This past Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, the Grand Forks community got to celebrate its first ever pride parade as a finale to close out Grand Forks Pride Week. While the town has held pride celebrations in various ways in the past such as holding bingo nights, pride in the park, and open mic sessions along with many more, those celebrations have never included a parade until this year, something many members of the local LGBTQIA+ community and their allies were more than thrilled to be able to experience and see happen in their own town.
Many see the event as a historical milestone for pride in Grand Forks and something that inspires hope for continuing to be out and proud in the future. Our city may not be like larger ones with regular and large-scale pride displays, but the queer community still exists here and being able to feel comfortable and worthy of celebration matters to them greatly, just like it does for us all.
“Being the first pride parade here, we didn’t know what to expect. I was scared that there wasn’t going to be a good turnout for the crowd attending because most of the community members I know were already part of the parade, but the turnout was at least twice the people walking in the parade,” community member Johnathan Schilling (any/all) said, “That meant a lot for us members of the queer community, showing us that we do have a lot of genuine support and shouldn’t be afraid to be and act as who we genuinely are, as there are more of us than even we know.”
It points to a larger community being here in Grand Forks than one might initially think at first glance, and the parade served as a fun way to bring those people from all corners together in mutual commemoration. People from local churches all the way to sports groups came out to join in the celebration, showing folks that there are people, places, and businesses that care about them and their existence. Most importantly, it showed people that they are not alone. It also offered up a chance for people to meet others with similar experiences, identities, and viewpoints, as well as offering a space to help people find resources and other ways to stay involved and connected with their community.
“Wow what an incredible day it was for our pride parade. I was honestly worried about the turnout but once we hit the downtown area, the rush and thrill of seeing so many people made me tear up,” says Cassie Taggart (she/her), “I always wanted to participate in a pride parade ever since I got the chance of watching the pride parade for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City on TV. Did I ever think that it would happen in Grand Forks? I honestly didn’t know. But I’m so glad that Queer-Trans Alliance, QTA, had the chance to walk in our parade and had so much fun afterwards. A group of us even headed over to Tea & Crepe to talk about how we felt but it truly was just so much love for it and I wouldn’t have changed it any other way.”
Not only does it serve as something of significance to the current standing community, but it also serves as a welcome of acceptance and safety for those newer to the area or the queer community as a whole itself. Grand Forks’ first ever pride parade was a great success and many hope to see this again in the future with even more people, community members and allies alike, there to support one another and celebrate being queer and, most importantly, being human.
Ed Tortorelli is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
