Hotels around Davenport
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About Davenport
Davenport is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metro area on the Mississippi that spans two states. Davenport and Bettendorf sit on the Iowa side, with Rock Island and Moline across the river in Illinois. Pride here isn't really one city's event. It belongs to the whole region, and the main dates are split between both banks of the river.
The QC Unity Pride Parade starts in Davenport. It is organized by QC Pride, a nonprofit based in the city, and takes place in June. The route begins in downtown Davenport and crosses the Mississippi into Rock Island, which is the point of the name: the parade links the two states and makes the case that the queer community of the Quad Cities is one community. Groups, clubs and businesses can register to walk or bring a float.
The region's big Pride festival happens on the Illinois side. The Quad Cities Pride Festival is run by the Quad City Pride Alliance and takes place over two days in early June at Schwiebert Riverfront Park in Rock Island, right on the water and just over the bridge from downtown Davenport. Expect live music, drag performances and food vendors, along with well over a hundred local businesses, nonprofits and community groups at their own booths.
The parade and the festival usually fall on the same weekend, so it is easy to do both. For people in Davenport, June is when the region's otherwise modest queer public life is most visible. Organizers like to frame the weekend as proof that the Quad Cities are a place where queer people and their families can settle down and feel at home. Both organizations post exact dates and registration deadlines on their websites each spring.
From the magazine
Magnus Hirschfeld and His Institute: What Was Lost on 6 May 1933
Long before Stonewall, Berlin had a place where homosexual people found advice and recognition. How the Institute for Sexual Science began and why it was destroyed in 1933.
Harvey Milk and Proposition 6: The November 1978 Victory
In 1978 a California ballot measure would have forced queer teachers out of public schools. Harvey Milk fought it, and voters rejected it. What happened and what it has to do with Pride.
Brenda Howard and the Pride Week: Who Turned a Memorial March into a Tradition
After Stonewall, a march marked the anniversary in 1970, and later a whole week. Brenda Howard is named as one of the people behind it. What is documented and where the title Mother of Pride stays disputed.