Long Beach\u2019s Pride Parade carried on as planned Sunday despite the city\u2019s cancellation of the two-day Long Beach Pride Festival because of problems with required paperwork and inspections.<\/p>\n
The parade stepped off at 10 a.m. Sunday at Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Avenue and moved along Ocean Boulevard past the reviewing stand across from Bixby Park to its end at Alamitos Avenue.<\/p>\n
Honorary grand marshals included XB Valentine, California Treasurer Fiona Ma, NBC4 anchor Annabella Sedano and Telemundo anchor Enrique Chiabra, along with a record 141 entries.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s theme was \u201cFearless and Free,\u201d highlighting resilience, authenticity and equality.<\/p>\n
City officials also announced a special event from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday at Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Ave., that included live music and a free drag show hosted by Jewels of Long Beach.<\/p>\n
Plans were also in place to support bars, restaurant and other businesses as visitors sought alternate options to celebrate Pride Weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo accommodate those coming into town for that event, Long Beach will add additional transit options to connect downtown locations to the Bixby Park area so that there are many options available to celebrate in Long Beach,\u201d city officials said. \u201cWe are especially excited for the Long Beach Pride Parade. This cherished tradition brings joy to residents and visitors alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has operated the parade since 2024, taking over from the all-volunteer Long Beach Pride organization, which has continued to operate the Pride Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was originally intended as a one-time commitment to support the organization as it reorganized has now continued for a third consecutive year, with the city funding and producing the parade,\u201d according to the city\u2019s official statement. \u201cWe are proud to have invested the time, resources and care needed to ensure this beloved event thrives. We look forward to celebrating Pride together and honoring Long Beach\u2019s vibrant LGBTQ+ community, an important part of the city\u2019s identity, culture and overall fabulousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the fallout and finger-pointing continued following the city\u2019s late Friday cancellation of what would have been the 43rd annual Long Beach Pride Festival with city officials citing a last ditch effort to save the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the timeframe had passed to issue permits for the festival as it was originally envisioned by Long Beach Pride, the event organizer, the city continued working [Friday] night and [Saturday] morning to identify possible alternative venue options so that Long Beach Pride could still host a meaningful community gathering this weekend,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n
City Manager Tom Modica told NBC4 Saturday that it appeared festival organizers could not meet even minimal city requirements that would have allowed the festival to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201d We\u2019ve been working the last 24 hours to offer them different opportunities to bring about 3,000 of their guests into the Terrace Theatre and also to do something at Bixby Park on Sunday since we already have that all set up for Pride, but unfortunately I don\u2019t believe they\u2019re able to do those two things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The city statement noted that \u201cMayor Rex Richardson offered to privately fundraise up to $50,000 to support either event. Long Beach Pride chose not to accept these options.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his own statement on Facebook, Richardson proclaimed his support \u201cfor the organizers, activists, and leaders who helped build Pride into one of the most important celebrations in the country. I know many people are deeply disappointed by the cancellation of the Pride Festival. I am too. We spent countless hours working with organizers and partners to explore every possible pathway forward. But as Mayor, I also have a responsibility to ensure events are safe. That responsibility will always matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 43rd Annual Long Beach Pride Parade will move forward on Sunday \u2026 and I\u2019ve been deeply moved by the way people have come together in the most Long Beach way possible, with local bars, organizers, artists, and small businesses creating spaces for people to celebrate, connect, and feel supported. We will continue working with organizers to ensure Pride remains strong for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ticketed event scheduled for Saturday and Sunday \u201crequires the submission of detailed operational, construction and public safety plans in order to be permitted to ensure safety of the attendees,\u201d Special Events officials said earlier. \u201cUnfortunately \u2026 the Long Beach Pride Festival will not be able to take place this year as sufficient information to safely permit the event has not been made available by the event organizers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement on the festival\u2019s website, organizers did not directly respond to the permit allegations or the overnight effort to scale down and salvage the event. Instead they cited current challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community and Long Beach\u2019s long history as one of the nation\u2019s best cities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion as cited by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation\u2019s Municipal Equality Index.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this moment we need leadership, we need inclusion. We need the city to stand for us, not cancel us,\u201d Long Beach Pride President Tonya Martin said. \u201cThis time we asked for help again early in the year and it never was given. If they do it to us is to do it to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, who is openly gay and a former mayor of the city, said it was \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d to learn of the festival\u2019s cancellation \u201con the first day of Pride\u201d while also paying tribute to the \u201cheroic\u201d team of volunteers who founded the event in 1984.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of my coming out experience was motivated by my first festival,\u201d Garcia said in a statement on social media. \u201cIt was diverse, welcoming, and I danced the night away with new friends. There are many outstanding questions about the festival that need to be answered, and in time, I fully expect we will get them. But it\u2019s important that Pride in Long Beach continues to be celebrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cPride is more than just a Festival. It\u2019s an incredible parade down Ocean Boulevard, a Dyke March, protests, and countless parties. We should continue to celebrate our Pride by supporting our neighborhood LGBTQ+ bars and local events. We owe it to our community elders to fight on and keep Pride alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the large number of people who showed up Sunday were determined to make the best of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really unfortunate that that happened,\u201d Gay For Good Executive Director Anne Friedman told CBS2 about the cancellation. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of outstanding questions but at the end of the day our community is really resilient, and as you\u2019ve seen people have pivoted. They\u2019ve found other ways to show up. We\u2019re still having the run today, we still have the parade today, there\u2019s going to be vendors up and down the street, Bixby Park is going to be filled with the celebration, so Long Beach is super-resilient, as is the entire LGBTQ community, and I think that\u2019s been really evident this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach\u2019s Pride Parade carried on as planned Sunday despite the city\u2019s cancellation of the two-day Long Beach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[174,8305,1404,131,133,132,81621,13097,3145],"class_list":["post-320740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-beach","tag-cancellation","tag-festival","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-marches","tag-parade","tag-pride"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}