Gay pride asheville nc
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September 21, 2024
Asheville's Blue Ridge Lgbtq+ fest Festival celebrates the LGBTQIA2S+ community in Downtown Asheville in Pack Square Park, 11 AM-6 PM. Two stages will feature regional musicians and many talented entertainers. Check out the many vendors and organizations. Find more information on the Blue Ridge Pride's website.
Learn about many great organizations in our society and country committed to social justice. Sample delicious goodies from food vendors.
For more info on visiting for the festival or any time of the year, see our Asheville LGBT Move Guide.
"The mission of Blue Ridge Self-acceptance is to foster an informed, engaged and supportive LGBTQIA2S+ community through intersectional belonging, equity, liberation, and joy labor under our 4 pillars: advocate, observe, educate and serve."
Scandals Nightclub
Since 1982, Asheville's largest high-energy boogie club is famous throughout as the epicenter for creativity, diversity and entertainment. Don't miss their midnight show, premiering the best… read more
Since 1982, Asheville's largest high-en
LGBT Asheville
Asheville is a gay-friendly miniature city. Period.
According to the latest United States census, the Asheville area has 83% more woman loving woman, gay bisexual, transgender and homosexual (LGBTQ+) identified people than the typical American city or town. Another study, also based on census results, found that Bun-combe County (with 15.5 same sex couples per 1,000) and Asheville (19.7 per 1,000) are the most gay-friendly county and town in the state of North Carolina, on a per-capita basis well ahead of places appreciate Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. In 2010, the gay-oriented publication, The Advocate, ranked Asheville as the “12th gayest town in America.” Atlanta was ranked #1.
LGBTQ+ visitors increasingly are uncovering Asheville, with its great instinctive beau-ty, innovative dining and drinking spots, heavy-duty gallery, arts and crafts scene, interesting shops and numerous gay-owned or gay-welcoming B&Bs and inns and businesses.
You are likely to see a number of openly lesbian and same-sex attracted couples around town, es-pecially Downtown and in West Asheville.
Downtown Asheville has several LGBTQ+ bars, including O. Henry’s (the oldest
A look at LGBTQ history and Pride Month events across Western North Carolina
June is federally recognized as LBGTQ+ Pride Month. Across Western North Carolina, Pride proclamations and event help have been on many local town government agendas. While some WNC communities are hosting their first-ever Pride events this year, others are looking help on the LGBTQ history in the region.
UNC Asheville Professor Amanda Wray founded the LGBTQ+ Oral History Archive with Blue Ridge Identity festival Center in 2019.
“Asheville has a really inclusive reputation but Appalachia in general has a reputation that is rather negative in the way that (some) talk about inclusivity,” Wray told BPR in 2019.
“I perceive like we create gay people hidden when we don’t talk about them or when we focus on this dominant narrative that Appalachia is not inclusive.”
Wray, who is from rural Kentucky, has been interviewing LGBTQ people from across the region and has over 100 interviews - most of which are digitized and accessible online on Blue Ridge Ridge Pride or UNCA’s Special Collections websites. The collection also includes physical artifacts, such as books, buttons and T-shirts. The archive