LGBTQ Pride in Milwaukee Evolved From Rallies to Parades

Most prominently known for Milwaukee Pridefest, Milwaukee Pride is a LGBTQ organization working towards making sure people of all gender and sexual identities and expressions feel included and safe in the Milwaukee community.

Most prominently known for Milwaukee Pridefest, Milwaukee Pride is a LGBTQ organization working towards making sure people of all gender and sexual identities and expressions feel included and safe in the Milwaukee community.

“Our mission is really to build the next generation of LGBTQ leaders for Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the nation, and we can’t do that until every LGBTQ student can live proud and be who they want to be,” said Vice President of the Board and Communications Director Michail Takach.

Though the organization acknowledges that they are the newest LGBTQ organization in Milwaukee, they have a long history within the city.

According to Takach, Milwaukee Pride is the descendant of many prior Milwaukee organizations. In 1987, a march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights inspired cities across the nations to form their own LGBTQ organizations, including Milwaukee, which formed the Milwaukee Lesbian/Gay Pride Committee.

Though the committee began hosting annual events within a few years of formation, these events were nothing like the Pridefest we know today. They hosted many rallies and marches through the city.

“It was a very political event,” said Takach. “It was not about music. It was not about eating. It was not about activities for children. It was a very political, very aggressive, very angry event.”

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the LGBTQ community had not been fully integrated into socially acceptable American culture. They were still grappling with the AIDS epidemic and were nearly 20 years away from legal marriages.

In this way the LGBTQ community was still fighting hard for their civil rights.

In 1991, the Milwaukee Lesbian/Gay Pride Committee dissolved into the Pridefest Milwaukeeans know today. The political movement began to morph into a festival and celebration of LGBTQ pride, and attendance has grown rapidly over the years.

Milwaukee Pride has now become the parent company of Pridefest, with Pridefest being only one of the events the organization puts on each year. However, it is their largest event.

What began as a one-day celebration has transformed into a weekend-long festival that has a little bit of something for everyone. There are national and international musical acts, family-friendly activities and more food than visitors can imagine. They are home to the largest dance floor in Wisconsin and are also the only Pridefest in the world that can boast of their own festival park. Most other pride fests are required to set up in streets or parks.

Pridefest isn’t just about dancing and good food, though. Milwaukee Pride’s biggest aim is to provide safety and comfort for the LGBTQ community.

“We create a safe space where people come each year to reconnect with friends, and a place where they can always count on being allowed to be their best self, whoever that may be,” said Takach. “The idea is that Milwaukee Pride creates these opportunities for people that they may not have in their everyday life, and it builds a stronger, happier, healthier Milwaukee.”

Graphic design intern Ashley Smith mirrors this sentiment.

“I especially wanted to work for Milwaukee Pride to be able to work with open-minded individuals,” said Smith. “Throughout the course of my life, I have come to believe that each individual has the right to choose who they want to be.”

Though not a political organization, Milwaukee Pride does not refrain from encouraging others to use their voice. Given the political climate of America, Takach feels that many people are realizing that standing up for themselves and their community may be the only way to be truly heard.

“People need to protect themselves and take care of themselves,” said Tackach. “They need to be concerned about what’s happening in their community. I feel that people have become a little safe, a little comfortable, a little complacent.”

He urges those affected to not just sit back and let things happen.

Aside from Pridefest, Milwaukee Pride also puts on Be Out Milwaukee, an event that takes place on National Coming Out Day in October. The organization has heard from many LGBTQ community members that they feel that no one cares about those coming out of the closet now. This event was put in place to show how false this is.

“The truth is people care,” said Takach. “There are not bathroom bills being passed against transgender people because people don’t care. There’s not discriminatory laws being signed in Tennessee and West Virginia and Texas because people don’t care.”

Milwaukee Pride wants to make sure that all community members know that they are cared for and that the organization’s events are a safe space, where anyone can be free to be exactly who they are without fear of judgment.

“The truth is people really do care,” said Takach. “People coming out still matters. Coming out and being seen in the community and being together really matters.”