Get proud

There’s no place to celebrate the year’s advances and support for marriage equality than at the longest-running pride festival in the state of Oklahoma.

The Tulsa Pride Celebration and Parade will bedeck with every color of the rainbow our city, from midtown to downtown to The Pearl District and back, for the 32nd time the weekend of June 6.

The June 7 parade, which follows a new route this year, kicks off Saturday at 5 p.m. on Boston Avenue near Boston Avenue Methodist Church. Featured along the way will be performances from My So Called Band, The Please, Please Me, Steff Mahan, and Campbell Reid Andrews. The parade will head north into Tulsa’s Art Deco District, then east on 4th, ending at the Tulsa Pride Celebration at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center. The Pride Celebration there begins at noon and wraps at 10 p.m.

Picnic in the Park, on June 8 (exact time yet to be announced) and sponsored this year by Tulsa Shock, is Tulsa Pride’s family picnic, complete with a small stage where entertainers Jeremiah Clark and Chasing Nadean will perform, plus a Proud Pup Dog Parade. Ice chests, blankets, kids, dogs, friends, and family are all invited. 

Pride weekend this year also includes the first-ever Rainbow Run. A timed 5K and half-mile fun run will kick off at 8 a.m. from Centennial Park at 6th and Peoria. Rainbow Run benefits Tulsa Pride and Oklahomans for Equality. Sign up at http://rainbowruntulsa.com.

Other Pride Nights and special events: June 4-5, the Council Oak Men’s Chorale concert, “Be Our Guest”; June 6, Pride Night with Tulsa Shock at BOK Center; June 6, Eric Himan Pride Show at The Majestic.