Not fazed by the sudden cancellation of the Pride festival, the 43rd Long Beach Pride parade stepped off on Sunday, May 17, marching in the face of a small group of protesters.
The event started on the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Drive, with the first steps hitting the asphalt at 10 a.m. as planned. The event celebrated this year’s theme of “Fearless and Free,” which commemorated the ideas of celebrating resilience, authenticity and equality despite city planners not allowing the festival to occur due to permit issues.
This year’s parade once again began with the motorcycle group Dykes on Bikes leading the front of the parade down Ocean Boulevard, with several of them loudly revving their bikes to drown out the small group of protesters heckling parade-goers bringing cheers from the glitter-adorned crowd.
As a response to the cancellation, city leaders formed a street fair at Bixby Park with live music and a free drag show by Jewels of Long Beach to keep the Pride spirit alive from noon into the evening.
Xavier Becerra, former attorney general and candidate in the race for governor of California, walked in Sunday’s parade.
“As Attorney General, I fought to protect LGBTQ+ Californians from discrimination and attacks on trans youth and families,” he posted on X. “And as Governor, I’ll keep standing up for equality, dignity, and the freedom for everyone to live openly and with pride.”
To accommodate the increased travel to the area for the weekend’s event, Long Beach added extra transit options linking downtown to Bixby Park while also encouraging visitors to support bars, restaurants and businesses. The three-day festival typically draws up to 80,000 people, allowing transit officials to draw support for the new D Line by handing out pre-paid Tap cards along the parade route.
Multiple organizations were present lining the street, with dozens of volunteers seen handing out refreshments to attendees. Anne Friedman, the national director of the volunteer organization Gay For Good, said the organization “really is about bringing visibility to support the LGBTQ community in areas that have a noted lack of support through the help of volunteers… and that visibility allows for greater acceptance of the community.”
Multiple queer organizations and city officials were seen in the parade, with several council members riding in convertibles to show city support for the event.
This year’s parade featured 141 entries, the most in the city’s history, with the event occurring in the face of rising violence, harsh legislation and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric happening across the nation against the queer community, making the event seem reminiscent of older parades from before the passing of pro-queer legislation.
However, the energy remained high during the event, with thousands of attendees waving flags and blowing bubbles in celebration of the start of Pride Month.
