SHORT DOCUMENTARY: KENTUCKIANA PRIDE TURNS 20 IN QUARANTINE
The first Kentuckiana Pride event took place on June 27, 1982. It wasn’t an event that could be considered a parade or a festival, it was more of a picnic. Tucked away in Otter Creek Park on the outskirts of Louisville, a small gathering of the local queer community attempted to find joy and celebration in the bravery it took to live out loud as the religious right was tightening its grip on The South.
Less than a month before their picnic, on May 31st, The Los Angeles Times published the first front page article about a disease that would eventually ravage communities just like theirs, “Mysterious Fever Now an Epidemic.” It took five more years, to the day, for President Ronald Regan to make his first public speech about AIDS. By then, there were over 50,000 cases reported in America alone that resulted in over 40,000 fatalities. AIDS had an absolutely staggering mortality rate that was disproportionately killing gay men who were receiving little more than blame from the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, another duality took place. Five years to the day after the Otter Creek Picnic, on June 27, 1987, around 300 people took to the streets staging the first march for LGBTQ rights from Jefferson Street to City Hall in the center of downtown Louisville.
“March for Justice,” June 27, 1987. Adrienne Helizter for the Courier Journal
By the year 2000, the pride month gathering was too large to be considered a picnic and attendees were coming from all over the region to attend. There was more celebration in the air by then, more acceptance too. The event moved to The Belvedere on Louisville’s waterfront overlooking the Ohio River where it has been held every year since then.
Well, every year except for last year.
Kentuckiana Pride Parade and Festival 10th Anniversary, 2010, Taylor Cochran for Marquee Louisville
It’s a curious thing how fitting it was for 2020 to be the 20th anniversary of The Kentuckiana Pride Festival as we know it today. This community, that grew amidst a global epidemic and social uprising, was once again trying to find reasons to celebrate their anniversary and progress while cancelling their parade and instead joining the Black Lives Matter protestors who were screaming for justice in the murder of Breonna Taylor by LMPD officers Brett Hackison, Myles Cosgrove, and Jonathan Mattingly.
During the 1987 “March for Justice” staged by the queer community, it was the black community that showed up to march beside them. In 2020? Pride meant locking arms again and begging those in power to recognize the humanity in the communities they are supposed to protect and serve. Their cries fell on deaf ears in City Hall, but a fire was reignited in Louisville.
PRIDE MARCHES ON
We got the call to compile this mini-documentary in the Spring of 2020. Louisville had been on lockdown for over two months at that point, the annual Kentuckiana Pride Parade couldn’t march down Main Street in the traditional sense. But, resilient as ever, that wasn’t going to stop the queer community from staging a small act to serve as a reminder that the queer community was still fighting, celebrating, welcoming and growing.
We were fortunate enough to capture the construction of the planned 20th anniversary float and follow its path through downtown. No parade followed, just a small group of organizers hoping this message would reach those feeling most isolated in quarantine, a digital pride festival of sorts.
Almost everyone featured in this video answered our call to speak their truth at the very last minute. For many of us, it was the first time we had interacted with anyone outside our homes in months. But, this felt really important to everyone involved. We wanted to get this story right and that meant diving into the past, being honest about the present and discussing hopes for the future.
Kentuckiana Pride returns to downtown Louisville on October 8 & 9 and if we had to guess, after last year, this will be the biggest party yet.
Visit kypride.com for more information about The Kentuckiana Pride Foundation. Interview coordination assistance was provided by Queer Kentucky and this video was made possible by Kroger Community Initiatives.