‘Celebrating everyone’: Durham Pride celebrates LGBTQ+ community in parade off East Campus

Over 100 people marched around East Campus in celebration of the LGBTQ+ community at the annual “Pride: Durham, N.C.” parade Sunday.

The event featured a parade along Campus Drive and Main Street and an afternoon community kickback on East Campus. Light posts were adorned with Pride flags, marking the return of the event after inclement weather canceled 2023’s parade.

Natalie Watson, interim executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Durham, said one of the main goals for this year’s event was to involve downtown Durham and to center “joy” and “accessibility.”

She explained that Durham has celebrated Pride in September rather than June for “practical reasons,” mainly because the weather is more suitable to host the parade. 

Connie Kim, co-director of the Community for Diversity, Inclusion and Awareness at Duke Radiology and a Duke parent, has been involved in the parade for three years. She said that Duke Radiology was represented at the event because they wanted to “support” and “show up for” the LGBTQ community.

“We're taking care of the whole Duke community, the whole Durham community, and we want everyone, including the LGBTQ community, to know that we want to take care of them,” she said. 

Haley Qualls, assistant director of the Center for Social and Gender Diversity at Duke, said it was meaningful to be a part of the parade this year, with several students, faculty and staff members involved and connected as one Duke community. 

Julia Springer, a member of the Triangle chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, attended the march as part of a coalition with three other groups — Mothers for Ceasefire, Durham Ceasefire Chorus and Southerners on New Ground.

“We know that our safety and freedom as queer and trans people is connected to the freedom and safety of all people,” they said.

Ultimately, Watson said that “Pride: Durham, N.C.” is unique because of its people-focused approach and local emphasis.

“I love Durham Pride because it centers the people of the Triangle. It's not about corporations. It's not about other businesses,” Watson said. “It's about local businesses and organizations doing the good work. It's about uplifting the people in Durham, uplifting youth, uplifting our elders, just celebrating everyone.”