Amanda Cottrill has lived in Wake Forest for 20 years, but it was during the pandemic that she realized that the town’s LGBTQ residents needed ways to come together.
As fate would have it, Cottrill was scrolling through Instagram in 2023 when a new page for Wake Forest Pride caught her eye. Cottrill reached out to the page’s creator, Samantha Luce, and the two had coffee. Soon after, they cofounded the nonprofit Wake Forest Pride, and this year, the group will celebrate its second annual Pride Fest on Saturday, October 11, which is National Coming Out Day.
“For me, personally, it was realizing … how many people needed community more than ever, “ Cottrill, now the co-chair of Wake Forest Pride, says. “And then the universe just brought it together.”
Last year’s Pride Fest, hosted in downtown Wake Forest, was a success, with more than 2,500 people in attendance, nearly 100 vendors, and more than a dozen nonprofits represented.
This year’s promises to be even bigger, with more participants, a drag show, a visit from the Triangle Gay Men’s Chorus, and a talk from pastor John Pavlovitz on the main stage, plus performances from several other local bands and musicians, comedians, and artists. A kids zone will feature bouncy houses and arts and crafts, and a special section will showcase local LGBTQ history—October is LGBTQ History Month. The festival’s theme is “camp,” in celebration of “a style, a culture, and a cornerstone of queer history,” according to promotional materials.
“The music last year was my favorite part, at the end of the day watching families, and watching this grandparent just twirl their child around, dancing,” Cottrill says. “The sun was shining and I was like, ‘That’s what it’s supposed to be, family and neighbors and people hugging and laughing.’ We’re just so excited to see everybody and come back.”
But this year, Wake Forest Pride is taking place against a different backdrop.
The nonprofit’s growth coincided with Trump’s path to reelection, new discriminatory policies removing protections for LGBTQ people and targeting trans and nonbinary identities, and a proliferation of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric nationally.
And then, last month, Mayor Vivian Jones introduced a Pride Month proclamation and then retracted it after it faced opposition from town commissioner Faith Cross on the dais, some residents, and the conservative NC Values Coalition which pushed its supporters to send messages opposing the proclamation to town commissioners and the mayor. Especially after local officials had made inroads with Wake Forest’s LGBTQ community by signing on to Wake County’s nondiscrimination ordinance in 2024, the episode felt like taking a step back.
“The proclamation was very disappointing,” Cottrill says. “What I just worry about is that anybody who is looking to move here wants to feel safe. Proclamations, all they are, especially this one, is about history. We are celebrating history, which I think, we see, is not being learned from.”
Outside of the annual festival, Wake Forest Pride is a resource, and a refuge, for LGBTQ residents, Cottrill emphasizes.
The nonprofit has an 11-member board and several volunteers and hosts monthly events, including game nights and urban walks, and services, such as free haircuts, small group sessions with a therapist, and a community gender closet where residents can try on donated clothes in a safe setting. The community also gets together regularly for cleanup events, food drives, coffee mornings, and holiday socials.
“Most of us are in marginalized communities; some of us just care about other people,” Cottrill says of the nonprofit’s community. “Our biggest thing has been taking care of each other so that we can keep going. We want this to be sustainable. We want to be available for people. One of the things we really try hard to do is checking in with all of us, like, ‘Hey, are you OK?’ … We just don’t want anybody to burn out, and we don’t want to miss or lose anybody in any kind of way.”
The backlash—from nonaffirming town officials, to people protesting at Pride last year, and outside groups like the NC Values Coalition “who make it their mission to stop what we’re doing,” Cottrill says, can be demoralizing at times. But she’s hopeful that change will come to Wake Forest in the next year.
A local election is on the horizon, and although Wake Forest Pride can’t endorse specific candidates as a nonprofit, there’s an opportunity for change. Cottrill says it’s an exciting prospect, especially as the town of 61,000 people continues to grow rapidly.
“I just encourage people … to look into the candidates,” Cottrill says. “It’s super important because it will change how our town goes forward, and how we can continue to grow and support even while everything [at the national level] is going on.”
Wake Forest Pride Fest takes place on Saturday, October 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. near the town hall in downtown Wake Forest.
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