The Atlanta Pride Committee has named the grand marshals for this year’s festival, which has the them “Show Up & Show Out, on Saturday Oct 14 – 15 in Piedmont Park.
The annual Pride Parade will take place on Sunday at noon, making its way along Peachtree Street from Downtown to Piedmont Park.
“This year’s Grand Marshals are a diverse and powerful representation of metro Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community,” said APC Executive Director Chris McCain. “From politics to media, community services and entertainment, our Grand Marshals are well-deserving, and we can’t wait to watch them Show Out in this year’s parade.”
The 2023 Atlanta Pride Grand Marshals:
All-1-Family
One of APC’s Community Reinvestment Grant recipients, All-1-Family provides affordable, low-cost counseling services for all LGBTQ+ persons and allies and functions as a bridge to connect the gap between LGBT identified persons who are interested in counseling with a professional who can affirm their lifestyle/being.
Danielle Bonanno
Executive director of Inclusive Recovery Athens and the president of Athens Pride and Queer Collective, the foremost nonprofit organization in Northeast Georgia dedicated to promoting the well-being of queer individuals through education, outreach, event curation and support. She has been an advocate for various oppressed and stigmatized populations, including those with substance use disorders, LGBTQIA2S+, homeless and low income, and individuals with complex traumas. Danielle has dedicated her life to bridging the gap between the queer community and the recovery community, educating addiction professionals on how to serve LGBTQIA2S+ populations in a trauma-informed and culturally-affirming way.
Aubri Escalera
A Mexican Trans Latina, Escalara is the Legislative Aide and LGBTQIA+ Liaison for Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon. She is also co-founder and volunteer of Trans Power in Diversity, an emerging grassroots organization working towards advancing human rights and protections for the transgender and genderqueer communities. She is also an advocate for sensitive treatment for all asylum seekers with a focus to improve the living conditions and sustainability of the transgender and gender non-conforming communities. She also works extensively to protect voting rights, especially in our most marginalized communities and promotes the importance of voting and protecting our democracy.
Jim Farmer
For the last 15 years, Jim Farmer has served as the festival director of Out On Film, a recipient of APC’s Community Reinvestment Grant. Under his direction, the organization has become one of the major LGBTQ+ film festivals in the country, recently named as the top film festival in the nation by the readers of USA Today/10Best. As a journalist, he has written about queer arts for Southern Voice/The Georgia Voice for the last 25 years, earning awards from both the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards, a nomination for the Online Journalist of the Year Award by the latter, being named as the 2019 Businessman of the Year from the Out Georgia Business Alliance and named to Atlanta Magazine’s Atlanta 500 Most Powerful City Leaders list every year since 2020. Jim is also an ambassador for the Out Georgia Business Alliance and was on the Atlanta Hawks LGBTQIA+ Pride Council.
Georgia Voice
Georgia Voice has been an award-winning premier news source for the LGBTQ+ community throughout the state since 2010. In addition to a twice-monthly print edition Georgia Voice includes a website and annual “Destination: Gay Atlanta” travel guide, in partnership with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB).
Sergio Mendez
Sergio Mendez is the community investment manager and member of the advocacy team for the Latino Community Fund Georgia. A first-generation college graduate of immigrant parents, he is also a six-year veteran of the US Army and previously worked with organizations dedicated to helping fellow students and service members.
Jon Santos
Jon Santos has been in HIV/AIDS fundraising and events in Atlanta for 26 years, 17 of which have been spent at AID Atlanta, where he is the director of fundraising and events. He has produced seven AIDS Walk Atlanta campaigns and successfully transitioned from producer to beneficiary. In addition to AID Atlanta, Santos worked at The NAMES Project Foundation AIDS Memorial Quilt, Atlanta Interfaith AIDS Network, and Jerusalem House. He has also been active with Joining Hearts for more than 20 years, starting as a volunteer and growing to board president, and finally, patron and advisory counsel. He also has volunteered with AV200, The Toy Party, Front Runners, Atlanta Pride Run, amongst others by providing fundraising and development advice, training and special event counsel.
Jennifer Slipakoff
Jen Slipakoff came into her advocacy work when her daughter transitioned at the age of four. Jen is a member of the Human Rights Campaign National Board of Governors, recently served as co-chair for HRC’s Atlanta Steering committee and currently leads HRC’s volunteers in political action work in Georgia. In addition to her involvement with HRC, she served as the co-president for the PFLAG metro Atlanta chapter and has been recognized by several advocacy organizations for her work creating positive change in Georgia. In 2018, Jen was the Democratic nominee in the race for State Representative for Georgia’s 36th House District and was the only Democrat to run in that district for more than 30 years.
Voices of Note
Jeffrey McIntyre and 45 talented and brave singers formed the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus (AGMC) in 1981, as an ensemble that nurtures its members and educates its community toward understanding, compassion and inclusiveness. In 2008, the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus donated its assets to start a women’s chorus as well. Numerous awards and acclaimed performances later, today, more than 200 talented and diverse singers comprise the two choruses that are Voices of Note.
Toni-Michelle Williams
An auto-theorist, performance artist, embodied leadership/somatics coach and executive director of Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative (SNAPCO), Toni-Michelle Williams is a celebrated community organizer in prison abolition/ criminal (IN)justice reform issues and leadership development for Black transgender, LGBQ+ people, sex workers, people living with HIV (PLHIV), and Black youth. She has co-led citywide campaigns that have incubated the Atlanta Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative, cannabis reform, sex worker protections, Closing down the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC), and police accountability for the families of Alexia Christian, DeAundre Phillips, Tee Tee Dangerfield and Rayshard Brooks.
APC hosts the largest free LGBTQ+ Pride festival in the country thanks to the generous support of the community. VIP Passes are on sale now. Atlanta Pride seeks volunteers for everything from festival operations and parade logistics, to supporting the artist market and family fun zone. Click here to apply. And the organization is still seeking sponsors and donors. Interested sponsors can click here and potential donors can click here.
For more information about the Atlanta Pride Committee, visit www.atlantapride.org.
