2019 Issue 5 Sep/Oct - Focus Mid-Tenn Magazine

community
BORO PRIDE CELEBRATES 4TH YEAR
by Christopher Kingsley | photos courtesy of Dr. William Langston
Pride is everywhere in the summer. From June to August, Pride events worldwide
have been bringing together LGBTQ brethren and their supporters and advocates by
the thousands. Here, closer to home, Pride events stretch across the volunteer state
from Memphis, Nashville to Rocky Top Tennessee in Knoxville. But even closer to home, in
Murfreesboro, Boro Pride, which is celebrating its fourth year, has proven to be a success
story bathed in rainbow colors.
I asked Dr. William
Langston, who is the
volunteer coordinator for
the festival, about Boro
Pride. “We’ve enjoyed
amazing community
support and have sold
all exhibitor spaces
each year,” he states.
“People coming to pride
go to local businesses
to eat and shop while
they’re on the square. I
think we’ve had nothing
but positive feedback.
A lot of Murfreesboro
businesses also support
through sponsorships and
giveaways.”
Brendan Holloway had
the original idea of a Pride
event in Murfreesboro
back in June 2016. “I was
serving as the Chair of the
Tennessee Equality Project
(TEP) Rutherford County
Committee. At one of our
committee meetings, an
attendee mentioned how
they wished we could have
a pride event closer to
Murfreesboro, so people
wouldn’t have to drive to
Nashville. I heard them
say this and immediately
thought, why can’t we
have a pride event in
Murfreesboro?”, said
Holloway.
He continues, “I quickly
reached out to Chris
Sanders, Executive
Director of TEP, and
pitched the idea of having
a pride event later that
year. He encouraged the
idea, so we formed a
sub-committee within the
TEP Rutherford County
Committee to work on
creating the event. We had
a meeting the last week of
June and decided that we
wanted to move forward
with the event.”The team
met on a weekly basis
and had the first ever
Boro Pride on August 27,
2016. More than 1,000
people attended the event
with over 50 vendors
exhibiting. Since then,
the event has grown
substantially. Holloway
reflects back on the first
Boro Pride which was
organized in surprisingly
short order, “I have no
idea how we pulled it off
in such a short amount
of time, but we did it.
We really did it.” While
Holloway is no longer on
the planning committee,
he still actively supports
Boro Pride in whatever
way he can and currently
sits on the Board of
Directors of the Tennessee
Equality Project.
Be sure to mark your
calendar, Boro Pride starts
at 5:00pm on September
7, 2019. The Pride Walk
will begin at 5:30pm and
entertainment will include:
Flummox, The Dead
Deads, The Hardin Draw,
Sisters Mann and of course
the fabulous drag show
hosted by IONA to close
the event.
Page 14 / focusmidtenn.com / SEP+OCT SEPT+OCT 2019 // SUCCESS