New Orleans celebrated its LGBTQIA+ community on Saturday (June 14) with a day of Pride festivities, while members of the community called for unity and action in the face of heightened legislative and rhetorical attacks in the first several months of the second Trump presidency.

New Orleans Black Pride held a community festival in Louis Armstrong Park as part of a series of events planned this weekend to celebrate the city’s Black LGBTQIA+ community. And, later in the day, after a two-hour weather delay due to a brief, but severe storm, New Orleans’ Pride parade splashed through the French Quarter.

At both events, people in attendance told Verite News that members of the LGBTQIA+ community are dealing with a more hostile environment and weakened social safety net due to increased anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and cuts to federal public health and economic programs.

‘We’re not only a space for a good time’

Established in 2020, Black LGBTQIA+ people from across the South have been coming together to celebrate and, more recently, to share knowledge and build community through the weekend of events. The festival’s grand marshal this year is Deon Haywood, executive director of Women With A Vision, a nonprofit that works to improve the lives of women from marginalized communities. The community festival at Armstrong Park featured local musical artists such as Fly Boi Keno, DJ Westbank Red and Papiana.

While attendees danced, mingled and engaged with vendors and sponsors, several people told Verite News that coming together with the Black LGBTQIA+ community was more than just a party. 

Jasmine Young, the social media coordinator for New Orleans Black Pride, who traveled from Houston to contribute to the events, said that people in her community need a space to feel safe, welcomed and celebrated. She said the need was particularly acute in the political climate that has ensued since President Donald Trump took office for his second term.

“We’re not only a space for a good time,” she said. “It’s advocacy for those who cannot advocate for themselves.”

Charles Darensbourg, a prevention coordinator with Crescent Care, was at the festival to raise awareness of health issues pertinent to the community, including STD testing. Celebrating the Black community, though, was also part of the equation for him. 

“I think there’s a cultural divide here. It stems back from racism that we’re still divided,” he said. “We need to celebrate our own selves without waiting on someone else to celebrate us.”

Morris Singletary was working on Saturday, doing community outreach for the event. Singletary agreed that there is a need for the Black LGBTQIA+ people to come together at events like Black Pride to figure out ways to survive the current political moment. He highlighted health as a sticking point. 

“We should not be the leaders of HIV,” he said, “but if we come together now and talk about it, then we can talk about what HIV prevention looks like from a federal level down, so they won’t be cutting programs that affect us.” 

Singletary said that with funds being cut across the board, it’s important to choose the right elected representatives who understand HIV and the struggles of gender-affirming care. He wants people in his community of all ages to unify and address the United States Congress to make sure funding cuts don’t impact black health.

“We come from a line of people who know how to survive during hard times,” Singletary said. “If we do it together and do it right, we can set a path that we can follow.” 

Weathering the ‘bleak’ times

A couple of hours after the New Orleans Black Pride festival ended, New Orleans’ Pride parade rolled through the French Quarter. 

The parade was originally slated to start at 5 p.m. on N. Rampart St., but it was delayed two hours because of a severe storm. While waiting for the storm to clear, spectators and participants huddled under awnings, crowded the entrances of bars and restaurants, sloshed through ankle-deep water and even danced in the rain. And they told Verite News why celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community mattered to them.

Helena Moreno, city council member and candidate for mayor, said she always supports pride and the LGBTQIA+ community. She also weighed in on a theme several people at the event spoke about — the country’s political atmosphere. 

“Right now there is so much about division and so much about hate, and that is the worst absolute way this country can be,” she said. “Here in New Orleans, we’ve always been a very loving and accepting city, and we have to push and work hard every day to keep it that way.”

People who spoke with Verite News said they came from all over the country to celebrate Pride in New Orleans. Jimella Martin, who came from Chicago, said she loves coming to New Orleans because she always feels happy when she’s here. She also enjoys being surrounded by the LGBTQIA+ community.

“With all the protests going on, with Trump, I think it’s just good to come to my community and instill pride and happiness in the world,” Martin said.

Anders Nilsen, a Lutheran pastor serving the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana was attending the event to do outreach. He said that the church has historically not been kind to the queer community and that living by the church’s values means accepting that God’s love is for everybody. 

“By being out here we get to share that with this community,” Nilsen said, “and remind them that God loves them, even if the church has told them over the years falsely that this God doesn’t.”

Debbie with a D, a full-time drag queen based in New Orleans, said the process of coming out had been difficult for her and that she lacked support from the church. 

“For me, Pride, and celebrating it every year has become a different kind of church and community that makes me feel grounded,” she said.

Connecting with the community, she added, is important to her as she worries about both federal funding cuts that can set back LGBTQIA+ health gains and state and local efforts to target transgender people and drag queens.

She said that times are “bleak,” but emphasized that historically people have always stepped up during trying times to defend the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, which gives her hope. 

“Maybe,” she said, “that’s our time now.”

PHOTOS: New Orleans celebrates Pride

Correction: A previous version of this story said that the visitor from Chicago is named Jamella. Her name is Jimella.

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