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Grassroots Effort Underway to Organize a New Cleveland Gay Pride Festival

Cleveland will have a gay pride festival after all following cancelation of the city's annual event.
Quinn Dombrowski
Cleveland will have a gay pride festival after all following cancelation of the city's annual event.
Cleveland will have a gay pride festival after all following cancelation of the city's annual event.
Credit Quinn Dombrowski
Cleveland will have a gay pride festival after all following cancelation of the city's annual event.

A replacement event is being planned for Cleveland’s 28th annual gay pride festival that was canceled last week over safety concerns. Disappointment over the cancelation has spurred a grassroots effort to put together another festival.

Representatives from Cleveland’s LGBT community and the City of Cleveland met Sunday to start the planning. City Councilman Kerry McCormack was part of the gathering.

“There are about 20 community leaders working on everything from entertainment, music, logistics, the exact venue, timing. So all those details are being confirmed at this point and we should have more information very soon. But you can absolutely expect a diverse, inclusive, fun event.”

McCormack says the festival will be on August13th, the date of the original event. He adds that there were no credible threats against that festival, and he’s sure the Cleveland police are capable of keeping the replacement event safe.                                                                                                              

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Kevin Niedermier
Kevin was raised in New Washington in rural North Central Ohio. He attended Bowling Green State University and Ashland College (now Ashland University) before beginning his career in commercial radio news.