Houston Pride Parade and Festival Draws Thousands to Downtown

HOUSTON — Pride Month concludes with one of the largest celebrations in Texas.

The Houston Pride Parade and Festival hosted events all day for the LGBTQ+ community, and many felt welcome in the warmth of Houston.

“It’s like the best event in Southeast Texas, it’s awesome to come here,” said Shania Drummond of Beaumont.

“It’s one of the most important things happening right now, supporting each other,” said another festival attendee.

Pride Houston 365, which organized this weekend’s parade, continued a more than 40-year tradition of Pride celebrations.

This year, warmth and safety were the priorities of festival participants. Organizers had three cooler tents, four cooler buses, free water and fans available for street festival attendees outside City Hall.

“I really like this, in previous pride events they didn’t provide water but this time they did, so it’s definitely going to help a lot, people will be more comfortable,” one woman said.

“They’ve definitely closed the doors a lot more, the doors are bigger, they weren’t that big last year, I think security has been increased,” Drummond said.

According to event organizers, 25 law enforcement and private security agencies have been hired for this year’s event.

This weekend’s Pride parade followed last weekend’s New Faces of Pride parade. City leaders are discussing how to combine the two events in the future.

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