Photo courtesy of LBLGP, Inc.
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It has been nothing short of a transformational 30 years for the Long Beach Pride celebration.
In 1983, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer community nationally faced a crisis in health, rights and politics–but was simultaneously finding a cohesiveness amongst its members here in Long Beach.
“Long Beach was quiet,” said Vanessa Romain, a 29-year member of the Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride (LBLGP) organization that spearheads the weekend-long celebration each year. “It wasn’t the loud, in-your-face crowd that was L.A.–and that’s what many of us liked. We kept quiet, our neighbors kept quiet. But you can only be quiet for so long before you realize that there are things happening that are just wrong.”
Gathering a small group together, Pride co-founders Marilyn Barlow, Bob Crow and Judith Doyle–this year’s Grand Marshals along with other LGBTQ members, attempted to kickstart the first Pride and continue it annually thereafter. The first few years, to put it lightly, were immensely rocky.
Then-councilmembers Warren Harwood and Edd Tuttle along with former mayors Eunice Sato and Ernie Kell were outspoken opponents of the festival and parade as well as LGBTQ rights in general. Former City Manager John Denver unilaterally attempted to limit the festival’s second-year celebration to one day, drawing 300 people to Council chambers with some sporting surgical masks with “AIDS mask” written on them.
Three decades later, the Long Beach Pride celebration is only second to the Toyota Grand Prix as the largest event in the city, and is expected on May 18 and 19 to draw the gazes and delight of some 80,000 revelers.
As Kerry Gerot, Chair of the City’s human Relations Commission, puts it: “This year’s Grand Marshals [and their history in getting Long Beach Pride running] show us what vision, courage and perseverance can do for a community and how that can actually change lives for the better.”
That vision has countlessly helped LGBTQers, both young and seasoned, to be not only comfortable with themselves but to act as themselves in a space which, at least beforehand, strictly prohibited it. Pride offers those who attend–even if just for the slightest moment–to simply let go, to indulge in the fact that while we are connected as humans, we are all uniquely different in our own right.
“I first attended Long Beach Pride as a sixteen year old in 2001 and had already attended several Pride celebrations in other cities,” said Porter Gilberg, Administrative Director at The Center Long Beach. “I remember Long Beach Pride had an energy that was unique and exuberant, even more so than those other cities… [I eventually] moved to Long Beach at eighteen from a small town in southwest Riverside County and I was thrilled at finally living in a city with such a thriving LGBTQ community that we had our own LGBTQ Pride Parade and Festival.”
Kyle Bullock, head of Youth Programming at The Center, notes that it’s the one time a year when the city become “queered,” both spatially and socially.
“I attended my first Long Beach Pride in 2004 as an openly gay, 18 year old,” he said. “Every year since, Pride has been the cultural highlight of my year and each year I am struck by the overwhelming love and support from my Long Beach community.”
{loadposition latestlife}And the beauty of it all, at least for its supporters, is that Pride’s aura of inclusivity and diversity is not relegated to those who are directly part of the LGBTQ community. The many allies who have helped the community gain visibility, recognition and rights are also immensely affected by what Long Beach Pride has done for their own worldly perspective.
Take the story of straight ally and this year’s recipient of the Whitey Littlefield Community Bridge-Building Award, Herlinda Chico. Her first Long Beach Pride, celebrated in 1992 when she was 18-years-old, was attended in support of her openly gay friend.
“When we arrived I saw so many colorful and beautiful people, the music and chatter was so loud–I was on sensory overload,” she says. “Then, I saw that group: a black spot on this beautiful rainbow. People holding signs and spewing hate speech. Their faces contorted, angry and ugly. I had only read about bigotry like that in history books but never saw it face to face.”
Initially shocked and infuriated, Herlinda said how she–like many supporters who witness the group that appears each year, albeit smaller and smaller–had to hold a large dose of restraint.
And she did so by walking into the festival and “having the time of my life.”
“I vowed from that day forward to protect my friends who were being treated unfairly and to celebrate the beautiful diversity in my life,” she said. “And it was those hateful people who inspired me to fight back with love and kindness… Twenty-one years later I’ll be riding in the Pride parade as a Grand Marshall. I love Pride.”
The 30th LBLGP Parade will kick off Sunday, May 19 at 10:30AM at Ocean Blvd. and Lindero Ave. The sitting stand which offers the public a heightened view of the parade is located across from Bixby Park. Handicapped parking and viewing is available at Ocean and Junipero Avenue. Other parking can be found at the west end of the parade route at the Long Beach Convention Center, located at 400 East Seaside Way.
For more information about Long Beach Pride, visit longbeachpride.com
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