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Lancaster LGBTQ+ Coalition partners with state on new grant program for Pride events

The Lancaster Pride Festival at Clipper Magazine Stadium on Saturday, June 18, 2022. (Photo: Olivia Smucker)

Pennsylvania has launched a new grant program in partnership with the Lancaster LGBTQ+ Coalition to support LGBTQ+ and Pride-related events.

The Pennsylvania Tourism Office’s PA Pride Community Grant Program “reaffirms our commitment to bringing visibility to the LGBGQ+ community and creating a more inclusive commonwealth,” said Carrie Fischer Lepore, the state’s deputy secretary for Marketing, Tourism & Film.

This week, the program announced its first 17 grants, totaling $90,000. Three of them went to events in Lancaster County:

  • Common Wheel Queer Ride: $1,300
  • Lancaster Changemakers LGBT Film Festival: $2,500
  • Lancaster Pride Festival: $2,600

In a statement, the Tourism Office said it chose Lancaster LGBTQ+ Coalition as a partner “because their mission extends the mission of the entire commonwealth.”

Todd Snovel, development consultant with the coalition, said the organization was honored and that the grant program “directly affirms the Wolf administration’s commitment to creating a Pennsylvania free from discrimination.

The other 14 grant recipients are as follows:

  • Carlisle Pride Festival – $6,000
  • Central PA Pride Festival – $10,000
  • Centre Support Network (State College Pride Festival) – $7,000
  • Gettysburg Pride Festival – $8,000
  • Hedgerow Theatre Space for All Day – $3,000
  • Hoyt Arts Center Queer Color Run – $1,000 
  • Lebo Pride Festival – $2,500
  • Lehigh Valley Pride Festival – $12,000
  • Pocono Chamber of Commerce Pride Celebration – $2,600
  • Rainbow Rose Center (York Pride Festival) – $8,000
  • Reading Pride Festival – $10,000
  • Schuylkill Pride Festival – $2,000
  • Souderton Area Pride Festival – $1,500
  • Washington PA Pride Festival – $10,000