Annual Celebration of LGBT Life Comes to Santa Barbara This Weekend

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Like taxes or the flu or hunting, gay pride has a season. It’s always in the summer, most likely to accommodate the necessary parade, and it usually encompasses a wide swath of activities for a number of days. Last year, my girlfriend and I went to West Hollywood Gay Pride in mid June. It was my first pride event, since I had come out only two months prior, and I was more than a little excited for parade floats, nighttime dancing, and gay people as far as the eye could see (literally: almost all of Santa Monica Boulevard was filled with drag queens and beater-donning lesbians).

Gay Girl / Straight World

This year, pride season took on a different tone—I decided to volunteer with Pacific Pride Foundation’s Santa Barbara Gay Pride Festival. With 19 people on the committee, I quickly learned this was no small undertaking. The experience of organizing vendors, attending committee meetings, and fundraising was a test in diligence, patience, and stick-to-itiveness for someone daunted by a backyard BBQ. And frankly, I didn’t even do that much; most of the work was done by our fearless leader, J.B. Bowlin, and a handful of dedicated committee members.

“This is our sophomore year,” Bowlin explained about the challenges of getting together this year’s festival. “Pacific Pride has great volunteers, like [promoter] Robert Mendez, who is donating his time and talents to coordinate the entertainment for the day. We have wonderful support from local businesses and community groups, too.”

Other than the obvious highlights of participating in the pride parades in Long Beach and West Hollywood and doing behind-the-scenes work at a few PPF-sponsored events, the real fun will be this Saturday, July 12 (11 a.m.-7 p.m.) at Chase Palm Park, where the community will gather to celebrate gay pride in S.B. There will be music performances (including our headliner, 2003’s American Idol contestant Frenchie Davis), drag shows, food and drink vendors, and lots of booths for shopping and learning more about our community.

“Of all the other California pride festivals, we have the most boutique-like experience,” Bowlin said. “Ours is a little smaller, but that makes for a great time to come and relax with others. And being in a park setting allows people to bring their dogs and throw beach balls around.”

Frankly, I love pride. And it doesn’t even stem from being that proud of being gay; for me, being gay is a small part of who I am as a whole. That being said, I enjoy pride with the same fervor that some people dedicate to Harry Potter or the Boston Red Sox or shopping the semi-annual sale at Blue Bee. I love watching the flamboyant drag queens strut their stuff; I love seeing high school kids at the festival, embracing who they are so bravely at a young age. The shirts that proclaim “I love my gay son” or “I love my mommies” have been known to choke me up. The families who stake out a small spot on the parade route only to have the children jump and frolic all over the place make me feel a sense of community with folks I don’t even know. Where else but pride could I hope to feel this gamut of emotions?

Some people don’t agree. They argue that because gays and lesbians, as a rule, aren’t as violently discriminated against as they once were, gay pride is a moot point. Toward the beginning of this year’s pride season, Paul Varnell of the Chicago Free Press asked if we should abandon the idea of gay pride, saying that, aside from people newly out of the closet, “I hope you’d find something else or something more to be proud of.”

While I agree with the catalyst for Varnell’s sentiments—homosexuality isn’t that big of a deal, so why should there be so much hoopla about it?—the reality is that, outside of our often cloistered gay-friendly communities, being gay isn’t perceived as okay. As an indicator, one need only look briefly at a U.S. map to find the 27 states where gay marriage isn’t allowed via a constitutional amendment (and, lest you forget, it may be 28 states come November if a similar ban is approved by California voters). So even if one thinks gay pride isn’t important—either because being gay isn’t a big deal or homosexuality isn’t as stigmatized as it once was—it still holds value in that it creates community and fosters a sense of togetherness, of unity.

Bowlin, noting that Santa Barbara lacks a gay district or even a gay bar, agreed that celebrating pride is important in creating community. “It’s important that Santa Barbara’s LGBT folks come together and embrace each other’s diversity,” he said.

I hope you will come out and join us for this year’s Santa Barbara Gay Pride Festival. There are many other events taking place throughout the weekend, including a Girl Party at Q’s tonight, July 10, and a mix-and-mingle event at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort on Friday, July 11. See you there, and happy pride!

4•1•1

Santa Barbara’s Gay Pride Festival takes place on Saturday, July 12, from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. at Chase Palm Park. The event is free and open to the public. Visit pacificpridefestival.org for more information.

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