How To Celebrate June Pride Month In Doylestown

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Pride Month continues through June with several ways in Doylestown to participate in the celebration of LGBTQ culture, rights and identity.

Among them is Doylestown Pride Week. Here are some of the events taking place from June 17 to 25:

• Pride Music Day takes place on Saturday, June 17. Pride Music Day 2023 is organized in partnership with Picnics on Pine and sponsored by Restore Dispensaries. Doors for the show will open at 4:30 p.m.; picnic spots are first come first serve. Attendees must provide their own chairs and blankets for picnicking. Bring what you need to comfortably enjoy a picnic without obstructing others' views. Pride Music Day is a rain or shine event, no refunds will be given. Check out the lineup below and get your tickets at eventbrite.com/e/2023-doylestown-pride-festival-music-day
• Doylestown Pride Ride takes place June 20 beginning at 6:30 p.m. on MacFarlane Lane behind Central Bucks West High School. Join Doylestown Borough Parks & Recreation, Women Bike Dtown and Discover Doylestown for a community bike ride on the open streets around Doylestown Borough to celebrate the Doylestown Pride Festival. Decorate yourselves and your bikes in your brightest rainbow colors, and be ready to ride as a group from the corner of MacFarlane Lane and Lafayette Street (behind CB West). All are welcome, but be aware this is a bike ride on open streets with traffic. Riders under age 12 must ride alongside parents/guardians or on adult-powered bikes. All riders must wear helmets and abide by all stop signs, traffic lights, and rules of the road. Register online.
• The Doylestown Pride Festival Block Party takes place on Saturday, June 24 from 11 a m. to 5 p.m. on East State Street between Pine and Main streets. There will be music, vendors and entertainment.
• For a complete schedule of Pride Week events, CLICK HERE.

Pride Month occurs during June in deference to the Stonewall Uprising, a tipping point in the struggle for equality among people who identify as LGBTQ. New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Such raids were common, but patrons fought back, resulting in days of violent clashes across Greenwich village.

Doylestown welcomes Pride Month on June 1 with the raising of the Progress Pride Flag at the Bucks County Administration Building. (Photo by Jeff Werner)

The observance started as Gay Pride Day on the last Sunday in June, but soon grew to the point that June calendars are packed with pride parades, parties, workshops, symposiums and concerts across the nation and around the world.

In Pennsylvania, about 4.1 percent of the population — or 490,000 people — identify as LGBTQ, according to the Movement Advance Project, which tracks legislation targets. They represent five percent of Pennsylvania’s workforce, or 307,000 people.

The organization gives Pennsylvania 16.5 points out of a possible 43.5 points. Our state received 6.75 points out of a possible 20 for sexual orientation policy and 9.75 points out of a possible 23 for gender policy. The overall ranking was graded “FAIR.”

Pride Month 2023 occurs amid a historic surge in bills targeting LGBTQ rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nearly 500 pieces of legislation nationwide have been filed in state legislatures this year, according to the ACLU tracking.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 2 voted 102 to 98 to approve a bill calling for protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, marking the first time such legislation has passed in either the state House or Senate in the 47 years since similar bills have been introduced.

“LGBTQ people are under fire, unlike possibly ever before and across virtually every aspect of our lives,” Logan S. Casey, a senior researcher at Movement Advancement Project, told The Washington Post in April. “This is part of a very clear and identifiable national effort in state legislatures that is and has been going on for years — and it’s really culminating this year.”

Doylestown welcomes Pride Month on June 1 with the raising of the Progress Pride Flag at the Bucks County Administration Building. (Photo by Jeff Werner)