Area communities to celebrate Pride

FINDLAY — In some Northwest Ohio communities Pride celebrations may look a little different than they did last year – but there will indeed be celebrations. "There's been a long tradition of celebrating Pride in Findlay," said Maria Iafelice, who is among the organizers of this year's Findlay Pride events. The community group formed in spring 2025 upon learning the news that LGBTQ+ Spectrum of Findlay, which had hosted the Findlay Pride festival in years prior, would be winding down operations as an organization. The group came together to hold a potluck in June 2025, and will hold another one this year. Iafelice said Pride celebrations in Findlay actually started with a small community potluck, where friends would invite other friends. Last year, Kaleidoscope Youth Center did host a Pride in Findlay in September. Then, earlier this year, that organization announced it was pausing its plans to expand further into Findlay amid funding cuts, "which, again, activated our group of citizens," Iafelice said. The group is holding a family-friendly potluck from noon to 3 p.m. on June 6 at Dorney Plaza. Burgers and hot dogs will be provided. Participants are asked to supply a side dish, but are welcome if they cannot. Ryan Spath, another of the organizers, said about 75 people attended last year. Along with the potluck, 11 other Pride events are happening throughout June, many of them organized by local businesses. They include a Pride Ride at 6 p.m. June 10, hosted by Further Bikes; a free yoga event at 9 a.m. June 13 at Riverside Park, hosted by Hot Yoga Findlay; a tie-dye "Colors of Pride" workshop at 6 p.m. June 18 at Findlay Art League; and a Vinyl Night by Hawkbeat at 7 p.m. June 25 at the Bourbon Affair. A full schedule is available at https://findlaypride.com/ Spath said Pride may be "decentralized" this year, but "support exists in the community in all kinds of different ways and shapes." His hope is that this approach becomes "muscle memory," so that, even if one particular organization is no longer hosting their event, the community as a whole continues to come together to celebrate Pride. Iafelice said one of these smaller events may also serve as "an entryway" for someone who has never been to a Pride event. Someone who already likes to craft might go to the tie-dye workshop, while a cyclist might check out the Pride Ride. "It's a familiar activity with a Pride theme," Iafelice said. Spath said he identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community, and when he first lived in Findlay there seemed to be nothing like this available. "I just remember how isolating living in Findlay felt, those first few years that I lived here," he said. Now, he wants to help others realize that "there is a place for everybody ... Despite everything going on, the community is still here for you." He added that now is not the time for a lack of visibility. Both Iafelice and Spath said they have received support from the city of Findlay and local businesses. "Findlay Pride is here," Iafelice said. "Just because it's not a festival doesn't mean it's not happening." Upper Sandusky Brittany Rayl and her boyfriend Brian Webb were among the organizers of last year's first-ever Pride festival in Upper Sandusky. The July 2025 event featured 25 vendors ranging from crafters to a tarot reader to a Polaroid photo booth to a hair salon on site. "We had Mary St. Jaymes show up in drag," Rayl recalled, referring to a well-known Columbus-based drag queen. "And that was not planned. She just showed up like that and walked around and made it happen." The organizers dreamed of creating something even bigger this year. However, despite reaching out to everyone they could think of, they had trouble finding vendors who were available to travel to Upper Sandusky the day of the event. Volunteer signups were also slower to come in than Rayl had expected. Recently, they announced they would have to cancel. Last year, the organizers did receive some online harassment, but Rayl said they encountered no protestors the day of the event. She said the Upper Sandusky community as a whole offered a great deal of support, including the city government, the Wyandot County Chamber of Commerce and area businesses. Rayl and Webb have five teenagers, four of whom are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Wanting to give their children somewhere nearby to experience Pride was what led them to organize last year's event and "they absolutely loved it," Rayl said. Upon learning that the 2026 festival was canceled, community members commented on social media that they would love to see a celebration of some kind happening. So Rayl and Webb are organizing a Pride Family Picnic at Harrison Smith Park, beginning at 11 a.m. on June 13. Participants are asked to bring a packed lunch. The event will also include yard and table games to offer a chance to mingle. Rayl