Stepping into Grove City’s Local Cantina on a Tuesday, you might find a group sharing a high table and a few drinks by the windows that look out over Broadway. With plenty of laughs to go around the members of Pride in GC, provide community for people identifying with LGBTQIA+ groups as well as allies.
Formed in the spring of 2022, Pride in GC offers resources, a good time and even someone to talk to. The organization is committed to building community and fellowship as well as advocacy for LGBTQIA+ populations. “Be you and join us!” the mission statement reads.
Filling a need
It all started with a small group of people noticing a trend during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since large gatherings weren’t happening, people couldn’t gather downtown for bigger Pride Month events. Other Columbus suburbs were starting their own Pride groups and events, and it was suggested that the same could be done in Grove City.
Leslie Anderson is Pride in GC’s president. She helped get the group off the ground, taking up the main task of extending Pride into her town.
Photos courtesy of Leslie Anderson
“If you live in the southwest quarter of Franklin County, we drive to create a safe space in our community,” Anderson says.
Hannah Mayle, board secretary of Pride in GC, says the organization plays an important local role that before went unfulfilled.
“It’s really important, I think, to have a community organization that supports LGBTQ people at every stage in life, and just to let them know that they’re heard and that they’re visible in this community,” she says. “I only came to Grove City like six years ago, so I’m still new to it, but it makes me feel hopeful about how great this community can really be.”
The community seems to agree with Mayle, showing a growing enthusiasm for the group and its programming since it was formed. Anderson says the community has supported the programming with growing participation over the past three years.
Festivities for the future
The September after Pride in GC was formed, the organization hosted a PrideFest to provide a gathering for people in the community. While June is recognized in the U.S. as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, Pride in GC wanted to expand the celebration.
“September is National Coming Out Month, so we kind of used that and decided we would plant our flag and be the fall Pride,” Anderson says. The family-friendly event has grown since the inaugural festival in 2022. Last year it was held at Grove City’s Town Center and featured the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus and the band Session Five.
PrideFest
“We had live music for most of the day and food trucks and vendors, and it felt like a real festival,” Anderson says. “I think people really noticed, and were really excited to have it in their community and their town.”
She hopes they can continue to build on that success for the next PrideFest taking place on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Besides growing the event, Pride in GC also wants to increase the number of activities it does year-round, exercising local partnerships like the one it has with Local Cantina while also making new ones.
The Tuesday happy hours are bi-weekly throughout the year and the board is also planning a skating party, and talking about taking a trip to a pumpkin patch – all in the continued interest of creating spaces for people to connect.
“In Grove City we try to do events all the time,” Anderson says. “Everybody is welcome, and if they see something that we’re doing that looks fun to them, they should definitely check it out and make some friends.”
Jake Ruffer is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
