‘More like home’: State College Pride Parade sees record number of participants in third year

Families from all over Centre County lined the streets of downtown Saturday for State College’s third annual Pride Parade.

The event to celebrate the LBGTQ+ community looked different than past years, though, according to organizers and repeat parade-goers — largely because of the increased number of participants and community turnout.

Annie Barnhart, 22, watched the parade from the sidewalks of South Allen Street.

“You could tell by the people even watching, it just felt so much bigger and everybody seemed more lively and just proud to be what they were doing and representing,” Barnhart, who attended last year’s parade, said.

Last year, 278 people participated in the parade, drawing about 4,000 people to the event to celebrate, according to Cat Cook, executive director of the Centre LGBTQA Support Network. This year, more than 900 had registered, and thousands more were expected to attend.

Cook said the number of participants likely increased so much because less people are concerned about COVID now than they were last year.

She also says the team did a lot of work leading up to Pride with various activities to promote the parade.

“Getting the community more involved in Pride and even leading up to Pride has really helped too, and just the increase in general excitement from all the different events that we have throughout Pride month, too, have really helped,” Cook said.

The parade, which is a combined effort of the Centre LGBTQA Support Network, the State College Borough and the Downtown State College Improvement District, started at 3 p.m Saturday from the State College Area High School. It included vehicles, floats, cyclists, skaters, walkers and more, and eventually ended at the intersection of West Foster Avenue and South Fraser Street.

The floats were new to this year’s parade, in addition to a float decorating contest. The parade also featured bikes and cars and a car decorating contest, which was judged by the State College Area Roller Derby for the second year in a row.

In addition, for the first time since State College Pride started in 2021, those in cars and floats were allowed to throw candy and other small trinkets to the crowd.

Bellefonte resident Ashley Johnson, who brought her daughter Attie to see the parade, said they’d gotten there early to get a spot to watch. Johnson, who was attending the parade for the first time, said she was pleasantly surprised by how many kids were there.

“In my household, we teach love and acceptance, and I think she’s at an age now where she’ll understand,” Johnson said as Attie twirled in a rainbow tutu. “And she loves a good parade.”

Ryan Lamb, 28, who did attend the parade last year, remarked that the event was noticeably larger and said the growth was encouraging.

“Central PA gets a rep for not being the most accepting place, so it’s nice to see that there’s a community and safe space here for people,” the State College resident said. “It just makes it feel more like home.”

Also surprised by the size of the festivities was State College resident Andy Vitek. He said he’s been to other Pride parades, but this was his first time taking part in State College’s Pride.

There’s something about seeing the Parade in his hometown that Vitek said was encouraging — especially in the summer.

“It feels great, especially given that the students aren’t here, knowing this is indicative of the local foundation here that’s not necessarily transitory,” Vitek, 35, said. “This is the kind of support that’s going to be here by default year-round.”

The festivities continued after the parade to a festival in Sidney Friedman Park, where festival-goers had access to live entertainment and food trucks, and heard from speakers including State College Mayor Ezra Nanes, candidate for state Superior Court Judge Timika Lane, state Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, who served as this year’s grand marshal.

Amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ bills across the country, Nanes opened his remarks by acknowledging feelings of uncertainty or fear from many within the LGBTQ+ community.

”It’s OK to feel that, and I want you to know the me, Ezra Nanes, my family, the Borough of State College — we are here for you. We will always be here for you, and we’re going to keep building on the amazing work that you’ve already done, that we’ve already done together,” he said.

Cook said she hopes State College Pride will only continue to grow in coming years, and she hopes the mission of Centre LGBT+ will reach and help more people.

Cook said she is grateful to the volunteers and sponsors that made this event possible.

“There’s a lot of people that have small businesses, or other organizations, or places of faith that wanted to get involved and sponsored at whatever level that they could, and it means a lot to us because it all really helps bring this event to light,” Cook said.

And though it’s not official yet, Cook also mentioned she’d love to have a “pet parade,” or some kind of way for parade-goers to involve their pets in future parades.

Cook also hopes the event will continue to grow in its efforts to uphold diversity by potentially including entertainment and activities from a wider variety of cultures.

“My goal is to continue to reach further and further because that’s how we let people know that Centre LGBT+ exists, and that’s how we can help more people, which is the ultimate goal of our organization,” Cook said. “So I, of course, have aspirations of making this even bigger as we continue year by year.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2023 at 11:30 AM.