Pride in the CLE® will be returning to downtown Cleveland on Saturday, June 3, 2023 to advocate and celebrate a thriving, diverse LGBTQ+ community here in Northeast Ohio. A march will step off and make its way through downtown Cleveland ultimately ending at the festival, which will again be held across the sprawling Malls B & C.

Building upon 2022’s joyful return to an in-person event, The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland will be hosting Pride with the logistical support of Palmer Event Solutions. “Our company mission is to help good people plan great events and our entire team is excited to help the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland in producing a community-wide event as impactful as Pride in the CLE®,” says Gail Palmer CSEP, CEO at Palmer Event Solutions.

Together with hundreds of local organizations, artisans, local food trucks, volunteers and entertainers, the Center is excited about the continued growth and importance of this signature celebration of Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ community. Palmer adds, “It is also a mark of personal pride to return to the world of pride planning in the city I now call home, and I truly look forward to helping our city ‘advocate and celebrate’ at the 2023 event.”

In 2022, the LGBTQ+ community across the United States suffered numerous affronts to their rights to access basic health care and education. These legislative setbacks, many dubbed “Don’t Say Gay,” bills, have changed the political landscape for LGBTQ+ individuals, leaving many without proper health resources or many youths with a full, logical understanding of self-expression.

With Pride, the Center aims to magnify the organization’s overall commitment to providing folks with access and information to various resources that are readily available to them throughout Northeast Ohio while also celebrating the full spectrum of LGBTQ+ culture. “Pride is a movement not just a moment,” says Senior Director of Programs at the LGBT Center, Gulnar Feerasta, “and as a program of the Center, Pride is fundamental to the way we continue to advance the movement forward.”

Pride in the CLE® will continue to elevate the collective LGBTQ+ voice here in Cleveland, drawing extra attention to the city’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. This event fulfills the Center’s overall mission to advocate, support, educate and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, there will be a heightened dedication to advocate for queer individuals who are continually being misrepresented. “This is an event emboldened by the community’s pride of self-expression, love and the intentional elevation of the diverse intersectional identities of our community,” says Feerasta.

The LGBTQ+ community in Northeast Ohio is a vibrant, thriving, and diverse community that includes LGBTQ+ youth, young adults, transgender/gender nonconforming individuals, families, and seniors. The Center has been dedicated to understanding, working with, and responding to the needs of the LGBTQ+ community for more than four decades and is honored to again serve the Greater Cleveland community through continuing to plan and promote Pride in the CLE®.

For more information stay tuned to the official Pride in the CLE® website (www.prideinthecle.org).