Pride Celebrations was a organization in Milwaukee.
Purpose
Celebration of Pride Political activism
Images
View the PrideFest web site at this link (will open in a separate browser window). Madison Pride has been a long tradition in Wisconsin, which is, after all, the first gay rights state. Suitably, while Wisconsin pride celebrations began in Milwaukee, it didn't take long for them to spread to other areas of the state as well. Since the mid-1970s, Madison has hosted an annual Pride celebration around the 3rd weekend in July, usually comprised of the MAGIC Picnic on Saturday afternoon, and a parade from the State Capitol and up State Street on Sunday. Since the early 1980's the MAGIC picnic has been one of the state's leading summer events for gays and lesbians, usually sited in Brittingham Park. The MAGIC Picnic was born of the initiatives and continued support of Madison bar-owner and activist Rodney Scheel, among others. Throughout the 1980's and much of the 1990's, the patio behind Rod's bar also became "the place to be" the Saturday evening and night of the annual Pride celebration in Madison. After a day of fun at the MAGIC picnic in Brittaney Park, Rod's would be hopping later, with people relaxing with drinks around the patio. Toward evening revelers would begin dancing, and at nightfall a spectacular laser light show would excite dancers and onlookers alike. Early in 1996 the Hotel Washington was destroyed by fire, and with it Rod's bar- and the Saturday night party moved to Club 5 on Madison's south side. Financial discrepancies after Madison Pride in 2007 caused the 2008 celebration there to be severely scaled back; but as with Milwaukee's PrideFest a few years earlier, optimism was high that Madison's celebration too will come back strong. An excellent summary of Pride celebrations in Madison is on the OutReach LGBT Community Center website. Northeast Wisconsin (Fox Valley, Green Bay) (courtesy of Quest magazine, April 2008) Since their beginnings in the late 1970�s as an "appreciation beer bust" for local gay bar patrons at a rural county park, pride events in northeast Wisconsin - an area loosely defined by Green Bay, the Fox Cities and Sheboygan - have had their ups and downs. The "Alive With Pride" picnic in 1995 marked the first event that officially called itself a pride festival. In 1996 "Alive With Pride" beget Rainbow Over Wisconsin, which developed from a pride picnic and bar show fundraising committee into a community foundation over the next decade. ROW coordinated annual pride picnics held in Appleton, Hilbert and DePere over the next eight years. Following its 2003 event at the Brown County Fairgrounds that featured comedian Vicki Shaw, ROW realized it had a difficult choice. To respond to the increased financial development demands from northeast LGBT community organizations, it had to decide to either stay in the "pride business" or follow more closely its stated mission as a community foundation with more diversified fundraising programming. Since it also in the interim had been asked to take over the Guernsey Gala fundraising pageant that annually raised thousands of dollars for HIV/AIDS care, ROW chose the latter. Pride event planning over the next four years went to the Argonauts of Wisconsin, who put together a loose knit coalition of community members to run the pride picnics. A licensing snafu cancelled the 2006 picnic, and the 2007 event drew fewer than 50 attendees. In 2008, Rainbow Over Wisconsin was back in the pride business - sort of. ROW agreed to provide a new generation of community leaders- the NEWPride Committee of the LGBT Green Bay Area Action Network- its fiscal agency umbrella plus $5000 in seed money and credit, to develop and run "NEWPRide", or Pride Alive. The Pride Alive events in mid-July of 2008 and 2009 were both incredibly successful, with perfect weather and extensive and favorable coverage by all the local media. Elsewhere in Wisconsin As of 2024, Pride celebrations in some share or form exist in at least 25 communities in Wisconsin, from events over several days to single-day celebrations which may consist of just a few hours of pop-up displays. Jump to: Milwaukee Madison Northeast Wis/ Fox Valley/ Green Bay Elsewhere in Wis. View the Images & Articles Gallery page. Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project
Pride Celebration 1981 flyer Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project
Wisconsin Pride Celebrations In Step
Wisconsin Pride Celebrations In Step
