Hundreds kicks off second Smyrna Pride Festival downtown
Jun. 25—On the last Saturday of June Pride month, visitors, vendors and community members gathered in downtown Smyrna to celebrate the city's second official pride festival for the LGBTQ and ally community.
Mike Mitchell, executive director of Smyrna is Fabulous, the organizer behind the festival, said the event was incredible and even better than the first event last June.
"We're so excited about the turnout, probably quadruple what we had last year," he said. "And we're only at 1 o'clock."
The festival, which ran from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, would hopefully garner about 500 visitors from local neighborhoods and even from Atlanta by the end of the event, Mitchell said. He said the event is a huge draw for surrounding counties because it's the largest pride event aside from the Atlanta Pride Festival that is a gathering for both the LGBTQ community and allies.
"And what makes us so special is we want our allies to be a part of our fight," he said. "Whatever that fight is, and I'm not saying we're fighting for anything right now. But whatever that fight is, we want them to be a part of it. We want our children to understand that everyone deserves the right to be who they are and own who they are, regardless of who they are."
Mitchell's own heterosexual friends, Josh Bluefield and Jamie Shaw, attended the event as allies and said they were there to support their community and gay pride.
"I think people are people and there's no reason for anybody to discriminate — discriminate against any creed, race, sex, sexual preference of any kind," Shaw said.
Josh Pitre attended the festival with his husband, Britt Pitre and son, 7-year-old Hunter Pitre. He said it was incredible to see the LGBTQ community out and about but also in the company of allies.
"I think that if it wasn't for the allies, we wouldn't be able to have this festival," he said. "So that's Smyrna. It's a community where people love each other and that's awesome."
Despite news that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, nearly 50 years after its historic ruling that legalized abortion, Mitchell said it didn't put a damper on the festival. In fact, he said there was a reason — call it fate, God or the universe — that the Smyrna Pride Festival was the day after.
"Because we need a reason as a people, as a society, as humanity to be proud today, because yesterday nine people decided that their predecessors made the wrong choice 49 years ago," he said. "Today is important because we get to stand up in one place and say we are proud of who we are. We're proud of our allies. We're proud of our friends. We're proud of our families. We're proud to be together celebrating with one another. And we're not sure that Supreme Court was right this time."
Rianna Stokes-Robinson, who was in attendance with her wife, Simonne Robinson and their 2-year-old son Carter Robinson, said she was attending the festival to celebrate pride.
"I want to show people that families like ours exist," she said.
Juniper Maddox, 16, and their mother, Hannah Maddox, were attending the festival for the first time on Saturday and enjoying the opportunity to meet their neighbors. Hannah Maddox said she was excited there was a pride event happening in her town rather than having to travel downtown for Atlanta Pride.
"I'm so thankful that Smyrna has this," she said. "We will be back next year."
