{"id":35,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:48:35","latitude":39.7726746000000019876097212545573711395263671875,"longitude":-86.156045599999998785278876312077045440673828125,"title":"Pride Parade","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/763d6242b06f3dce2ef0a1f10bd1d6fb.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":15,"creator":["Meghan Hillman","Jonnie Foxx"],"description":"You’re standing at the corner of Vermont Street and Pennsylvania Street, where the Circle City Pride Parade has marched by every summer since 2002. The parade is a celebration of the Indianapolis LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community’s decades-long struggle for recognition and acceptance. Underground in Indy (1960-1981) Until the mid-1980s, the Indianapolis LGBT community was “underground.” Fearing social persecution, gay men and women met covertly at the old Essex House Hotel, which sat here on this corner until it was demolished in 1994. A dinner at the Essex in 1981 is considered to be the first organized Pride event in the city. At this meeting and others like it, LGBT activists planned for the future of their community and circulated copies of The Mirror and The New Works News, Indianapolis’s early gay and lesbian papers. Perhaps the earliest LGBT publication in the city, The Screamer, dating back to the mid-1960s, features poetry, funny anecdotes, and recipes. Circle City Pride Festival &amp; Parade (1988-) In 1988, the first official Pride Festival kicked off at the Indianapolis Sports Center. Attendance that year was only around 175 people, but it would soon grow enormously. In 1990, Pride moved to Monument Circle and attracted over 3,000 visitors. The Cadillac Barbie parade joined the Pride festivities in 2002. LGBT in Indy Today All 2020 Indy Pride events were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As Pride Month began on June 1st, Indy Pride posted this statement in support of Black Lives Matter: \"June 1st is the beginning of Pride Month where we celebrate the progress, diversity and individuality of the LGBTQ+ community. Now, more than ever, we must remember that Pride started as protest against police brutality, injustice and marginalization. Today, we see the struggle continue in our community, in communities of color and in communities of faith, all overlapping much more than we may realize.\" Read more of Indy Pride's <a href=\"https://indypride.org/about/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement.</a>","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":[],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/763d6242b06f3dce2ef0a1f10bd1d6fb.jpg":{"id":203,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Indy Pride 2013","description":"The 2013 Cadillac Barbie Pride Parade on June 9, 2013.  Image courtesy of user will139 on flickr.com. | 2013","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/763d6242b06f3dce2ef0a1f10bd1d6fb.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/3bead9d7238cca40dd82dbf3af3165a0.jpg":{"id":204,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Essex Hotel, 1957","description":"The Essex Hotel at the corner of Pennsylvania and Vermont, pictured in 1957. One of the first organized GLBT events in Indianapolis took place here in 1981. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nPhoto courtesy of the W. H. Bass Photo Company and Indianapolis Historical Society. | W.H. Bass Photo Company Collection, Indiana Historical Society  | 1957 | W.H. Bass Photo Company ","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/3bead9d7238cca40dd82dbf3af3165a0.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/e98f21e5867c6572157b40d6c26bfbc8.jpg":{"id":205,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Bag Ladies, 1982.","description":"The Bag Ladies Bus Tour, pictured here on Halloween night, 1982, raised money for sufferers of HIV/AIDS in Indianapolis.  They later became a key fundraising partner of the Damien Center.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nPhoto courtesy of the Indianapolis Historical Society. | 1982","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/e98f21e5867c6572157b40d6c26bfbc8.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/18a74585375ebdd249a75b0f088384f4.jpg":{"id":207,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Damien Center Ad, 1988","description":"Poster for a Damien Center fundraiser in 1988.  The Gala Masquerade is an annual event, first held in 1987, to raise money and awareness for the Damien Center and HIV/AIDS prevention.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nPhoto courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society. | Indiana Historical Society  | 1988 | Damien Center ","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/18a74585375ebdd249a75b0f088384f4.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/b9496e3bfca64bec589cd7defdade426.jpg":{"id":208,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Reverend &amp; Protesters, 1992","description":"The Reverend Howard Warren, openly gay director of pastoral care at the Damien Center, addresses anti-gay protesters at a Pride event in 1992.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nPhoto courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society. | Indiana Historical Society  | 1991 | Ted Fleischaker and &quot;The Word&quot;","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/b9496e3bfca64bec589cd7defdade426.jpg"}}}