Tens of thousands of out-of-town visitors are even less likely to know. Even the Coalition learned of the split only in late April. Many Angelenos don’t yet realize there are two Prides. But next year, it might not be able to stretch its resources that far. This year, the center chose to divide its efforts between the two, putting a float in the LA Pride parade and staffing a table at the West Hollywood festival.
“They’ve kind of split the baby, and I don’t know if that’s great for the community.” “As a nonprofit, it’s really difficult for us to staff two weekends in a row of activities,” said Craig Bowers, chief marketing and external affairs officer of APLA Health, a healthcare organization. They a nnounced their split in a pair of press releases less than a month later.īut not everyone agreed the two were better off alone. It was LA Pride’s golden anniversary, and the pair’s 41st year together. Those tensions boiled over in June 2020, amid online Pride events and citywide protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. There was a disastrous attempted rebrand in 2016 that critics dubbed “ gay Coachella,” spats over accounting, and a widespread feeling among queer Angelenos of color that the organization and the city were unwelcoming and unrepresentative. Tensions between LA Pride’s parent organization, Christopher Street West, and West Hollywood’s city fathers had simmered for years. Each looked askance at the progress of the other, reflecting a separation that was anything but amicable. In fact, the city and the nonprofit say they’ve emerged from the split more forward-looking and more representative of L.A.'s multi-hyphenate alphabet crowd. “LA Pride is the holder of the history of the movement, and West Hollywood is the holder of the future.” “They’re near each other, but they’re a million miles away in their focus,” West Hollywood City Councilmember John D’Amico said of the competing parades. And the genre- and gender- defying polymath Janelle Monáe played grand marshal in a parade featuring a surprise appearance by superstar Cardi B. CherryBomb West Hollywood threw a drag king pool party at the Ziggy Hotel. The L-Project and Black Lesbians United co-hosted a Rainbow Family Picnic at Plummer Park. “We wanted to really elevate lesbian and queer women, the trans community, and the BIPOC community.” “We’d gotten a lot of feedback that WeHo Pride was for white gay men only,” said Shyne, who joined the City Council after the separation. Meanwhile, West Hollywood snatched up the previously sleepy first weekend of June, curating a more boutique selection of Pride events to open the season. “It gives us more space to build experiences that represent the community.” “Pride does not belong to any one neighborhood,” Garth said. Nineties diva Christina Aguilera headlined Saturday’s Pride in the Park concert at Los Angeles State Historic Park, where she sang her 2002 chart-topper “Beautiful.” And thousands are expected to attend the rowdy afterparty at Universal Studios. “We’ve completely shifted the way West Hollywood and actually made it our own for the first time.”Įighties pop star Paula Abdul is the inaugural “icon grand marshal” for Sunday’s parade.
“As far as I’m concerned there’s no competitiveness,” said West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne, who helped spearhead the city’s independent Pride effort. But Sunday will be the first time it has marched outside the city of West Hollywood in more than 40 years.Īs for the organization’s erstwhile partner, West Hollywood was still glowing from its own Pride celebration - WeHo Pride - two miles away and seven days earlier. L.A.'s first Pride parade was held in Hollywood in 1970.
“We’ve been seeing this as a return to our roots.” “We’re really excited to be back in Hollywood,” said Gerald Garth, vice president for community programs and initiatives at LA Pride, “the original, official Pride parade of L.A.” and the first permitted Pride march in the world. JA previous version of this story misidentified the organization Craig Bowers works for.