by Riley Blankenship

This past Saturday was a huge turnout for downtown Greensboro as people flocked from all over the Triad for Greensboro’s annual Pride Festival. According to local WXII news, the number of people who came to the festival hit 60,000. Several vendors as well as local business owners had tents spread out all over downtown.

The festival had two different stages placed at each end of the festival. The stage on the west end of the festival had local LGBTQ+ music artists as well as local drag queens from all over the Piedmont of North Carolina. Meanwhile, the stages on the east end of the festival had local sponsors advertising local shops.

The variety of all the different tents and organizations were absolutely astounding. One organization that really stood out to me was A Woman’s Choice, AWC, of Greensboro. This organization is the only group in North Carolina that are legally allowed to do abortions as currently, North Carolina has a 12-week abortion ban in place. AWC was at the pride to educate and give out information about AWC as well as to have a representative for those who had questions or wanted to be more informed about the group.

I was totally taken aback when one of the group members informed me that their organization is the only one that can legally do abortions. I was under the assumption that there were other groups in N.C. that were able to do abortions. I believe this organization is doing amazing work due to how many states are putting anti- abortion laws into effect.

Overall, I was very impressed by the festival. I believe there was great representation for the LGBTQ+ community, but more specifically the trans community.  I was amazed by the inclusion as well as the turnout for the event. It was great to see the LGBTQ+ community as well as its allies showing support.