Morgantown Pride Block Party draws big turnout

Three blocks. 45 vendors. One love.
Morgantown showed its true colors Saturday at the inaugural Morgantown Pride Block Party, organized by Morgantown Pride, a new nonprofit that offers resources and LGBTQ+ community engagement.
“West Virginia, historically, has had a hard time with acceptance and Morgantown is such a unique place in West Virginia because we have the university and we have a very broad community,” said Alex Miller, secretary of Morgantown Pride.
Within the community, Miller said Morgantown Pride felt a festival was needed. She also said there wasn’t an organization especially for the LGBTQ+ in the area either.
“We just really wanted to build this organization and represent as many people as we possibly can,” she said.
Morgantown Pride has only had its nonprofit status since the end of February. The block party is its first major event, and there are other activities planned throughout the summer.
From the start, Miller said the organization didn’t expect such a big turnout. The party grew to three blocks after its inception and the response was huge from the community.
“This whole event is just about people being people and supporting each other,” said Miller.
Miller said Morgantown Pride is going to try to make the block party an annual event — and if the block party happens to outgrow the space, they’ll find another.
“We like having it here. We love South Park. The community has been really supportive to us and the response we got in such a short amount of time was overwhelming. It reaffirms to me that what we’re doing is needed,” said Miller.
As summer comes, Morgantown Pride will offer queer defense classes and queer yoga. Holistic health and volunteer work also round out their summer programs. Miller said she wasn’t sure if Morgantown Pride would be having its own Pride Parade, but they would definitely be participating in parades that would be happening throughout the summer.
“We really hit the ground running and people were just so positive about it that we were sure this is what we needed to be doing,” said Miller.
To learn more about Morgantown Pride visit its Facebook page.