History of Tulsa Pride
Title
History of Tulsa Pride
Subject
Tulsa Pride history
Creator
Mary Bishop-Baldwin
Date
June 23, 2026
Rights
Copyright (c) 2026 Oklahomans for Equality
Format
Text
Text
Oklahomans for Equality History Project
For many years in June, which is LGBTQ Pride month, Tulsa’s downtown streets and parks were awash in a rainbow of colors with a sea of the beautiful diversity of humanity assembled for Tulsa Pride. But it wasn’t always that way. Think about a time when Pride didn’t exist – a time when many of you weren’t yet born but when a large number of our LGBTQ community WERE here, trying to live in a world that didn’t acknowledge their humanity.
LGBTQ people existed, but pride did not. Being gay or trans meant living in the closet for fear of losing one’s family, job, religious affiliation and home and being ostracized – and even jailed or institutionalized – for living openly. Beyond those outward realities, LGBTQ people often were self-loathing, longing to change their sexual orientation or gender identity so they could fit in with society and live in accordance with what society said their God demanded.
But throughout history, some gay and trans people have stood up to challenge the status quo and say, “We’re OK just as we are.” Accepting ourselves was the beginning of Pride.
Oklahomans for Equality’s forerunner organization, Oklahomans for Human Rights, was organized in Tulsa as a chapter of an Oklahoma City-based organization in 1980, and a handful of Tulsa’s gay men and lesbians came together in 1982 to organize and produce Tulsa’s first Gay Pride Week. In its May 26, 1982, newsletter, available in the OkEq History Project archives, OHR called it “Tulsa’s first major commemoration of the beginning of gay liberation,” the Stonewall riots of 1969. Events included a picnic and festival at Chandler Park; softball games at Manion Park; beer busts at local bars Tulsa County Mining Co., Tracy’s New Edition, Tim’s Playroom and Zippers; a screening of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Brook Theater; Gay Day at Discoveryland; Gayskate at the Rinky Dink Skating Rink in Sand Springs; and a benefit drag show.
The next year’s Pride Week Picnic, held at Mohawk Park, drew about 300 people, according to OHR’s July 1983 newsletter. Records in Oklahomans for Equality’s archives show that the 1983 Gay Pride Week Committee’s total income was $1,910.66, while expenses totaled $1,473.83, bringing the organization a $436.83 profit.
Those early Tulsa Pride events didn’t involve parades and were relatively low-key events in out-of-the-way locations. In contrast, it costs anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 to put on today’s Pride events.
OHR became TOHR in 1985, when local activists formed the nonprofit Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights and separated from the Oklahoma City organization. The annual picnics continued, and it seemed that perhaps greater visibility and even acceptance had come to Tulsa Pride in 1994 when then-Mayor Susan Savage proclaimed the week of June 19 through June 25 that year “as Gay & Lesbian Pride Week in our city.”
Tulsa’s first Pride march came in 1997. Without closing the roads, marchers traveled one-half mile on Edison Street from Gilcrease Museum Road to Owen Park, where a picnic was held. Participants also listened to music, and community organizations and businesses offered information and merchandise at booths.
The second Pride march, in 1998, saw about 150 people march from 15th and Main streets to Veterans Park (now Dream Keepers Park) at 21st Street and Boulder Avenue.
The 1999 event was the first parade that involved street closings and police escorts. Tulsa’s first Pride parade went from 38th Street and Peoria Avenue in the Brookside District to 31st Street, then west to Riverside Drive, and then north to Veterans Park.
With the political and social environments of the times, it took Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights quite some doing to acquire a permit for the parade. The Tulsa City Council delayed a vote on the permit twice before finally approving it. In the meantime, one councilor, Sam Roop, had proposed and then dropped a resolution stating that the City Council did not endorse the June 12 parade. The Tulsa World reported that Roop had been concerned that approval of the parade permit “might be construed as an endorsement of the ‘gay pride agenda.’” In the end, he joined the other councilors in unanimously approving the permit – but not the “lifestyle.”
Tulsa World archives record that Councilor Darla Hall said that "the gay community is not before this council tonight so that we can stand in judgment of their lifestyle. They will appear before God for that, just as we all will answer to God for our lifestyles.
I only pray they are as prepared for that day as they are for the parade.”
