The first Nashville Pride parade occurred on June 25, 1988. It was the March on Washington of 1987 that ignited activism in Tennessee and the need for Pride festivities. The Tennessee Gay & Lesbian Alliance (T-GALA) was one of the major sponsoring organizations for the Pride Committee that planned a week of events. According to Dare founder Jef Ellis, the Pride Committee would meet at the Towne House Tea Room for planning.

The parade started at Fannie Mae Dees Park and ended at Centennial Park, where a couple hundred people gathered for a variety of entertainment. The two-hour stage show included Gerrit Wilson singing the official anthem composed for Nashville Pride, called “Come Out to Play,” and performances by folk singer Judy Eron and singer-songwriter Greg Fisher. Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was the keynote speaker, who urged the audience to continue grassroots organizing and targeting the policies of local and state governments.

Every year since 1988, Nashville’s Pride activities have gotten bigger and better. Today, Pride weekend is attended my tens of thousands of people. In 2019, the festival drew a reported 75,000 attendees. Play the slideshow below to see photographs of Nashville Pride parades circa 1990s from the Albert Gore Research Center’s OutCentral Collection.

Sources: Nashville Queer History; Dare, June 22, 1988; Joey Gill, “Nashville Pride Festival breaks attendance record with over 75,000 attending,” WSMV, June 27, 2019.