‘You can be yourself’: Houstonians came out to celebrate Pride Houston 365

Houston’s long-standing Pride organization, Pride Houston 365, celebrated its 46th annual festival and parade Saturday, welcoming hundreds of thousands of Houstonians to celebrate love, equality and LBGTQ+ pride.

This year’s theme, “You Won’t Break Our Pride,” a clear nod to Houston-native Beyoncé’s 2022 hit song, “Break My Soul,” is about the resilience of the LGBTQ+ community and its enduring pride.

“That in spite of what we face, all of the scrutiny, the discrimination, the hatred, the projected shame, we can still do this,” said spokesperson Tiffany Scales.

Although Pride Houston has for decades been one of the largest Pride festivals in the nation, it still attracted some for the first time who traveled from various states, while others returned after missing a few years’ celebrations.

“It’s a lot larger,” said Aaron Jones, who attended for the third time since 2015, when the event moved from Montrose to downtown. “It just shows how much we’ve grown. And I love it. It’s just everybody together, different walks of life coming together. And that’s what it’s all about.”

More than 200 vendors packed Walker and McKinney streets offering food and baked goods, and selling pride souvenirs and secondhand clothing during the six-hour festival. Organizations like Texas Rising and AIDS Healthcare Foundation were also on hand to encourage people to register to vote and to provide free HIV rapid tests. The event also included performances  from David Archueletta, Kayla G and headliner, K. Michelle.

The festival had several cooling and hydration stations throughout the area — an adjustment organizers upped from previous years, Scales said, like 2022 when the event saw several heat-related illnesses.

This year, it only had one person who suffered from the heat, but they were immediately cared for, Scales said.

“We can’t force people to hydrate. We can only encourage it,” she said.

Shortly after 7:30 p.m. the parade began with its grand marshals leading the way in Jeeps, followed by a host of elected officials, community organizations, large corporations and even a second appearance from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who attended last year.

Officials with Houston Pride 365 expected roughly 75,000 attendees for the ticketed festival, which began at noon and ended at 6 p.m. and was hosted by local drag queen Muffy Vanderbilt. They expected 850,000 attendees for the free parade.

Final parade and festival attendance numbers were not made immediately available, but it had 858 volunteers, up from 2023, when it had an estimated 700 volunteers , organizers said. Last year, the parade and festival dipped from the previous year , organizers said, when an estimated 850,000 attended.

‘Pride matters’

Scales said that she and Pride Houston 365 President Kendra Walker recently experienced deaths in their families. But they pressed on anyway.

“It’s been the best experience I’ve had I think because of the leadership that we had (and) the commitment,” said Scales.

“We serve the community, no matter what we (are) going through,” she said. “My Mama died. We all going through a lot, so it’s been my favorite because if you’re gonna serve this may as well be what you do: Serve with pride.”

Pride Houston 365’s reputation took a hit in the summer of 2021 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 . Its financial turmoil gave rise to a new organization, Houston’s New Faces of Pride, which held its inaugural festival and parade a week prior , giving the City of Houston two different major celebrations for the first time ever.

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

Because of organizers’ commitment, attendees were able to show their pride unapologetically.

“You can be yourself, and do whatever you want, dress however you want, and people are going to celebrate you,” said Melody Miller. “My parents aren’t as accepting, so it’s good to be somewhere I’m celebrated.”

Miller, a trans woman, said it’s a reprieve from the anxiety she’s faced over the years worrying after a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans legislation were introduced in Texas and across the nation.

“They’re trying to erase us, but they won’t because we’ve been here forever,” she said. “Literally Trump wants to ban us and it’s like, you can’t ban people.”

As a result, Miller said she and her friends have been trying to be proactive and have a backup plan.

“I’ve been literally saving up money to possibly move to a different state or Canada. If I have to, I will,” she said. “Both me and my friends that are trans as well, have been stocking up on hormones because they don’t know how long they’ll go without them. … It’s very scary.”

Many said that’s why Pride, which started as a protest, is important now more than ever.

“Right now there is someone out there (feeling) alone and thinking to themselves that they are better off dead than gay or trans or queer or any of the other letters,” said Amara Red, the IT director at Pride Houston 365, earlier this week in a statement.

“That is why pride matters. Because we are here to show that person that they are not better off gone. To me it’s not about the festival or the parade, those are both great and they help spread the message but as long as that one person gets the message that the world is a better place with them in it because of who they are then, it’s all worth it.”