25th Pride Celebration Shows Progress

By Harry Saltzgaver
Executive Editor

From “mean City Council members” voting against allowing a parade permit to a scramble to find spots for all the elected officials wanting to be in the parade, from a small party for a few thousand to a two-day, nonstop celebration with seven stages of entertainment and space for 100,000 attendees, the Long Beach Pride Celebration has come a long way in 25 years.

“Our community in the 1980s was very closeted,” said Vanessa Romain, current co-president of Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride, Inc., and a founding member of the group. “A lot of them moved to Long Beach because they felt safe here, because of the senior population or whatever. But it was very private.

“For the first 10 years, we wouldn’t even allow video cameras in the event. We didn’t want people being outed inadvertently.”

That under-the-radar approach clashed with an effort to promote a sense of self worth and establishment of a rightful place in the community in the early 1980s. In October 1983, a small group of people decided it was time to make a statement in Long Beach similar to one being made across the country, and L.B.L.G.P., Inc., was born.

“We had mean City Council members back then,” Romain said. “They said some hateful statements. I guess they thought we would be like some others they had seen. Since then, I think we’ve done a heck of a job educating people and fighting against the stereotypes.”

It has been an expensive fight, Romain said. City permits and fees for the first festival and parade in June 1984 topped $20,000; the total is more than $120,000 today, she added.

As the festival has grown, the venue along Shoreline Drive has changed, and not without growing pains. Romain recalled the first year L.B.L.G.P., Inc., attempted to use Rainbow Lagoon Park north of Shoreline Drive and Marina Green Park south of the street.

“We wanted to use the bridges from the Grand Prix, but they weren’t going to let us,” Romain said of the days before the 1994 festival. “The Grand Prix said it would cost $5,000 each (for two bridges), and then the city said we couldn’t do it at all.

“I checked the law and it said they couldn’t take down a bridge if a person was occupying it. So a friend of mine, Kim, and I went down the night before and chained ourselves to the bridges… Eventually, thanks to Alan Lowenthal (then a City Council member) we finally negotiated a deal. We still had to pay the $5,000, but we got to use the bridges.”

Drama and costs aside, the Pride weekend continued to grow. Three years ago, the city finally agreed to close a portion of Shoreline Drive for the festival. Entertainment now runs the gamut from gospel to country to hip-hop to pop. There is a children’s play area (the Family Fun Zone) as well as a Leather Expo. Headliners include national stars Sheena Easton, The Bangles, Deborah Cox and K.C. & The Sunshine Band.

Through it all, Sunday has begun with a parade. Except for an experimental detour onto Broadway in the late 1990s, the parade has marched down Ocean Boulevard.

“The parade has been very important from the beginning because it represents every facet of our community,” Romain said. “From families with children and pet to transgender, we depict it all. But we’ve managed to do it in a respectful way. We tell our folks don’t do any of that crazy stuff. It’s a parade, not a freak show.”

Romain said the 25th edition of the Lesbian & Gay Pride Parade promises to be a special one.

“It will be a surprise for everybody,” she said. “It’s our silver anniversary, and we have so many great design folks in our community, well, it will be something special, I promise that.”

And every council member has sent letters of congratulation, with most planning to be in the parade.

“We actually had buttons made with that no sign, that circle with a slash, and the council members’ pictures that first year,” Romain said. “Now they’re riding in the parade, on the biggest street in Long Beach. That says something, doesn’t it?”