But with the parades came increased visibility. The keynote speaker at a gala hosted by Tulsa Oklahomans for Equality and the Cimarron Alliance, as well as the grand marshal of the first Pride parade, was U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who brought with him increased media coverage of Tulsa Pride. Big names were also included in the next year’s Pride, which showcased as gala speakers and co-grand marshals Olympic diver Greg Louganis and Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, who had successfully challenged her dismissal from the Army for being a lesbian and who later worked for the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. That same year, 2000, the Rev. Dr. Mel White, founder of Soul Force and author of “Stranger at the Gate,” spoke at the Tulsa Pride Week Interfaith Service.
Activities related to Pride were growing in number, too, with film festivals, book discussions, high school gay-straight alliance showcases, Council Oak Men’s Chorale performances, PFLAG parents panel discussions, art shows and a NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt display included along with a parade and festival during Pride Weeks by the early years of the 21st century.
By 2001, the parade route had shifted to Cherry Street, with step-off at 15th Street and Utica Avenue and the conclusion again at Veterans Park. Archives show that the annual parade continued along that route until 2009, when it ran through the Arts District and ended at the Diversity Festival’s new location at Centennial Park (now Veterans Park), at Sixth Street and Peoria Avenue. During those years, paradegoers mixed with athletes and the crowd watching Tulsa Tough bicycle races in the Arts District.
TOHR changed its name to Oklahomans for Equality in 2006 in advance of the opening of the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center – OkEq’s permanent home – in February 2007, and in 2011, the festival was moved to Fourth Street – Pride Street – and Kenosha Avenue in front of the Equality Center. In 2014, the parade route shifted to start at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, 13th Street and Boston Avenue, still ending at the Equality Center. The annual Rainbow Run’s inaugural year, with a 5K race and a 1K fun run, was 2014.
The timing of Tulsa’s Pride parade and festival changed in 2024 to October to avoid the extreme heat of Oklahoma’s summers and to coincide with LGBTQ History Month and National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11. The Equality Gala and other events still take place in June.
Inclusion and acceptance have grown along with Pride, with some push and pull, advancements and backlash, along the way. This year’s events this fall are expected to draw nearly 70 parade entries, with a crowd size along the parade route estimated at 10,000 and attendees at the Pride festival projected at 26,000.
The Oklahomans for Equality History Project encourages you to learn more about OkEq’s history by visiting our online archives at history.okeq.org.
For many years in June, which is LGBTQ Pride month, Tulsa’s downtown streets and parks were awash in a rainbow of colors with a sea of the beautiful diversity of humanity assembled for Tulsa Pride. But it wasn’t always that way. Think about a time when Pride didn’t exist – a time when many of you weren’t yet born but when a large number of our LGBTQ community WERE here, trying to live in a world that didn’t acknowledge their humanity.
LGBTQ people existed, but pride did not. Being gay or trans meant living in the closet for fear of losing one’s family, job, religious affiliation and home and being ostracized – and even jailed or institutionalized – for living openly. Beyond those outward realities, LGBTQ people often were self-loathing, longing to change their sexual orientation or gender identity so they could fit in with society and live in accordance with what society said their God demanded.
But throughout history, some gay and trans people have stood up to challenge the status quo and say, “We’re OK just as we are.” Accepting ourselves was the beginning of Pride.
Oklahomans for Equality’s forerunner organization, Oklahomans for Human Rights, was organized in Tulsa as a chapter of an Oklahoma City-based organization in 1980, and a handful of Tulsa’s gay men and lesbians came together in 1982 to organize and produce Tulsa’s first Gay Pride Week. In its May 26, 1982, newsletter, available in the OkEq History Project archives, OHR called it “Tulsa’s first major commemoration of the beginning of gay liberation,” the Stonewall riots of 1969. Events included a picnic and festival at Chandler Park; softball games at Manion Park; beer busts at local bars Tulsa County Mining Co., Tracy’s New Edition, Tim’s Playroom and Zippers; a screening of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Brook Theater; Gay Day at Discoveryland; Gayskate at the Rinky Dink Skating Rink in Sand Springs; and a benefit drag show.
The next year’s Pride Week Picnic, held at Mohawk Park, drew about 300 people, according to OHR’s July 1983 newsletter. Records in Oklahomans for Equality’s archives show that the 1983 Gay Pride Week Committee’s total income was $1,910.66, while expenses totaled $1,473.83, bringing the organization a $436.83 profit.
Those early Tulsa Pride events didn’t involve parades and were relatively low-key events in out-of-the-way locations. In contrast, it costs anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000 to put on today’s Pride events.
