March And Festival Top Pride Month Celebration In Fredericksburg

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — Pride Month started Thursday and continues through June, with several ways in Fredericksburg to participate in the celebration of LGBTQ culture, rights and identity.

Among them is the Pride March and Pride Fest on June 24 at the Old Mill Park.

Other events include:

• Celebrate Pride: Love, Diversity and Equality Art Show
  • June 2 through June 25 at the Fredericksburg Visitor Center
• Pride Prom
  • Saturday, June 10 starting at 6 p.m. at Water's End Brewery

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.

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 Virginia, about 4 percent of the population — or 308,000 people — identify as LGBTQ, according to the Movement Advance Project, which tracks legislation targets.

The organization gives Virginia 23.5 points out of a possible 43.5 points. Our state received 11 points out of a possible 20 for sexual orientation policy and 14.5 points out of a possible 23 for gender policy. The overall ranking was graded “medium.”

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.

In Virginia, 12 bills were proposed that would have limited the rights of LGBT people. Each bill was defeated, the ACLU said.

Proposed bills targeted healthcare, schools, and civil rights.

“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.”