Love Wins: Fifty Years Since the First March

On June 24, 2023, the Cincinnati Pride parade and festival marked 50 years since the first Pride march on April 7, 1973.

Instead of choosing new honorees, Cincinnati Pride made the year’s Pride Marshals a celebration of every marshal since the first parade.

The mural

The anniversary also brought “Love Wins,” a mural by local artist Mathew Dayler, created through a partnership of Cincinnati Pride and ArtWorks and installed outside Queen City Radio in downtown Cincinnati. P&G helped with the installation.

The mural reworks elements of the original black-and-white photo of the first event at Fountain Square. Look for the CINCINNATI GAY COMMUNITY banner from 1973.

50 years of Pride?

Not quite. The 2023 celebration marked fifty years since the first march, but Cincinnati didn’t hold Pride in every one of those years. Here’s why.