{{no footnotes, date=March 2018 Mid-South Pride is a non-profit corporation located in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

. Mid-South Pride Memphis was founded in May 2003, to take over the work formerly done by Memphis Pride. Mid-South Pride produces the annual

Pride Parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...

, Festival and Picnic for Memphis as well as other events that reflect the history of Pride in the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term i ...

community. Mid-South Pride is led by an unpaid, board of directors and relies on volunteers and community support to product the annual

LGBT pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to ...

events. One of the major elements that separates Mid-South Pride from other pride organizations is the requirement that all events must be paid in full, so that the organization never takes on more than it can actually pay for. Mid-South Pride is members of the International LGBT Pride association,

Interpride InterPride is the international organization that brings together Pride organizers from across the World to network, share knowledge, and maximize impact. To this end, Pride organizers design InterPride’s structure, programs, and initiatives, to ...

, and members of the International Festival and Events Association. IFEA

Board Members

Gary Wilkerson, the founding President of Mid-South Pride and one of the Regional Directors for InterPride's Southern United States Region died on September 28, 2007. Sean Alexander and Kent Hamson took over in his place. It was later passed down to Mike Morgan. In June 2008 Mid-South Pride brought

Peterson Toscano Peterson Toscano (born February 17, 1965, in Stamford, Connecticut) is a playwright, actor, Bible scholar, blogger, podcaster, advocate against global warming, and gay rights activist. Toscano spent nearly two decades undergoing ex-gay treatment ...

, a former client of the Memphis-based

ex-gay The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relat ...

program

Love in Action Restoration Path, known as Love in Action (LIA) until March 2012, was an ex-gay Christian ministry founded in 1973. History It was founded in 1973 by Frank Worthen, John Evans, and Kent Philpott. The program was founded in Marin County, Californ ...

and an outspoken

ex-ex-gay Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation. Organizatio ...

, back to Memphis to serve as a

grand marshal Grand marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word " marshal" with the first usage of the term "grand marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. The following ...

of the pride parade and to perform. In 2010 The Mid-South Pride Board moved to festival and parade from Cooper Young to Downtown after the city reclassified Peabody Park. They moved to Robert Church Park downtown behind the FedEx Forum. Also in 2010 the group got new blood with Vanessa Rodley, Patrick Pearson, and Jennifer Murry as volunteers. With there help they took the festival from about 4,000 people to over 15,000 in attendance in 2017. They also had the largest budget in their history. This was also the first pride that made profit. In 2012 The board added Vanessa Rodley to Vice President, Jennifer Murry to Secretary, and Patrick Pearson as an at large member. Making it a board of 6 which was the largest they had since they started.

Event

Every year the festival, board, and what the organization does grows. Mid-South Pride doesn't just put on a festival any more. In 2014 they started hosting family events at parks, redbirds games, and the zoo. They also host an annual formal ball called the GAYla, and many other themed events. Because of the growth in 2016 the board chose to make a change and rename the annual festival to Memphis Pride Fest. President Vanessa Rodley when asked why explained. "Mid-South Pride is more than the festival and parade. We organize and host many events in our community. Also other cities and communities in Arkansas and Mississippi have started to host their own pride festivals. We don't need to envelope all of those communities anymore. Of course we are here for them and support them. With that being said we feel that it is time to change the name to recognize the community that we live in. Also we are no longer a 1 day event. There is now the Pride concert the Friday before and the Sunday Brunch Run the day after."

External links

Mid-South Pride

InterPride
LGBT events in Tennessee Organizations based in Memphis, Tennessee