Organizers of the annual Tucson Pride festival have dissolved the organization’s board and canceled the upcoming 2026 Pride festival and all related events.
As reported by the Arizona Daily Star, the two-member board — Sam Cloud and Jeff Fulgham — announced the decision in a note posted to the Tucson Pride website and its social media accounts on January 21, exactly one month before the festival was scheduled to take place.
“This decision was not made lightly,” the note reads. “We recognize the deep importance Tucson Pride has held in our community since 1977, serving as a space of visibility, advocacy, celebration, and resilience for nearly five decades. We are profoundly grateful to every volunteer, sponsor, artist, activist, and community member who has supported Tucson Pride throughout its history.”
The board also said that all funds for the 2026 festival — including vendor fees, sponsorships, and other prepaid contributions — will be refunded within 30 to 90 days, and thanked the community for its patience as those financial issues are resolved.
The board’s announcement did not clearly explain the reason for the cancellation or the dissolution of Tucson Pride, which organized Arizona’s first-ever Pride festival in 1977.
While some social media commenters expressed surprise or shock at the announcement, LGBTQ activists familiar with the organization said Tucson Pride had been struggling for several years, dating back to 2017, when former board president Jimmy West was charged with embezzling from the group. He later pleaded guilty to a single charge of felony theft the following year.
In response to West’s actions, supporters of the Tucson Pride Festival raised thousands of dollars to ensure the event could proceed that year.
In recent years, in an effort to attract larger audiences, the board began booking big-name national headliners, including the Las Vegas ABBA tribute band Abbacadabra in 2023 and The Lady Gaga Tribute in 2024.
The 2024 festival, held in late September, was poorly attended due to unseasonably hot, record-breaking weather, leaving the organization $50,000 in debt. Tucson Pride later reported that the debt was being addressed “thanks to an incoming bequest.”
“The community has been very steadfast about not hiring high-end, expensive headliners and featuring local talent,” Rick Morey-Wolfe, board secretary and a founding member of Tucson Queerstory, a project dedicated to preserving the local LGBTQ community’s history, told the Daily Star. “And for some reason, this specific group of people have continued to ignore that year after year, which has created debt year after year, and that’s pretty much the bottom line.”
LGBTQ activist Scott Blades said he was not shocked by the cancellation of the Pride festival, which had been postponed and rescheduled several times. “You can’t pull off an event that big and that important with that many moving parts in such a short period of time,” he said.
Further adding to the strain on the organization, Tucson Pride lost its nonprofit status after missing required tax filings in 2021 and 2022, although it had claimed to be working to regain that status, according to Tucson CBS affiliate KOLD.
Several Facebook commenters criticized the organization for what they described as an abrupt decision made without prior public notice.
“OUTRAGEOUS! Closing the organization with no accountability to the community is unforgivable!” wrote one user. “We deserve transparency and a thorough explanation as to the causes for this situation.”
“How about… no. You get the fuck back into an office and figure this shit out,” wrote another Facebook user. “Radical self-expression and love are needed to combat tyranny [right now], and this is the absolute worst decision you could have made. Fix it.”
Other users expressed hope the local community could revive the organization in another form or create a new group to take over Tucson Pride’s responsibilities.
“Let’s rebuild or start something new,” wrote one user. “We can’t let things like this go in these times. I’m willing to devote time and energy. I can start a page to discuss or a group message, ideas anyone?”
A New York City subway rider was slashed in the face earlier this month by an unidentified assailant who took offense to him kissing his transgender partner. The attack occurred around 7:50 p.m. on January 10 aboard a southbound No. 6 train as it traveled through Manhattan.
According to police, the 28-year-old victim was kissing his partner when the suspect began shouting anti-gay slurs. The verbal abuse quickly escalated into a physical confrontation. During the argument, the suspect struck the victim with a sharp object, causing a deep laceration on the right side of his face, according to New York CW affiliate WPIX.
A transgender woman has filed a lawsuit against hotel giant Hilton, alleging that she was assaulted by a security guard at the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre while she was a registered guest.
According to the complaint, filed in the 192nd Civil District Court in Dallas County, Kimberly Barnett, an Afro-Latina transgender woman from Nebraska, was staying at the hotel in late June while attending Dallas Pride Weekend and other LGBTQ events.
Barnett returned to the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre around 3:45 a.m. on June 24 and attempted to "valet her vehicle," according to the lawsuit.
Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay cast member of Saturday Night Live, had some harsh words for actor Chevy Chase, a member of the show’s original cast who has returned to host multiple times.
"Chevy is one of those turds you flush down the toilet but it comes back up again and again," the 75-year-old Sweeney, best remembered for his exaggerated impression of First Lady Nancy Reagan, told the New York Post.
Sweeney’s comments come as a new CNN documentary, I'm Chevy Chase, and You're Not, directed by Marina Zenovich, is set to premiere on January 1 at 8 p.m.
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