In 1986 Sonya Lewis and a few of her female drummer friends got together to form the NC Pride Band, mainly to perform in the NC Pride marches. Three years later a new band was formed and introduced as the N.C. Lesbian and Gay Pride Marching Band. However, all the performers were still women percussionists, with a few kazoos thrown in for flavor.
In 1993 the band began attracting instrument players as well as gay men. The band was the accepted in to the LGBA ( Lesbian and Gay Bands of America) on April 24th of that year. On that same day two of the current members joined the LGBA concert "Americans We" at the Warner Theater in DC. The next year the band marched in the 25th anniversary of Stonewall in New York City with the representatives from the state of North Carolina. By then the band was still holding instrument players, but no men.
Then in December of 1996 one of our members contacted the LGBA to reinstate our lapsed membership. We were then invited to play with the LGBA at the President's Inauguration. Two of our previous members were able to participate in the weekend event. Both were very excited about what had just happened in DC. The LGBA had been able to bring together 175 musicians from member bands throughout the US to play as one band. These 175 people learned 16 songs in a 10 hour period with no less than 6 different directors. It was awesome.....needless to say this was the next direction the band would head off in.
Starting in January of 1997 and performing for the first time in May of
that year, we were able to bring together 20 musicians from the Research
Triangle area. Our debut was the NC Pride march in Carrboro NC. For the
first time in the history of the band we marched with 15 instruments and
5 percussion pieces. Of the 20 who marched that day 7 were men and 13 were
women.
We are now known as the
North Carolina Pride Marching Band........and
we have just begun.
Who knows what the
future holds for the band? As long as we are having fun what difference
does it make?