Rainbow flags fluttered against the bright blue sky as brass music traveled through the streets of downtown Carrboro. Rainbow Ram, a movable ram sculpture painted by artist Steven Ray Miller, led a large group across the Town’s freshly painted rainbow crosswalk.
“There was a very celebratory mood that everyone had,” Carrboro Alderman Sammy Slade said. “Everyone had a lot of joy marching down from there.”
Local residents and elected officials took part in the Pride Piper March at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 1. The parade traveled from the Carrboro Century Center to the Carrboro Town Commons.
Musicians from the Durham-based Bulltown Strutters and Chapel Hill-based Boom Unit Brass Band provided music for the event.
The march marked the beginning of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, a celebration held every June across the world in honor of the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. This year is the 50th anniversary of the riots, which are viewed as turning points in the gay rights movement.
Throughout June, Carrboro is hosting a series of Pride events, including breakfast with Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle at the Carrboro Century Center on June 6, LGBTQ+ readings at Town Hall on June 13 and a Pride dance party with food trucks at Carrboro Town Commons on June 26.
Lavelle said she is particularly excited about the LGBTQ+ readings.
“This is really an interesting event where we’ve selected 13 or 14 people from the community and asked them to come up with a selection with an LGBTQ+ author and to read that selection to the audience for up to four minutes,” Lavelle said. “It’s kind of a literary event but also a really cool way to be exposed to a wide genre of LGBTQ+ writing.”
Lavelle marched in the parade with her wife and other elected officials, including Carrboro Mayor Pro Tem Damon Seils, Carrboro Board of Aldermen members Slade, Barbara Foushee and Jacquelyn Gist, and Penny Rich, the Board of Orange County Commissioners chair.
