Colorful Celebration

Long Beach Hosts Vibrant 41st Pride Parade

By Daniel Rivera, Reporter 

Long Beach united on May 19th, for its 41st Pride Parade, featuring floats, motorbikes, performers, and enthusiastic participants across the city and its neighboring areas.

The parade started around 10 a.m. at the same place it did last year, on Lindero Avenue and East Ocean Street near Bluff Park, and ended on First Street and Alamitos Avenue. Thousands of onlookers and participants attended the parade. 

“This is our freedom and this is our love, we are allowed to be here as much as anyone, and I’m here to rep that,” Kim Preston, an observer, told Random Lengths News. She said this would be her second year, but not for her friend, Sierra Davis, who was adorned in a pride-themed pinata costume. 

“I like being as colorful as possible. I like standing out as much as possible and today was a great day to do it,” Davis said about her costume. She wasn’t the only one. Many onlookers chose LGBTQ Pride colors from flags to stickers and armbands. 

While most of the crowd was jubilant and celebratory, others, like the protestors affiliated with the anti-LGBTQ church, were not. 

“They have been warned, hearing it makes them without excuse,” Rev. Ed told Random Lengths News, holding up several banners with several phrases including derogatory terms for queer people and anti-LGBTQ messaging. He was there alongside people who carried signs that had Official Street Preachers, a group that has a national following and similar beliefs to the Westboro Baptists, but with a more nationalistic bent. 

He has been attending the counter-demonstration for four years. Some of the others with him claimed they had been protesting the parade for over 30 years. Their chanting was drowned out by the nearby bikers and paraders, revving their engines, playing music, and singing over them before and during the parade. 

“I think it’s really sad. I think everyone loves their child unconditionally when they are born, [at] least I hope and wish [that] for them. But things change when things don’t line up with their kids’ identity. We all look to our parents for that affirmation and support,” Valencia Foster, an advocate and marcher with Free Mom Hugs told Random Lengths News. Free Mom Hugs started in 2018 and Foster joined in 2019 because it “meets people where they are.” That lack of support in the home has contributed to the vulnerability of LGBTQ youth to violence and exploitation.  

According to the California Partnership To End Domestic Violence, LGBTQ teens are at a higher risk for dating violence with 43% reporting physical dating violence, “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teenagers are at much greater risk of dating abuse than their heterosexual counterparts.”

Long Beach represents the LGBT community nationwide as a kind of a safe port, closely embracing LGBT cultural symbols and people like Harvey Milk. People from all over the country come to Long Beach, not just to celebrate pride but its diversity in general. 

“We lived in LA before, then we moved out to Long Beach, but once I got pregnant I wanted to be somewhere that was really tolerant so that he could see every type of relationship, I think it’s very important to normalize that at an early age,” Jennifer Silva, another spectator, told Random Lengths News. She took her 18-month-old son to his first pride parade and they were on their home after attending for a few hours. 

While it may be the first time for some residents of Long Beach, maybe the second time for a few others, some have been coming to pride longer than some of the younger people have been alive. 

“It’s been 15-plus years we have been in the pride parade,” said Edi Mick, a marcher with the Universalist Church. She is originally from Connecticut and a Catholic community that was less tolerant of LGBTQ people. 

“I think having a conversation is a really good way to find common ground with people,” Mick said when asked about the counter-protestors but she also emphasized that, “that’s not the message of the Bible.”

The Long Beach Pride Parade is an opportunity to come together to celebrate its diversity in an open space, for some it’s a port in the storm, and for others, it’s a stop on the journey. 

“I just left one (Pride) in Dallas, the Port of Sayulita, and one in Chicago, I travel to all of them,” Alan, an onlooker told Random Lengths News, and when asked the traveler about why Pride is important he said, ”because so many people have a diverse reaction and all this good stuff and we need to have to look out for us.”