The 1991 parade was the largest in history at that point, with more than 6,000 marchers, including supporters from small Oregon towns. It was renamed in 1982 Lesbian and Gay Pride Week, with more than 2,000 men and women taking to the streets of downtown Portland. Portland’s first Gay Pride parade took place 2 years after in 1977. By the early 1980s, Portland’s Pride celebration had become an annual tradition, becoming summer’s unofficial kickoff.

Pride has been celebrated in Portland since 1975. A small group of 200 people marked the Rose City’s first public and outdoor Gay Pride celebration, in the South Park Blocks near Portland State University.