On Sunday, several streets were closed as hundreds of people gathered in the Oak Lawn neighborhood of Dallas to celebrate the 30th annual Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade – commonly called the Dallas Pride Parade.
The parade was put on by the Dallas Tavern Guild, a coalition of several LGBT businesses in Dallas, and was sponsored by Heineken.
Parade participants included: Bank of America, New York Life, Cigna, Humana, JP Morgan Chase, Whole Foods Market, CVS, Supercuts, the AT&T; Performing Arts Center, several local churches and non-profits, and SMU’s on-campus LGBT organization, Spectrum.
“Marching in the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade is a growing Spectrum tradition,” said Spectrum co-president Shelbi Smith.
“The Pride Parade is both a cultural celebration and a political demonstration for equal rights,” Smith said. “We join together to celebrate ourselves and each other, to let it be known that we are strong, confident and proud.”
The throngs of people lining Cedar Springs cheered and applauded Spectrum as they marched in the parade, carrying a “Spectrum” banner, a Peruna flag, and several handmade posters with messages such as, “Same Sex = Same Love.” The SMU students cheered back and hollered, “GO RED! GO BLUE! GO MUSTANGS! SMU!”
Among the crowd, several SMU alumni came to watch the parade and support the participants.
Family Court Judge Dennise Garcia of Dallas County, an SMU alumna, talked to the students from Spectrum. She said she was glad to see everyone out there today.
Judge Garcia is not the only public official to show support for the Dallas Pride Parade. In an open letter to the LGBT community, Mayor Michael Rawlings wrote, “The Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade is more than just your typical parade. It is a celebration of a community that encompasses and welcomes individuals from all walks of life […].”
“Dallas has become a melting pot of cultures and lifestyles,” Mayor Rawlings wrote. “Our city’s strength is derived from the diversity that radiates from the great people and places in Dallas. Today, we are proud to boast that we are home of the sixth-largest LGBT population in the United States.”
The mayor’s words were reflected in an open letter to the LGBT community from the Dallas City Council, which stated, “This annual event celebrates our shared commitment to equality in Dallas and all of Texas.”
Such positive messages from City Hall may be unexpected, but that’s what Dallas Pride is all about, says Dallas Tavern Guild president Frank Holland. It’s also why this year’s parade theme was “Deep in the Heart of Pride.”
In an open letter published in the parade guide, Holland wrote, “Who would have thought that deep in the heart of the staunchly conservative state of Texas we would be celebrating 30 years of the parade?”
“Many of us celebrating the parade this year are also proud to be Texans,” Holland wrote. “The efforts of pioneers such as Richard Longstaff, Alan Ross and Frank Caven, and every single LGBT community member of the Oak Lawn area, have created a neighborhood deep in the heart of Dallas that we can all take pride in – a neighborhood that has come to represent the heart of LGBT achievement.”
