Druid City Pride held its ninth annual Pride Festival at Government Plaza Sunday, hosting local vendors, performers, nonprofits and visitors from 5 to 9 p.m.
Founded in 2015, Druid City Pride is a volunteer nonprofit that serves LGBTQ+ people in West Alabama with events and other resources. The fall Pride festival is its largest event of the year.
“I think people in the queer community don’t often feel like they have a sense of place,” said DJ Jackson, president of Druid City Pride. “Doing something very public, very central, downtown, where people can kind of see and be visible, that’s really important, because I think that gives people the opportunity to feel seen where often we don’t.”
Many parents brought their children to browse the vendors and watch family-friendly drag performances.
Sunday was parent Hannah Thomas’s third consecutive year attending the event with her son and partner.
“It’s always a really inclusive community, and there’s tons of stuff for him to do and stuff for us to do, and stuff we enjoy doing together,” Thomas said, citing the drag shows, the kids activity center and free items given away by vendors.
Jackson said the event, which has grown since its inception, drew over 80 vendors Sunday.
One of those vendors, Skylar Murray, manages Alex Yarber Salon, an LGBTQ+ friendly salon based in Tuscaloosa.
“I think that we like everybody to feel comfortable, but especially our LGBTQ+ community in Alabama, because they don’t really have a lot of safe spaces here,” Murray said.
Other nonprofits and organizations tabled at the festival, providing information about local resources for sexual health, sexual assault awareness, voter registration and, in the case of UA-led research group Southern Queer History, a local history of LGBTQ+ people.
John Giggie, an associate professor of history and director of the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, said the project, which is under the Summersell Center, began as an independent study for students wanting to learn more about local LGBTQ+ history.
Students at the University help research queer history through reviewing newspaper clippings, court records and oral histories, Giggie said, in an effort to “remap” Tuscaloosa.
“We’re standing here in Government Plaza, and within a mile of this area is a fairly dense queer history of businesses and shops, merchants, queer residences that hasn’t been fully pulled before,” Giggie said. “The students have been dedicating themselves to recapturing that history.”
Members of the project tabled at the festival to share this history.
“A lot of our work is just trying to tell people that we want to hear from you, because your story is history,” said Isabella Garrison, a doctoral student and fellow in the history department and project manager for Southern Queer History.
In recent years, state politicians have passed measures affecting the LGBTQ+ community, including Senate Bill 129, an anti-DEI law that prompted The University of Alabama to shut down the Safe Zone Resource Center, a safe space for LGBTQ+ students. In light of SB129, the Queer Student Association tabled at the festival.
“Mostly we’re just here to let the community know that in the wake of losing the Safe Zone, we’re still here,” said Everest Wood, a senior English major and director of engagement for QSA.
Other political organizations and vendors tabling at the event, like the Tuscaloosa County Democratic Party, encouraged visitors to register to vote ahead of the November presidential election. Many signs supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid for the presidency were featured in booths at the event.
Despite the political purposes of some vendors, Jackson said that Druid City Pride was not political.
“Sometimes when you’re in a marginalized community, your existence is political,” Jackson said. “So what we try to do is … build that sense of community and be here for those who want to build that community.”
Zoe Bernstein contributed to the reporting of this article.