly feuded, with city officials calling for them to resolve their issues privately and find a way to work together.

But none of that mattered Saturday to attendees decked out in rainbow paraphernalia excited to show their pride and celebrate love.

“The more Prides the better, because people have other things in their lives and they can’t always make it to one event,” said first-time attendee Punkti Gandhi, who said she was unaware of the tension between the two organizations. “So having different events throughout the entire month enables more people to celebrate.”

It was the first Pride festival and parade for Elizabeth Falla, 21, of Houston, who was accompanied by their father, Victor Falla. The two waited patiently by the start of the parade on Smith and Lamar as attendees started to trickle in.

“Me coming to Pride is me acknowledging the fact that I have known this about myself for so long,” said Falla. They said they knew they’ve been pansexual since the age of 15.

There was not much planning involved in attending this weekend’s festivities, they said. All it took was one quick Google search to see there were two opportunities to celebrate and they were optimistic about making it to both.

Some of the online search results also brought up the rift between the two organizations, but Elizabeth Falla decided to focus on the positive and saw this as an opportunity to double down on community support.

“I don’t understand why they just can’t get along, but I do like it, because there’s twice as many money-raising opportunities now,” Falla said.

Cotton acknowledged that although some are still confused by the two Pride organizations, time should help resolve some of the issues.

“I think after having this and word getting out and people talking about it, that will clear up a lot of the confusion and folks will certainly be ready for next year,” he said.