Pride Weekend Conflict Won’t Deter Supporters

Every year, hundreds of Jewish Atlantans who identify as LGBTQ+ participate in Pride Weekend. But unfortunately, the City of Atlanta scheduled this year’s festivities the same weekend as Yom Kippur, leaving many community members and social organizations to workshop ideas on how to celebrate in their own way.

Atlanta Pride 2024 is scheduled for Oct. 12-13, which conflicts with Yom Kippur, as the High Holiday begins at sundown on Friday, Oct. 11, and ends at sundown on Saturday, Oct. 12.

Officials with the Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity (SOJOURN) reported that Atlanta Pride “did everything in their power to change the date but due to the needs of such a large event, there were scheduling constraints on the part of the City of Atlanta which resulted in being unable to find another weekend that works.”

SOJOURN Communications and Legislative Affairs Coordinator Rose Kantorczyk explained, “Since Atlanta Pride is such a large event, Piedmont Park is the only space that is capable of hosting it, and Atlanta Pride organizers worked extensively with the City of Atlanta, which owns the park, to find another weekend for the festival. However, Piedmont Park has a full event calendar, and the City of Atlanta has extensive buffer time requirements for large events held in the park. As a result, no alternate dates were available.”

Atlanta’s annual Pride Weekend parade attracts thousands to downtown Atlanta.

Kantorczyk noted that SOJOURN typically hosts an Atlanta-wide Pride Shabbat on the Friday night of Pride Weekend, a booth at the Pride Festival on Saturday and Sunday, and a float in the Pride Parade.

“Participating in these events is a meaningful way for the Jewish community of Atlanta to engage with and show their support for the LGBTQ+ community, and for queer Jews to feel supported in all facets of their identity,” Kantorczyk said.

SOJOURN administrators, along with more than 40 Jewish LGBTQ+ representatives and allied community leaders met with Atlanta Pride to discuss the situation and brainstorm ideas on how the Jewish members of Atlanta’s LGTBQ+ community could celebrate Pride this year.

“Atlanta Pride is committed to working with us to host other Pride events for the Jewish community throughout the year, connect us with supportive peer organizations, and create a meaningful space for us in Sunday’s celebrations,” Kantorczyk said. “We hope that a year in which our connection with Atlanta Pride looks different will not diminish the ties of deep support between Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities.”

To engage the community for feedback, SOJOURN has issued a survey that indicates alternatives to the traditional Pride Weekend, including a proposed community-wide Pride seder in a non-synagogue location on June 30. Kantorczyk noted that the June 30 date was selected to coincide with National Pride Month in June “but the possibility of that event is still being worked on.” Other ideas in the survey include a parade-watching event and hosting a booth at the festival on Sunday, Oct. 13.

Kantorczyk reported that SOJOURN has received some early feedback from the survey, noting that “Jewish communities are anticipating having pretty limited capacity around the weekend of Oct. 11-13, even on Sunday once Yom Kippur is over. The things people were most excited about engaging with were having an informal parade watching party along the route and gathering in the park after the parade.”