Portland Pride

Pride has been celebrated in Portland since 1975. A small group of 200 people marked the Rose City’s first public and outdoor Gay Pride celebration, in the South Park Blocks near Portland State University. Portland’s first Gay Pride parade took place 2 years after in 1977. By the early 1980s, Portland’s Pride celebration had become an annual tradition, becoming summer’s unofficial kickoff. It was renamed in 1982 Lesbian and Gay Pride Week, with more than 2,000 men and women taking to the streets of downtown Portland.

The 1991 parade was the largest in history at that point, with more than 6,000 marchers, including supporters from small Oregon towns. In 1993 and 1994, 10,000 participated and/or attended.

Since 1994, the Portland Pride Festival is organized by Pride Northwest, Inc. The Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade changed in 1997 to the Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans Pride Parade. An estimated 20,000 people turned out for the 1998 Pride parade.
In 2003, an estimated 1,000 people marched in the parade while more than 50,000 people dropped in on the two-day festival at Waterfront Park.

In 2011, there were 110 entries in the parade, and the police estimated the crowd size at more than 25,000. One of the largest groups marching was Nike employees. The Pride Festival hosted its first official Portland Trans March in 2014.
The 2015 Pride parade not only marked the 40th anniversary of Portland’s first Pride festival but it came less than two weeks before the United States Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage in every American state. The 2016 Portland Pride Parade came just one week after the Pulse shooting in Orlando, (49 killed, 53 injured). The crowds of supporters lining the parade route were among the biggest in history. It was also the longest parade to date, with 150 entries featuring about 8,000 marchers.

The annual Portland Pride Waterfront Festival (a two-day festival at Waterfront Park) and Parade (through downtown Portland) is the largest LGBTQ cultural celebration between San Francisco and Seattle. It is the single, largest visibility avenue for Oregon’s LGBTQ community organizations and businesses. In addition, the festival attracts thousands of visitors from all over the Pacific Northwest to Portland each year. 

Be sure to check out the official event program for full details on Portland Gay Pride 2024 and all previous editions. Happy Pride!