During LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Main Street districts across the country celebrate diversity, engage in the fight for equality and seek to bolster the LGBTQ+ community. In a recent blog post, Main Street America (MSA) highlighted a few of their favorite celebration initiatives from around the Network, ranging from public art installations to supporting LGBTQ+ businesses. Check out these inspiring efforts below and learn more about how your community can celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month!

Waukegan PrideDrive 2021

Kicking off Pride Month in Illinois, Waukegan Main Street partnered alongside local organizations and dressed their downtown district in Pride flags, while encouraging small businesses to feature rainbow storefront decorations. Local residents were invited to drive through downtown to experience the festivities, and many cars were delightfully decorated themselves. Click here to learn more about this enthusiastic initiative!

Storefront Decoration Competitions

In Pennsylvania, West Chester BID took rainbow flags to the next level by launching a Pride Month storefront decoration competition, encouraging merchants to decorate storefront windows and share a picture of their celebration. Excitingly, one participating business will be randomly selected to win a raffle prize! Click here to learn more about the contest!

Spotlighting Local Partners

In Orlando, Florida, The Milk District has embraced its digital voice to encourage community members to support LGBTQ+ nonprofits, specifically the Zebra Coalition, a Florida-based nonprofit assisting LGBTQ+ young people facing homelessness, bullying, isolation from their families and abuse. In their community, small businesses also implemented special promotions to benefit the nonprofit organization. Click here to learn more about this effort!

Pride! On the Plaza

The Plaza District in Oklahoma City revived their Live! One the Plaza series that was forced to cease operation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event features artists, live music, special business hours and more! This year, the Main Street program spotlighted local LGBTQ+ nonprofits and artists, offered branded Pride! On the Plaza rainbow t-shirts and ended the night with a late night drag show! Click here to learn more!

Plaza Pop-Ups

Monthly, Downtown SLO‘s Mission Plaza welcomes a different public art pop-up installation created by a local cultural nonprofit. In June, the Plaza Pop-Up has been designed by Gala Pride and Diversity Center (GPDC), a nonprofit supporting and empowering people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in California’s Central Coast. “Love Notes” is a GPDC showcase to the community that everyone is welcomed, loved and heard. More than 150 community members including students and artists participated in decorating the installation, creating messages of love and belonging. Click here to learn more about this pop-up!

Additional Tips:

To help communities celebrate Pride Month, MSA has developed Pride Month on Main Street social media graphics!

If you have trouble finding Pride Flags in your locality, you can purchase them for free, here. Local LGBTQ+ nonprofits in your community may have access to flags, and it may prove beneficial to search for them and form partnerships.

Use #WeAreMainStreet when promoting your celebration efforts on social media to be featured on MSA channels!

Image Credit (Saloon 151’s Outdoor Patio Seating): Ingrid Tomlinson

Image Credit (Storefront Decoration): West Chester BID

Image Credit (Love Notes): Downtown SLO