Celebrating Pride Month in Champaign-Urbana

Celebrating with our LGBTQ+ community in Champaign-Urbana during the month of June

June is designated as Pride Month and we have resources for those who are interested in learning more

June is a glorious month for celebrations of all kinds — from graduations to weddings to the summer solstice. June is also celebrated worldwide by the LGBTQ+ community as Pride Month, when people embrace the ability to be authentically themselves.

New York activist Brenda Howard organized the first Pride parade in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. (In June of 1969, the Stonewall Inn was the site of extensive rioting in response to a violent police raid targeting gay men.) This clash is considered the start of the modern struggle for LGBTQ+ rights, borrowing from both the women’s rights movement and the civil rights movement. Stonewall, and the Pride parade the following year, is why June eventually became the month for Pride events nationwide and around the world.

Here are several local organizations who work to support the LGBTQ+ community in C-U as well as Central Illinois:

• Uniting Pride: Uniting Pride advocates for the equality, wellness, advocacy, and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community in Champaign County and the surrounding areas. It serves their clients through support groups, community events, educational programming, and referrals and resources.
• The Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at the University of Illinois: A resource for the U of I community that works to foster an environment that is open, safe, and inclusive for people of all sexualities and gender identities.
• Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD): Offers LGBTQ+ friendly sexual health services, free and anonymous HIV testing, STD prevention.
• Planned Parenthood of Champaign: Provides low-cost sexual health care to all genders and sexualities, offers gender-affirming hormone therapy.

Why is C-U’s Pride Fest not during Pride Month?

For more than a decade, C-U has hosted the second largest Pride Parade in Illinois (and in its early days, the only Pride Parade in Illinois outside of Chicago!) in early fall rather than in June. The reason is simple enough — local activists wanted a community Pride celebration that could include the university community when school was in session.

In 2023, the CU Pride Fest took place spread throughout a week in downtown Urbana, culminating with the Pride Fest Parade and Fair on Sept. 30, 2023. Stay tuned to Uniting Pride for all the details to come about CU Pride Fest in 2024!

Local Pride Month events

Do you have a Pride (or Pride-related) event to add? If it’s for families and it’s free or low-cost, please submit it to our calendar.

We will continue to add to this list, so please check back during the month of June.