Pride: Durham, NC
PRIDE: DURHAM, NC 2026
ALWAYS FORWARD, NEVER STRAIGHT:
PRESERVING HISTORY, COMING HOME
This year's theme emphasizes our collective commitment to moving our justice work FORWARD in dignity, love, and perseverance. Of course, there's not one "normal" or "straight" way to do that, and we celebrate the authentic, expansive, and liberated ways many of us show up in Durham. And as we continue advocating for LGBTQ+ people, families, groups, and causes, there are two particular strategies we highlight for 2026.
The first is PRESERVING HISTORY: We remember who we are and from where we've come. We derive strength from all of our roots of revolutionary love and activism. 2026 marks several historical milestones worth noting, including 45 years since Our Day Out, North Carolina's first LGBTQ+ march on June 27, 1981! We're excited to collaborate with multiple partners who are diligently preserving some of our most important stories, traditions, and cultural customs.
The second is COMING HOME: Not only are we back home downtown at our original Hunt Street location (come visit us!), but we are also coming home to ourselves and to our roots as a community organization that is for us and by us. We affirm that our bodies, our very beings, comprise a home, a sacred site of belonging & dignity to dwell in, ground from, and return to, again and again. And under the shared leadership of our Co-Executive Directors, Raye Dooley and Vanity Reid Deterville, we intend to strengthen our connections with the people, places, and practices that have made and are making our Center possible. To our neighbors who also call Durham home (and to our guests who visit from near & far), join us as we uplift our home and our LGBTQ+ communities with PRIDE.
PRIDE: DURHAM, NC 2026 FULL SCHEDULE
JUNE 2026 SCHEDULE || NATIONAL PRIDE MONTH
SAT, 6/6 | Beaver Queen Pageant
4PM-7PM @ Duke Park
SAT, 6/13 | OUT On The Block
10AM-3PM @ LGBTQ Center of Durham
SAT, 6/20 | OUT & FREE African Dance
1030AM-1230PM @ Bennett Place
SAT, 6/27 | "Our Day Out" Remembrance March & Resource Fair
10AM-2PM @ CCB Plaza & LGBTQ Center of Durham
OTHER COMMUNITY EVENTS IN JUNE COMING SOON!
FALL 2026 SCHEDULE || DURHAM PRIDE WEEK
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 27 - SATURDAY OCTOBER 3
SUN, 9/27 | PRIDE Vendor & Food Truck Rodeo
12PM-4PM @ Durham Central Park
SAT, 10/3 | PRIDE Community Protest & Parade
12PM-2PM @ Duke East Campus
MORE FALL EVENTS -- TO BE ANNOUNCED!
THIS YEAR, WE MAKE IT CLEAR
DURHAM CELEBRATES PRIDE IN JUNE
AND AT THE START OF FALL
WHY?!
Because it's consistent with our history.
Because Pride is more than just a parade.
Because one weekend isn't enough for Durham.
Check out our official schedule, and get in where you fit in!
REGISTRATION
CLICK HERE to register for our Resource Fair on Saturday June 27 -- we recommend that community members & organizations sharing free resources and advocating for noble causes sign up for this!
STAY TUNED -- registration for the PRIDE Vendor & Food Truck Rodeo and for the PRIDE Community Protest & Parade will open in the summer.
Contact Us
If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns about Pride: Durham, NC, please feel free to contact us directly via email:
pride@lgbtqcenterofdurham.org
And if you're on Instagram, please follow us — @pridedurhamnc
Thanks to our sponsors for Pride: Durham, NC 2025!
Creating and Facilitating Community
Pride: Durham, NC is the annual series of special programs for celebrating community, history, activism, & PRIDE of LGBTQ+ people in Durham and across the state of North Carolina.
Upholding the legacy of NC Pride, Pride: Durham, NC preserves our shared cultural heritage, shaped by expansive imaginations, progressive values, & radical acts of organized collaboration. With a clear aspiration to keep love in its many forms at the forefront and the center, Pride: Durham, NC creates protected & liberated spaces that affirm publicly all LGBTQ+ identities, families, and communities, facilitating quality connections with care and fueling generative impact that resists a tumultuous political climate of violent legislation.
All people with love for LGBTQ+ folks are welcome at Pride: Durham, NC. Join us in the celebratory political act of demonstrating our pride for our community!
Our History
With more community input and intergenerational guidance, Pride: Durham, NC is the location for members of the LGBTQ community in Durham and beyond to celebrate and rejuvenate their spirits. Please read more about the history of NC Pride (from the NC Pride Archives) and Pride: Durham, NC.
“Somebody, your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour—and in the oddest places!—for the lack of it.”
James Baldwin
Our Library
Since the Center opened in October of 2015, one of the most anticipated programs has been the LGBTQ Center of Durham Library. Our library room at the center has been designed to accommodate a diverse collection of LGBTQ focused books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and 'zines to serve the local community. We have am extensive collection of materials that you are welcome to come peruse and hang out for a while reading. Once the library is fully up and running community members will additionally be able to check out materials from the center sometime in 2020.
Our Catalog
Our volunteers have begun entering our current collection, cataloging, and setting up our future and circulation management using TinyCat.
Though it is still a work in progress you can begin to get a sneak peek at our collection here via TinyCat and LibraryThing.
LGBTQ+ Youth Center
The LGBTQ+ Youth Center within the LGBTQ Center of Durham serves youth ages 12-24 through programming, drop-in space, and events.
The Youth Center staff are available to meet with Gender and Sexuality Alliances at local middle and high schools. The Youth Center is open to conversations with like minded organizations and educational spaces seeking a deeper understanding of the intersectional needs of queer youth.
The Youth Center strives to provide intergenerational programming as capacity allows.
Contact us at youthcenter@lgbtqcenterofdurham.org.
Stay Connected with the Youth Center!
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook!
Sign up for the Youth Center newsletter - coming soon!
Write to us at youthcenter@lgbtqcenterofdurham.org
Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Gender Diverse Programs
Transgender Day of Visibility Zine