Thousands of LGBTQ+ people & allies celebrate Virginia PrideFest — with Gov. Abigail Spanberger among them

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger joined thousands of LGBTQ+ people and allies Saturday at Virginia PrideFest in Richmond, appearing openly and enthusiastically at the Commonwealth’s largest queer gathering.

The Democratic governor attended the free, eight-hour festival at Midtown Green, where more than 200 vendors and exhibitors gathered alongside food trucks, drag artists and musicians. This year’s theme — “Our Pride. Our Joy. Our Resistance” — situated the celebration within a national climate of escalating government attacks on LGBTQ+ people

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“It is particularly meaningful in this moment to have the governor not just attend but to celebrate pride and to do it with sincerity and authenticity,” Virginia Pride director James Millner told The Advocate. “When so many political officials use the LGBTQ community as pawns, we are fortunate to have a governor who is an ally in every sense of the word.”

Spanberger is not the first Virginia governor to attend. Democrat Terry McAuliffe became the first sitting governor to appear at PrideFest in 2016, and his successor, Democrat Ralph Northam, also attended. But Republican Glenn Youngkin did not continue that tradition. Instead, his four years in office were defined by policies targeting LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender students.

Spanberger’s appearance provides another visible contrast.

As The Advocate reported from her January inauguration, Virginia Pride and Diversity Richmond marched through the capital carrying a giant Pride flag after Spanberger became Virginia’s first woman governor. Their inclusion signaled from the administration’s opening hours that LGBTQ+ Virginians would no longer be treated as strangers to their own government.

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The symbolism has been accompanied by action. Spanberger signed legislation placing a constitutional amendment protecting marriage equality before voters this November. The measure would remove Virginia’s unenforceable same-sex marriage ban and affirm the right of two adults to marry regardless of sex, gender or race.

Spanberger won the governorship after Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and her allies made transgender people a centerpiece of their campaign, relying on inflammatory ads about pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms. Virginians rejected that appeal.

On Saturday, many of the people used as political props during that campaign stood together in Richmond — and their governor stood with them.