• Pride parade history
• Police violence information
• #BlackPride4 information
• #BlackPride4 news coverage
• BQIC information
• BQIC links
• Other local orgs info and links

Established in 2018, Columbus Community Pride is a series of educational and social events, all culminating in a day-long festival.

At Stonewall Columbus’ 2017 Pride parade, several community members stepped out into the street with the intent of bringing public attention to the lack of safe spaces for Black and brown LGBTQIA+ folks within the larger LGBTQIA+ community. Within one minute of leaving the curb, the group was accosted by aggressive CPD officers, who assaulted them with bikes, pepper spray, and sheer force. During this altercation, four folks––mostly Black trans and queer individuals––were arrested. They have become known as the #BlackPride4.

Despite hosting the parade at which this altercation occurred and claiming to be an advocacy organization “for all” LGBTQIA+ people in Central Ohio, Stonewall Columbus not only failed to aid the #BlackPride4 after their arrest, they refused communication with them and their supporters, resisted public calls for change and resignations, and, finally, testified for the prosecution in the #BlackPride4 trials of Wriply, Kendall, and Ashley. Stonewall Columbus’ gross failures to protect and support the #BlackPride4 and all queer, trans, and intersex people of color (QTIPOC)––as well as their refusal to condemn CPD’s actions or police presence at Pride––made it necessary to provide an alternative Pride celebration FOR the community BY the community.

In solidarity with the #BlackPride4’s initial message, Black Queer & Intersectional Collective and its partners are organizing a celebration that centers QTIPOC and those at other intersections of oppression, takes no corporate sponsorship, and outrightly fights against state-sanctioned violence.

Fighting to defund and abolish the police is a founding tenet of Community Pride.

To learn more about the #BlackPride4, check out the links below for coverage:

• BQIC Statement on the 5 Year Anniversary of the #BlackPride4 Arrests during the Stonewall Parade and Festival on June 17th, 2017 (June 18th, 2022)
• Community feature: Black Pride 4 inspire community to examine Pride, protest and police response (Columbus Alive)
• Black Queer and Trans Protesters Arrested at Ohio Pride Parade (AJ+)
• Ohio’s Black Pride 4 Were Arrested at the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and Parade (Teen Vogue)
• FREE THE #BLACKPRIDE4: State Repression and the Fight for Liberation in LGBT Spaces (No Justice No Pride)
• March 12 #BlackPride4 National Day of Action (GetEqual’s Facebook)
• Sentences for three of the #BlackPride4 (BQIC’s Facebook)

Black Queer & Intersectional Collective (BQIC) is a coalition led by Black queer and trans people working to build a society in which Black LGBTQIA+ people from all backgrounds can thrive. We seek to dismantle systems of oppression such as the prison industrial complex, police brutality, forceful detainment of immigrants, and more through community organizing, education, and creating platforms upon which the most marginalized people can have their voices heard.

In response to the state of Stonewall Columbus and its lack of support for people of color within the LGBTQIA+ community, we are hosting Community Pride to provide an alternative Pride for those who have never felt or no longer feel welcomed by Stonewall Columbus’ Pride.

We aren’t doing this on our own; it’s through partnering with other grassroots organizations and working with organizers/volunteers that Community Pride 2023 will succeed. To volunteer on your own or as a group, fill out the signup form here.

For updates on BQIC, what we’re up to, and more, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.