This year’s Pride Month in Pittsburgh leans into joy, and feels more necessary than ever.
Celebrating Pride Month in Pittsburgh
Pride. The word has carried various meanings across history. In Late Old English it represented someone guilty of the sin of pride. In Old French, however, it signified someone who is brave or valiant. What are the nuances of the word within the LGBTQIA+ community today? TABLE looked for answers with an office Pride Party that brought together leaders in the Pittsburgh community.
A Joyful Party at TABLE Studios
On a sunny day in the city, rainbow colors bounce off the windows at TABLE Studios in Shadyside. Tables are lined with glasses of bubbly, homemade rainbow popsicles, beautiful vegetable skewers, and other handheld foods. What at first looks like a fun party (which of course it was), has a much deeper meaning. As of January 2025, LGBTQIA+ human rights have come under fire. New executive orders recognize only two genders, stop transgender treatments and surgeries in major medical institutes, restrict those under 18 from transitioning, undo protections that have been in place for ages, and even take down essential LGBTQIA+ and HIV resources on the federal websites. How does the LGBTQIA+ community respond to such a siege? By living authentically. Emphasizing joy. Keeping discouragement at bay.
The guest list for our party included several small local LGBTQIA+ business owners like Richard Parsakian from Eons Fashion Antique and Donal Levi Donovan of the fitness company Free Will PGH. The list also included influential individuals in charge of uplifting diversity in the city such as Hazell Azzer of AIDS Free Pittsburgh and Gina Winstead of the Carnegie Museum of Art. Our Pride Party, like the month-long celebration of Pride each June, welcomed everyone with a space for conversation, solace, and a few extra treats to help celebrate the persistence of the community.
Pride Then and Pride Now
TABLE Magazine Editor-in-Chief Keith Recker helped put together this gathering with memories of Pride Month dating back to the 80s. For him, celebrating Pride isn’t just another way to bring queer people together. It’s a way to fight back, to appreciate those who have fought before us, and to do it all with EVERYONE involved. Gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and allies: everyone can flock together. With bravery, confidence, and determination. With pride.
“I went to my first Pride parade in 1986, a few months after moving to NYC after grad school,” tells Recker. “I was 24. And worried. Just when most people pulse with the confidence and invulnerability of youth, I was getting acquainted with death. Friends from my undergrad years at CMU had died of AIDs, guys whose radiant faces I still remember and whose memory still stops my heart. Other friends were falling ill.”
“Pride was an afternoon of relief from all of that. For a few hours, we felt invincible. Together, who could beat us? Pride was like both a celebration of how far we’d come, and how far we would go. Together, the buttoned-up businesspeople among us, the ‘out there’ protesters, all the genders, all the colors, a spectrum of allies, ALL the people who were with us, pressed the energy and unity of Pride into the public sphere throughout the years.”
Where Pittsburgh’s Pride is Heading
The consensus of our party guests? That’s the energy we need again. To feel joy while also making a statement. As guests munched on rainbow bites like fruit parfaits, potato pancakes, and flatbread veggie pizzas from Square Cafe and our TABLE team, they worked toward that goal, expressing their plans for the future and their concerns about the present. Free Will Gym owner Donal Levi Donovan sees events like these as a gateway to overcoming those obstacles.
“We need to gather together right now to communicate our needs and show up for each other’s specific challenges,” explains Donovan. “I think we need to unify as much as possible and protect each part of the community, especially when it comes to laws and discrimination. Pride looks like joy, and it can only be held together with support and safety.”
Showing Pride Outside of June
It’s not just the leaders and business owners of Pittsburgh that are facing this challenge. Drag performers and queer citizens alike are finding their own rights and lives in danger. Performer, host, and drag show producer Luna Skye experiences challenges daily. But it’s being confident in who she is and what she does that pushes her to keep stepping onto that stage each night, no matter what threats are fired at her.
“I think pride within queer people is just even stepping out of their safe spaces every single day,” says Luna Skye. “Because no matter what, it could be a little scary out there. But whenever anyone is just living their authentic selves, it doesn’t matter what other people think. Knowing what they know within themselves and being happy and prideful is everything. Like just walking around every day and knowing in their own mind at the gas station while pumping gas that, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m gay as hell, living my best life, pumping this gas, slay.’”
Truly, that’s only the starting point. There’s still a long way to go until safety and security for the full community is in place. But, in times like these, it’s important to remember those who came before us in a time where being gay or transgender could get you arrested. Or fired. Or harrassed. Brave people of the past stood arm in arm, fighting for rights for people they did not even know. Out of that unified effort came marriage equality, autonomy of trans folks, and frankly, the capacity to just be. If so much progress could be made decades ago in the face of a resistant system, why couldn’t we make even more progress today? We can.
Try Our Rainbow Pride Recipes
Make your own Pride party at home using these delicious, rainbow recipes.
Pride Popsicles
Easy Rainbow Pesto Veggie Flatbread Pizza
5 Tips for Fruit and Vegetable Skewers
Rainbow Fruit Parfait for Pride Month
Story by Kylie Thomas
Photography by Jeff Swensen
Food and drink by Sheree Goldstein, Square Café, and the TABLE team
Event design by Star Laliberte
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