Athens Pride

Athens Pride is organized by the Southeastern Ohio Rainbow Alliance. It began as a picnic and has grown into a multi-day event. The main day has a parade that lines up at Alden Library and a street fair on West Union Street, with trivia, karaoke and a dance party earlier in the week.

The Southeastern Ohio Rainbow Alliance, known as SEORA, grew out of an effort that began in December 2016. It held its first public meeting in January 2017 as the Southeast Ohio LGBTQ+ Center, became a nonprofit the next month, merged with the Southeastern Ohio LGBT Coalition in April 2018 and took its current name later that year. Its goal is to offer full support and services to LGBTQ+ people across southeastern Ohio, and it has run Athens Pride Fest for about eight years.

Pride is only part of the calendar. SEORA also hosts an annual Lover's Masquerade, a backpack and school supply giveaway, a Back to School Bash and a toy drive drag show, and it has added Nelsonville Pride on the historic Nelsonville square. Through a partnership with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Athens, the group now has a physical space in the fellowship's building on Longview Heights Road.

The alliance also gives direct financial help. It reports donating more than $4,000 toward trans-affirming surgeries and $1,000 in scholarships, along with hotel stays and meals for people who have been displaced. Its partners include OhioHealth, Equitas Health, Planned Parenthood, Passion Works Studio, Hopewell and Integrated Services.

Pride events celebrate LGBTQ+ people and mark the Stonewall uprising of June 1969. Most combine a parade or march with a festival of performers, community groups, vendors and food.

Athens Pride has included parade, street fair, dance party, trivia and karaoke.

The organizer has not announced dates for 2027 yet. In 2026 it was held June 6, 2026. It usually falls first weekend of June.