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The past few years have included plenty of stormy days for Pride Houston 365, the LGBTQ+ organization that has been putting on the Houston Pride Parade for nearly a half-century: A pandemic disrupted major events, more than $100,000 went missing, bankruptcy became a possibility, and disgruntled volunteers formed a breakaway group that led to a trademark dispute.
The turmoil has been painful for many of Houston's longtime LGBTQ+ leaders, by most accounts. And in the end, it will help deliver double the Pride this summer, after four years in which Houston's Pride parade and festival have been canceled or scaled back.
That's right: this year, Houston will have two Prides. Houston's New Faces of Pride, which officially launched in October, will host a downtown parade and festival on Saturday, June 22. Pride Houston's parade and festival will be held one week later, June 29, in the same location.
Bryan Cotton, president of Houston's New Faces of Pride, said last week that the new organization is focused on serving and supporting the LGBTQ+ community throughout the year, and delivering a well-managed parade and festival.
"If they'd been doing everything we're doing, we wouldn't need to be here," said Cotton, referring to Pride Houston.
Kendra Walker, who became president of Pride Houston last year and has been focused on getting the organization back on course, observed that the ruction is at odds with the spirit of unity that Pride ideally represents.
“It’s not like it’s the North Houston Pride and the South Houston Pride,” she observed. “No. It’s Pride in the same location, the same format, along the same route. I go to other cities and everybody’s talking about it: 'Oh my God, what are you doing down there?' ”
"Initially I did not see it as competing or dueling," Walker said. "Then they ended up copying our name, and our events, and we ended up having to sue them."
The discord comes as LGBTQ+ communities around the country are facing challenges from social conservatives. “We want Congress to get behind us and advocate for our rights,” Walker said. “We can’t even decide on one parade.”
Planning for Pride is a year-round event, explained Walker and Tiffany Scales, Pride Houston's director of community engagement, in an interview last week. That planning takes place alongside Pride Houston's regular year-round programming and partnerships with other nonprofits focused on supporting LGBTQ+ Houstonians.
The budget for the parade and festival this year is about $875,000, Walker said, which means some tough decisions have to be made. Pride Houston had approached Lance Bass, formerly of the boy band 'N Sync, as a potential performer, only to learn he would charge $250,000 to serve as host. The group is also planning a number of related events, such as a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Axelrad where the parade's grand marshals will be announced.
But the toughest aspect of this year's planning, for Pride Houston, has been getting the parade and festival back on track after four years in which the celebrations were canceled due to COVID or scaled back as a result of the organizational tumult.
Pride Houston 365, which traces its roots to the queer activism of Montrose in the 1970s, began having issues as it grew over the years. By 2015, when the parade moved from Montrose to downtown, Houston's event had become the biggest gay Pride celebration in Texas and one of the city's largest annual events, with corporate sponsors lining up to help.
Walker, a computer programmer and IT consultant, says she perceived some dysfunction after joining Pride Houston's board in 2018: “I saw two board members get into it over whether the sign-in sheet should be landscape or portrait."
Soon thereafter, she and other board members noticed withdrawals from Pride Houston’s accounts that didn’t add up, so to speak, given that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Pride parade and festival to be scuttled in 2020 and 2021. The irregularities led to the termination of Pride Houston Executive Director Lorin Roberts and a lawsuit against her alleging fraud and embezzlement.
In January, Roberts was ordered to pay about $1.2 million in damages — $300,000 in compensatory damages and $900,000 in punitive damages — to Pride Houston 365. She could not immediately be reached for comment. Walker said she doubts that Roberts has the ability to pay and that she would like to move on. "Accountability has been had," Walker added.
The legal fight, in conjunction with the interrupted events, left Pride Houston 365 teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Walker at one point loaned Pride Houston $30,000 of her own money to keep it afloat.
Perhaps more consequential, though, was that the organizational debacle was the last straw for a number of people, like Cotton, who had been involved for years with Pride Houston 365.
“There were just too many questions going on for far too long," he said. "And I'm not going to pay for anybody's past sins."
Cotton and Andrea Simonton, communications director for Houston's New Faces of Pride, sat on a sunny patio last week in Montrose discussing their plans and hopes for the group's inaugural parade and festival.
The new group officially launched in October as The New Faces of Pride Houston, which led to a trademark dispute and an agreement that its name be changed to Houston's New Faces of Pride. Since then, Cotton and Simonton said, they have been focused on planning their parade, festival and related events in June. The new organization is committed to philanthropy, they said, and this year's events also are serving as fundraisers for Tony’s Place and Montrose Grace Place, both of which serve LGBTQ+ youth.
While New Faces of Pride doesn't yet have a final budget for its parade and festival, it is expecting several hundred volunteers on site June 22 and sponsors have been "elated," Cotton said, to hear of Houston's new Pride group.
"In the past, they didn't have an option," he explained. "If you wanted to be involved in a Pride celebration in June in Houston, Texas, you had one option." (Pride parades and festivals around the country are generally held toward the end of June, to commemorate the Stonewall riots of June 28, 1969, in New York.)
He and Simonton said they expect there to be some overlap of sponsors, vendors, politicians and people who are simply looking to celebrate LGBTQ+ Texans and advocate for their rights.
"They may see it as a competition," said Cotton. "We don't."
He suggested that the launch of the new group may spur Pride Houston to put on an extraordinary event the following weekend.
"It's great that since we've come around, we've clearly inspired them to do more than they've ever done," Cotton said. "They've never worked so hard. They've never been as involved in the community."
LAWSUIT: Pride Houston 365 sues newer Pride nonprofit over trademark infringement
Walker, who is originally from Mississippi, said that she was initially enthused to hear of a new Pride group in Houston, but was taken aback to learn it has a similar name and is planning similar events for Pride month.
"We don't compete. We don't duel. We just do our jobs," said Walker.
"We serve," added Scales.
"We serve," Walker agreed.
It remains to be seen how well having two Pride parades and festivals in Houston this year will serve the city's LGBTQ+ community. Logic suggests that, with two celebrations on consecutive weekends, Houston Pride will be bigger than ever in terms of total attendance. Some LGBTQ+ advocates and allies see that as something to celebrate, especially in the current political climate.
And many Houstonians are simply looking forward to the return of the city's historic Pride parade and festival after several years in which the emotionally resonant celebrations had to be scaled back.
"I'm so much looking forward to just seeing joy," said Simonton, who found a welcoming community in Houston after growing up in a small town in East Texas. "We didn't even have 'gay people,'" she said drily, recalling the scene in Longview.
On the other hand, the situation is slightly awkward, reminiscent of Houston's longstanding tradition of having two major parades for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
"It looks ridiculous," Walker said, with a laugh. "But you can never have too much Pride."
This year, Houston will have two Prides. Houston's New Faces of Pride, which officially launched in October, will host a downtown parade and festival on Saturday, June 22. Pride Houston's parade and festival will be held one week later, June 29, in the same location. “If they'd been doing everything we're doing, we wouldn't need to be here,” Bryan Cotton, president of Houston's New Faces of Pride, said.§ “It’s not like it’s the North Houston Pride and the South Houston Pride. No. It’s Pride in the same location, the same format, along the same route... Initially I did not see it as competing or dueling. Then they ended up copying our name, and our events, and we ended up having to sue them,”
Kendra Walker, president of Pride Houston, said.
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