Long Beach celebrates LGBTQ community during 41st Pride Parade

20.05.2024 00:44

DailyNews.com

Thousands converged along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st annual Long Beach Pride Parade, the first to be hosted by the city.

Long Beach’s waterfront once again overflowed with the “rhythm” — and the colors — of the rainbow, as thousands of people converged on Ocean Boulevard to celebrate the city’s 41st annual Pride Parade.

There were colorful outfits — pink cowboy hats and rainbow tanktops. There was a biker in a leather jacket and a Freddie Mercury cosplayer. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were out in force. There were more Pride flags than you could count. And there was plenty of music and dancing — the theme of this year’s Pride, after all, was “Rhythm of the Rainbow.”

“Despite progress, new barriers emerge. In 2024, we arm ourselves with our greatest weapon and ally: Music,” Long Beach Pride President Tonya Martin said in a news release ahead of the weekend. “We pay homage to the beats that have strengthened our hearts and souls. Our music is a powerful tool against the challenges we face, and with it, we will prevail.”

For more than four decades, the Long Beach Pride Parade has been one of the city’s most popular and enduring annual events.

It is also one of the oldest and most-well attended Pride celebrations in the region and the state. Its origins, like most Pride parades, began with more overt political overtones, during a time when neither the city nor the nation at large offered the LGBTQ+ community much in the way of cultural, political, medical or legal acceptance — even as the community was devastated by the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

From there, the Long Beach Pride Parade grew, becoming a commercially successful — and more family friendly — celebration as the LGBTQ community gained mainstream acceptance. But in recent years, amid an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, violence and legislation nationwide, the organizers have acknowledged the Long Beach Pride Parade and Celebration maintains it civic importance civically, as well as culturally.

“We have a big community here and it’s always great to support it,” said Newman Howell, 29, who lives steps away from Ocean Boulevard and has attended the Pride Parade annually for the last decade. “I’m out and proud so I figured I’d join everybody else here to live out loud every day. I’m proud to be here.”

Long Beach resident Cassy Hood participates in the Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
A performer channels the late singer Freddie Mercury at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Marchers from various companies like AAA stride down Ocean Boulevard during the Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
A spectator views the Long Beach Pride Parade through large bubbles on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants hoist a large rainbow-colored flag at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Iconic local restaurant Hamburger Mary’s is represented at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route near downtown for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
A participant rides along Ocean Boulevard at the Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants ride along Ocean Boulevard at the Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators view the Long Beach Pride Parade from a balcony on Ocean Boulevard on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Sara Bond, left, and Tyler Walsh strike a pose at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
A runner stretches after completing the Pride Run, a traditional event prior to the Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
A motorcyclist rides in the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
A participant waves to spectators at the Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators line the parade route along Ocean Boulevard for the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard towards downtown at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants walk along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Spectators take a selfie at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Participants on motorcycles ride west along Ocean Boulevard at the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The 41st incarnation of the Long Beach Pride Parade moves along Ocean Boulevard on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Scouts help kick off the 41st Long Beach Pride Parade on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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The Broadway corridor, near Ocean Boulevard, has long been the heart of the city’s LGBTQ community. But Long Beach as a whole is a city that touts itself as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly in the state and the nation. Multiple city agencies and officials — including City Council members, Long Beach Transit and the health department, among others — marched in this year’s procession. One of Long Beach’s most popular politicians and the city’s first openly gay mayor, Robert Garcia, wasn’t able to attend Pride this year — but only because he’s now a member of Congress and is in Washington, D.C.

Even the Long Beach Police Department, which had once been antagonistic toward the LGBTQ community, had a parade entry — something that multiple attendees mentioned.

“I’m really touched by the opportunity to see the community,” said Charlotte Turezek, who was experiencing her first Pride event while in Long Beach visiting her daughter, “even the Police Department came out to celebrate people’s individuality.”

Turezek became emotional talking about the amount of solidarity was seeing.

Newman Howell, who lives steps away from Ocean Avenue and has attended the Pride Parade annually for the last decade, also said seeing the Police Department stood out to him — he does, after all, “love a man in uniform.”

Long Beach, meanwhile, also took action earlier this year when the parade was in danger of not happening. In January, the Long Beach Pride nonprofit, which had hosted every previous iteration of the parade, asked the local government for help with this year’s event because of financial and other challenges. The following month, the City Council voted to have Long Beach pay for and organize the parade itself.

And it seems like the city put on a good party.

Turezek said she was “really impressed” by the Pigeon’s Roller Skate Shop float, which featured skaters doing tricks on a moving wooden pipe, as well as wheeling down the parade route.

She wasn’t alone in being wowed by the skaters’ skills — with their tricks eliciting “oohs” and “aahs” from the massive crowd.

Elaine Spane, meanwhile, said she loves “everything about the parade,” especially seeing so many queer people at once. And she’s a Pride Parade veteran, having attended annually for the last 10 years. But this year, the Long Beach resident also brought her partner and, for the first time, her two foster children. The kids cheered and waved Pride flags.

“We wanted to let them experience this,” Spane, 55, said.

Spane said her favorite group is “Dykes on Bikes” an organization that was this year’s “Judith Doyle Grand Marshal” — one of 10 grand marshal titles for the parade.

“I enjoy seeing all the community,” Spane said. “It’s not often (you get to) see everyone at the same time.”