Handheld flashlights with rainbow filters will illuminate the Licking County Courthouse at dusk on Friday, Oct. 4, as crowds gather again to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month around Courthouse Square in downtown Newark, Ohio.
This year will be the seventh time the Newark Ohio Pride Coalition (NOPC) has organized this event — called the People’s Lighting of Licking County Courthouse — to create a welcoming beacon for central Ohio’s LGBTQ+ community.
On holidays and during events, it is typical for the Licking County Courthouse to be lit with relevant colors — reds and greens around Christmas, blue and yellow in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and red, white and blue for holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day — but Licking County commissioners have declined to light the courthouse each October before Licking County’s Pride celebration.
NOPC continues to light the courthouse every October despite meeting a wall of resistance from the Licking County commissioners, though nearby counties have illuminated their government buildings in rainbow colors to celebrate the nationally recognized Pride Month for years now.
“We’ve done a petition on it, gathered over 200 signatures, and then we’ve also shown up at one of their commissioner meetings, and there’s still just nothing,” said Dash Grove, NOPC president and entertainment chair. He hopes that with a larger turnout at the festival this year, change might be ignited.
The festival itself at the Canal Market District takes place on Saturday, Oct. 5 from 12-6 p.m. Grove said he expects at least double the number of attendees this year, and NOPC plans to host twice as many vendors. Local artists, small businesses, and nonprofits will stretch down the Canal Market strip and extend onto the sidewalk.
Read more: Newark Pride Festival: diversity and inclusion, small-town Ohio style
At the festival, NOPC will officially launch “Harmony Hub” in partnership with Safe Space Alliance to connect with businesses and organizations across Licking County that have declared themselves a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. One of their community partners, Sheetz in Heath, donated 500 drinks and 500 snacks for families at the festival.
Activities will include a kids section, a “get ready with me” with a drag king, storytime with a drag queen, a dance center and a sensory overload center in the Kicks Mix Bookstore where overstimulated attendees can rest and pet cats.
NOPC will also be partnering with Newark Homeless Outreach on future projects, and per usual, will host nonprofits such as the Licking County Coalition for Housing (LCCH) at the festival. As proceedings continue with Newark’s proposed ordinance on penalizing sleeping on public property, they hope to continue to protect these vulnerable communities.
“There is national data out there [that] LGBTQ+ people tend to have a higher rate of homelessness, especially youth. We’re seeing that where an 18-year-old comes out and gets kicked out of their house,” said Rachael Duck, housing grant supervisor with LCCH. LCCH makes an effort to attend the Newark Pride festival every year to remain visible and approachable.
With some of the state-level rulings over the past year, this festival gives a space for the LGBTQ+ community in an area which might not be so receptive, said Maeggan Grove, the community engagement and pride-planning chair at NOPC — and Dash’s partner.
“Multiple families who are in the community here in Licking County are scared, and they use these community events and festivals as a way to remember that they’re not alone, but also to at least have a moment where it’s okay to be themselves,” Maeggan said. “I hope that we can try to move forwards versus backwards.”
Mia Fischel writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.