Pride: Durham, NC
PRIDE: DURHAM, NC 2026
ALWAYS FORWARD, NEVER STRAIGHT
This year's Pride theme "ALWAYS FORWARD, NEVER STRAIGHT: PRESERVING HISTORY, COMING HOME" 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:
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! For some important context, this particular social demonstration took place in response to the anti-gay assault and murder of Ronald "Sonny" Antonevitch at Little River, with more details available here. We're grateful to be collaborating with multiple partners who are diligently preserving some of our most important stories, traditions, life lessons, and cultural customs.
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.
THIS YEAR, WE MAKE IT CLEAR!
WE CELEBRATE PRIDE, 24/7/365!
Spread the news! From now on, Durham is officially celebrating Pride in June and at the start of Fall (September/October)!
We do this because Pride is more than just a parade. We do this because it's consistent with our history. We do this because one weekend isn't enough for Durham. We do this because Durham is QUEER ALL YEAR!
As you're able, please review photos from this past June, during National Pride Month!
And scroll below to learn more about our plans in the Fall, during Durham Pride Week!
DURHAM PRIDE WEEK 2026
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2026 - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2026
OUR OFFICIAL EVENTS
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
Stay tuned for updates on the rest of Durham Pride Week! We expect to have at least one event every day of the week!
OTHER COMMUNITY EVENTS
Are you celebrating Pride too? Organizing something that we should share? Let us know! Click here to tell us about your upcoming programs and promotions during Durham Pride Week (throughout September and October), and we'll add it to our list!
Special Pride Campaign For $50K
In honor of Pride, we are raising $50,000 for the LGBTQ Center of Durham!
Starting June 1, we invite you to show your support and love for Pride: Durham, NC with a monetary donation – there's no offering that's too small, and the generous shavings will make a beautiful pile! These unrestricted dollars from community members and organizations will support more than just our Pride programs but also the essential work and operations of the Center year round. While Pride is important, it's just one of several significant programs that our team coordinates, and we can't do any of it without the support and resources of our community.
Join us! Donate today!
Thanks to our sponsors for Pride: Durham, NC 2025!
About Pride: Durham, NC
Our Purpose
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!
Nuestro Objetivo
Creando y Facilitando Comunidad
Pride: Durham, NC es la serie anual de programas especiales para celebrar la comunidad, la historia, el activismo y el ORGULLO (PRIDE) de las personas LGBTQ+ en Durham y en todo el estado de Carolina del Norte.
Manteniendo el legado de NC Pride, Pride: Durham, NC preserva nuestro patrimonio cultural compartido, moldeado por imaginaciones expansivas, valores progresistas y actos radicales de colaboración organizada. Con la clara aspiración de mantener al amor en sus muchas formas al frente y en el centro, Pride: Durham, NC crea espacios protegidos y liberados que afirman públicamente todas las identidades, familias y comunidades LGBTQ+, facilitando conexiones de calidad con cuidado y generando un impacto positivo que resiste un clima político tumultuoso de legislación violenta.
Todas las personas que sienten amor por la comunidad LGBTQ+ son bienvenidas Pride: Durham, NC. ¡Únete a nosotros en el acto político celebratorio de demostrar nuestro orgullo por nuestra comunidad!
Our History
Building on Legacy
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.
Contact Us
If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns about Pride: Durham, NC, please feel free to contact us via email at Pride@LGBTQCenterOfDurham.org. If you're on Instagram, please follow us on Instagram @PrideDurhamNC!
“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
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