Participants use balloons to spell out "PRIDE" during the 2025 Columbus Pride Parade Saturday. Credit: Faith Schneider | Arts & Life Photo Editor
At 10:30 a.m. Saturday, thousands of marchers took off from Broad and High streets and headed north to Goodale Park for the 2025 Stonewall Columbus Pride March and Festival.
Women wearing “Free Mom Hugs” shirts strolled along the edges of the sidewalk — signs reading “Queer Joy is Resistance” and “Trans People Belong” were waved as groups of nonprofit, community, political and corporate organizations walked alongside their peers toward Goodale Park.
At 11 a.m., the festivities continued with more than 200 vendors, community resources, live entertainment and, of course, freebies, scattered throughout Goodale Park.
Stickers, beaded necklaces, pens and life-saving items such as fentanyl test strips and Narcan were among the offerings this year, with vendors selling buttons, necklaces, crocheted items and more. A DJ, dance pad and two stages hosted a variety of performers.
This year’s march and festival — themed “United in Power” — marks the 44th year of Stonewall Columbus’s Pride celebration. Starting in 1981 with a march of about 200 people, Columbus Pride has since grown to more than 20,000 marchers in 2024, and that growth doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. The festival itself draws in over 700,000 visitors, according to an NBC4 article.
Despite facing challenges this year — including several large donors pulling out amid rollbacks on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, which cost Stonewall Columbus around $150,000, according to a May 28 Columbus Dispatch article — the celebration persisted.
This year’s pride festival coincided with the “No Kings” protests, a nationwide movement opposing the Trump administration. According to USA Today, there were over 2,100 rallies and protests across the country Saturday with an estimate of 5 million participants.
Indivisible — the organization hosting the protests — had a float in the Columbus parade, with about 200 people marching alongside handing out materials, Mia Lewis, an organizer for Indivisible Central Ohio, said in a Dispatch article.
To celebrate pride while still protesting the current administration, Columbus’s No Kings protest took place Friday evening.
Signs reading “No Kings” and “Make America Ours Again” were still prevalent throughout Saturday’s event, as festival goers showed up to both celebrate pride and express discontent with the current political climate.
As the second largest Pride celebration in the Midwest, Stonewall Columbus’s Pride March and Festival continues to bring color to the streets of the city every June.
