HOUSTON – The City of Houston's Pride Parade typically takes place the last Saturday of June, but Houston Pride Inc. board members told Local 2 they wanted to move the date up a week next year.
San Francisco and New York host the country's largest pride parades the same weekend. By moving Houston's up to June 20th, members of the LGBT community would be free to travel and celebrate both. But that date conflicted with a major celebration right here in Houston -- Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in Texas.
At a meeting in Montrose on Thursday night members of the community came together to discuss the date change. Many Houston Pride Inc. members were upset with their own executive board, alleging the date change gave off the perception that they didn't care about Juneteenth and that the scheduling conflict was driving a wedge between the African-American and LGBT communities. They said the mix-up was embarrassing.
"For the African-American community to think that you all are representing my thought process is scary to me," said one person at the meeting. "I don't think that way."
Former Houston City Council Member Jolanda Jones addressed the crowd and stressed the importance of them all getting along and working together for a common goal.
"It's really important because civil rights for all of us are trying to be set back," Jones said. "We need to stick together."
After a lot of pressure, the board of directors for Houston Pride Inc. announced the date of the Pride Parade will be switched back to June 27th.
"I'm satisfied with the date change," said Ashton Woods. "That was the ultimate goal."
"We believe everyone here will be happy with that and look forward to moving forward," said Houston Pride Inc. President. Frankie Quinjano.