Twin Cities Pride, sometimes Twin Cities LGBT Pride, is an American

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

in Minnesota that hosts an annual celebration each June that focuses on the

LGBT community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ people, LGBTQ individuals united by LGBTQ culture, a common culture and LGBTQ movements, social movements. These Community, comm ...

. The celebration features a

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

which draws crowds of nearly 600,000 people. The parade was designated the Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade in honor of the late former parade organizer and transgender

LGBT rights activist A list of notable LGBTQ social movements, LGBTQ rights activists who have worked to advance LGBTQ rights by political change, legal action or publication. Ordered by country, alphabetically. Albania * Xheni Karaj, founder of Aleanca LGBT org ...

. Other Twin Cities Pride events include a festival in

Loring Park Loring Park is a park in the Loring Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. History Loring Park was established in 1883 after the passage of the Park Act, which first created the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The park was firs ...

and a block party spanning multiple days.

History

The Twin Cities Pride festival arose from a 50-person protest 1972 protest march in Minneapolis on the Nicollet Mall in downtown

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, commemorating the third anniversary of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, Stonewall revolution, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of ...

. In 1973 pride events in Minnesota consisted of a "Gay Pride Week" including a picnic, a march, a dance, a softball game, and canoeing, featuring 150 attendees. 1974's pride event included the first

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

speaker. In 1981 the name was changed to "Lesbian-Gay Pride." However, Stewart Van Cleve, author of "Land of 10,000 Loves: A History of Queer Minnesota" says, "there was a lot of sexism at the time towards women, in a lot of LGBTQ+ organizations," and "Lesbian" was removed from the title changing the name back to "Gay Pride" in 1982. This led to a split and the formation of an independent Lesbian Pride celebration at

Powderhorn Park Powderhorn Park is a neighborhood within the larger Powderhorn community of Minneapolis. The neighborhood is located approximately three miles south of downtown and is bordered by East Lake Street to the north, Cedar Avenue to the east, Eas ...

in Minneapolis. In 1983, the two events reunified to form "Lesbian and Gay Pride" and was accompanied by the historic closure of a Minneapolis street for the Parade. Tensions also arose around the AIDS crisis, with a 1985 attempt to charge an entrance fee to the festival sparking public backlash. The 1990s saw expansion of Twin Cities Pride activities, including vendor stalls and non-profit booths. The name of the organization was officially changed to "The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Committee" in 1993, one of the first pride event organizations to add

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

and

to its name. Multiple music stages were added in the mid-1990s; attendance in 1995 reached 100,000.

2010s

Events organized in June by Twin Cities Pride in the mid-2010s include family picnics, music concerts, a

5K run The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually distinguished from the 5000 me ...

, and a festival featuring hundreds of exhibitors and vendors. Protests in 2017 and 2018 highlighted ongoing tensions around police involvement in the parade. In 2017, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters briefly halted the LGBT Parade. They objected to police involvement in the parade after St. Anthony, MN, police officer Jeronimo Yanez's recent acquittal of killing of Philando Castile. In response to the protest, officers marched midway through the parade rather than at the front as planned. Twin Cities Pride parades now attract almost 400,000 viewers in its route along

Hennepin Avenue Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery (at West 36th Street), north through the Uptown, Minneapolis, Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the Virginia Triangle, the ...

in downtown Minneapolis. In 2018, a protest delayed the parade by an hour.

2020s

In the wake of the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

in 2020 by Minneapolis police, the Twin Cities Pride festival faced controversy regarding police presence in the parade. Organizers cancelled their virtual event and endorsed an alternate "Taking Back Pride" march centering Black transgender people and protesting police involvement. This action reflected tensions within the LGBTQ+ community. Some felt traditional Pride celebrations did not adequately address police brutality against Black people, particularly Black LGBTQ+ individuals. The controversy highlighted the complex relationship between LGBTQ+ liberation and broader social justice movements. In 2025, the festival dropped

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

as a sponsor after they announced that they would drop their anti-discrimination efforts and other

diversity, equity, and inclusion In the United States, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject ...

policies. Target had been a sponsor of the event for eighteen years prior to the decision.

Gallery

Twin Cities Pride Parade 2018 Banner - Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota (28131840357).jpg, Twin Cities Pride banner, 2018 Vote No — Twin Cities Pride Parade (7441955900).jpg, 'VOTE NO Don't Limit the Freedom to Marry' banner, 2012 Twin Cities Pride Parade 2011 (5874387598).jpg, Pride Parade, Hennepin Ave, 2011 LeatherPrideFlag2008.JPG, Marchers carrying large leather pride flag, 2008 Loring Park Aerial.jpg, Loring Park aerial during pride festival, 2005 Steve Simon-Twin Cities Pride Parade 2022.jpg, Pride parade with ferris wheel in background, 2022 Deaf and Queer, We Are Here, Twin Cities Pride Parade 2018 (29209197178).jpg, 'Deaf and Queer, We Are Here' sign, 2018 Allota Shots on the Stonewall Stage, Twin Cities Pride, Minnesota.jpg, Drag queen, Allota Shots, on the Stonewall Stage, 2018

References

External links

Website
of Twin Cities Pride
2004 oral history
of Twin Cities Pride published by ''

City Pages ''City Pages'' was an alternative newspaper serving the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area. It featured news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews and music criticism, available free every Wednesday. It ceased publication in 2020 due to a ...