When Jalyn Thacker was growing up in southwest Ohio’s Adams County, he had to travel over an hour to Cincinnati, Yellow Springs or Portsmouth to get to a Pride event.
But this year, the celebration is much closer to home.
According to the Buckeye Flame’s 2026 Ohio LGBTQ+ Pride Guide, Thacker is hosting the county’s inaugural Pride celebration on Saturday.
“Growing up, I thought that [Adams County] was kind of like: ‘You can't be this way here,’ you know? It was very close-minded [when I was] a kid,” he said. “But as I got older, I realized that it didn't need to be close-minded, that there were things that we could do to change it.”
By hosting the rural county’s first Pride celebration, he’s aiming to create an inclusive environment for people of all genders and sexual identities.
“Everybody needs a safe space,” he said. “There's not really anywhere safe to go in Adams County [as a LGBTQ person], so we're trying our best to do what we can with what we have.”
Adams County’s inaugural Pride
The Saturday afternoon festival will be packed with activities, Thacker said. There will be cornhole and volleyball, tables of arts and crafts, food trucks and a lemonade stand.
The organizers are also planning a talent show, a lineup of comedians and drag performances.
“I'm so excited,” Thacker said. “Everything just started falling into place all at once.”
But planning for an event like this in a rural area had its challenges.
“Especially for the first one, you're not really aware if people are going to show up,” he said. “Or, if you're going to have people showing up with hate because it's not something they've seen before in the county, it's not something they're used to.
“I’m sure bigger cities get hate too. But I feel like bigger cities always have a bigger community to be on their side. And for us, the only community that we know that is on our side is the team that's working the event.”
Still, he says some community members have expressed support for the event, like an older man Thacker met when hanging up flyers for the event at a gas station.
“He was like, ‘I'm going to have to tell my brother. He moved away about 20 years ago because he was afraid of not being accepted here.’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, tell them we're trying our best to get it to feel as safe as we can.’”
Pride in rural Ohio
Other rural communities and small towns across Ohio are also starting Pride traditions.
Last year, Darke County in western Ohio held its inaugural Pride.
And this year, Cuyahoga Falls and Vermillion are hosting first-time celebrations too.
In Adams County, Thacker is hopeful around 100 people will attend the event. But even if no one comes, he says showing up is valuable and he plans to host more community building events in the future.
“The more that we have our small events and the more we have a pride festival, I think the more people start to be more comfortable with it,” he said.