OHR became TOHR in 1985, when local activists formed the nonprofit Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights and separated from the Oklahoma City organization. The annual picnics continued, and it seemed that perhaps greater visibility and even acceptance had come to Tulsa Pride in 1994 when then-Mayor Susan Savage proclaimed the week of June 19 through June 25 that year “as Gay & Lesbian Pride Week in our city.”
Tulsa’s first Pride march came in 1997. Without closing the roads, marchers traveled one-half mile on Edison Street from Gilcrease Museum Road to Owen Park, where a picnic was held. Participants also listened to music, and community organizations and businesses offered information and merchandise at booths.
The second Pride march, in 1998, saw about 150 people march from 15th and Main streets to Veterans Park (now Dream Keepers Park) at 21st Street and Boulder Avenue.
The 1999 event was the first parade that involved street closings and police escorts. Tulsa’s first Pride parade went from 38th Street and Peoria Avenue in the Brookside District to 31st Street, then west to Riverside Drive, and then north to Veterans Park.
With the political and social environments of the times, it took Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights quite some doing to acquire a permit for the parade. The Tulsa City Council delayed a vote on the permit twice before finally approving it. In the meantime, one councilor, Sam Roop, had proposed and then dropped a resolution stating that the City Council did not endorse the June 12 parade. The Tulsa World reported that Roop had been concerned that approval of the parade permit “might be construed as an endorsement of the ‘gay pride agenda.’” In the end, he joined the other councilors in unanimously approving the permit – but not the “lifestyle.”
Tulsa World archives record that Councilor Darla Hall said that "the gay community is not before this council tonight so that we can stand in judgment of their lifestyle. They will appear before God for that, just as we all will answer to God for our lifestyles.
I only pray they are as prepared for that day as they are for the parade.”
But with the parades came increased visibility. The keynote speaker at a gala hosted by Tulsa Oklahomans for Equality and the Cimarron Alliance, as well as the grand marshal of the first Pride parade, was U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who brought with him increased media coverage of Tulsa Pride. Big names were also included in the next year’s Pride, which showcased as gala speakers and co-grand marshals Olympic diver Greg Louganis and Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, who had successfully challenged her dismissal from the Army for being a lesbian and who later worked for the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. That same year, 2000, the Rev. Dr. Mel White, founder of Soul Force and author of “Stranger at the Gate,” spoke at the Tulsa Pride Week Interfaith Service.
Activities related to Pride were growing in number, too, with film festivals, book discussions, high school gay-straight alliance showcases, Council Oak Men’s Chorale performances, PFLAG parents panel discussions, art shows and a NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt display included along with a parade and festival during Pride Weeks by the early years of the 21st century.
By 2001, the parade route had shifted to Cherry Street, with step-off at 15th Street and Utica Avenue and the conclusion again at Veterans Park. Archives show that the annual parade continued along that route until 2009, when it ran through the Arts District and ended at the Diversity Festival’s new location at Centennial Park (now Veterans Park), at Sixth Street and Peoria Avenue. During those years, paradegoers mixed with athletes and the crowd watching Tulsa Tough bicycle races in the Arts District.
TOHR changed its name to Oklahomans for Equality in 2006 in advance of the opening of the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center – OkEq’s permanent home – in February 2007, and in 2011, the festival was moved to Fourth Street – Pride Street – and Kenosha Avenue in front of the Equality Center. In 2014, the parade route shifted to start at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, 13th Street and Boston Avenue, still ending at the Equality Center. The annual Rainbow Run’s inaugural year, with a 5K race and a 1K fun run, was 2014.
The timing of Tulsa’s Pride parade and festival changed in 2024 to October to avoid the extreme heat of Oklahoma’s summers and to coincide with LGBTQ History Month and National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11. The Equality Gala and other events still take place in June.
Inclusion and acceptance have grown along with Pride, with some push and pull, advancements and backlash, along the way. This year’s events this fall are expected to draw nearly 70 parade entries, with a crowd size along the parade route estimated at 10,000 and attendees at the Pride festival projected at 26,000.
The Oklahomans for Equality History Project encourages you to learn more about OkEq’s history by visiting our online archives at history.okeq.org.
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Citation
Mary Bishop-Baldwin, “History of Tulsa Pride,” OKEQ History Project, accessed June 26, 2026, https://history.okeq.org/items/show/1387.