encouraged those attending to bring their own games. "I wanted it to be more than just sitting and eating," Rayl said. Noting that people often trade "trinkets," like bracelets or pins, at festivals, she said they will have some available and are encouraging anyone who likes to craft to bring their own items as well. "We didn't want to completely lose the momentum of what we started last year," so this year's event is "centering around the community connection," Rayl said. Bowling Green Pride Bowling Green Pride will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 27 at Wooster Green, 100 S. Church St. This is the fifth Pride in Bowling Green. Jordan Musgrave, president of the nonprofit BGO Pride's board, said attendance has grown from around 75 people the first year to 1,300 last year. The first Bowling Green Pride, in 2022, featured Jim Obergefell as a speaker. The lead plaintiff in the 2015 United States Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States, is a Bowling Green State University alum. The theme for the fifth event this year is "High Five for Pride!" Musgrave said they will have 35 vendors, 19 nonprofits, two food trucks, drag performances, a community art project, and face painting and crafts for kids. An afterparty will follow at the Hideaway Cocktail Lounge, 104 S. Main St., with doors opening at 8 p.m. and the first drag show at 9 p.m. Musgrave said the community as a whole has been supportive. BGO Pride partners with a variety of community organizations. While BGSU is not in session during the summer, mascots Freddie and Frieda Falcon regularly attend Pride, he said. "A lot of professors live in the city, so they get involved," he added. He added that the organization continues to see financial support, as well. "This is the most representation for the LGBTQ+ community I've ever seen in Wood County… It's pretty humbling to have a part in it," he said. He added that it's important to have this event "so people can turn off the hate they might see in the news and look at the love that they see in the community." Seneca Proud Seneca Proud is also in its fifth year. The nonprofit organization will host a picnic in Tiffin to kick off Pride Month on Sunday, a larger festival in October and a variety of events in the months in between. The kickoff picnic will take place from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at Hedges-Boyer Park at the AMVETS shelter. Seneca Proud will serve hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers and will provide lawn games including a cornhole tournament and relay races. Several board members have agreed to take a pie in the face, with raffle tickets being sold to determine who gets to throw. Those coming to the picnic are encouraged, but not required, to bring a side dish or dessert to share, as well as a lawn chair. Elizabeth Tracy, festival coordinator and board secretary, said Seneca Proud decided to move its Pride festival to the fall so students from Tiffin and Heidelberg universities could attend. This year the festival will take place from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 3 at Frost-Kalnow Amphitheater East Green, 155 E Market St. An afterparty will take place that evening at the Ritz Theatre, 30 S. Washington St. The October event will have a Halloween theme for everything from children's events to drag performers. Tracy said efforts to organize a Pride event began in 2019, when members of the LGBTQ+ community saw the need for more representation. An event that year drew about 300 people, she said. "We all know everybody," she said. "It is a small, close-knit community… It is an interesting landscape to navigate. Being queer in small-town Ohio is very different than being queer in urban Ohio." She noted that members of Seneca Proud and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole live and work alongside others in Tiffin and Seneca County. "We are community members and friends and neighbors," she said. "And we've had a lot of success by being who we are and maintaining a lot of civility…. We don't force anyone to engage who doesn't want to." "There are always people who would rather we weren't here," she said. "And at the same time, we know that there are people who need to see our organization exist and be out, because they might not be able to be out where they are." On the whole, she said, they have received a lot of support, including raising more than $22,000 in the organization's history, a figure which does not include in-kind donations. "We have been well loved," Tracy said. Seneca Proud is hosting a variety of other events throughout the year, including a "healthy hike" on June 23, a bowling night in July, a pool party in August, a clothing swap in October and a Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil on Nov. 20. They plan to close out 2026 with a craft and cookie swap in December. For more information, visit https://www.senecaproud.org.