Pride and Prejudice

IT HAS BEEN a rough couple of years for parties. The biggest civic gatherings of the COVID-19 pandemic were the massive, nationwide racial justice protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd, which involved an entirely different kind of catharsis. Those twin crises still weigh heavy on the post-pandemic churn of life in 2022. Indy Pride Inc., which this month hosts its first in-person festival since 2019, has felt that burden more acutely than many local cultural groups.

The nonprofit that organizes the Indy Pride festival quickly reimagined 2020’s event as a digital one when the pandemic struck, then ultimately canceled all