LB Gay Pride Parade and Festival Today and Tomorrow

This weekend marks the 28th annual Gay Pride Parade and Festival in Long Beach, held just a hop, skip and jump away along Shoreline Drive. The theme is "Pride around the World," and you can expect to see, in addition to rainbows and face paint, floats and banners promoting acceptance of all types of love worldwide.

Festivities include live music from artists like Monica and Sophie B. Hawkins on the main stage, as well as country, dance and urban soul stages. A Harvey Milk Day celebration will begin at 4 p.m. Saturday, with special guest Madison Hildebrand of Bravo TV's "Million Dollar Listing.'' There will be plenty of food, music, live entertainment, dancing and shopping. And then there's the parade Sunday morning, which starts at 10:30 a.m. at Ocean and Lindero. Early birds can hang out and groove to DJ Zenway starting at 9:30 a.m.

More than 200 marching groups and floats comprise the parade entries, and encompass various religious, human service, governmental and social organizations. Every year, Gay Pride weekend sees around 75,000 in attendance, both locals and visitors, all who frequent local businesses and hotels.

The organization responsible for hosting the third largest Gay Pride Parade in the U.S. is Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride, Inc. (LBLGP, Inc.), which saw the need back in 1983 to give the substantial gay and lesbian community of Long Beach a place to celebrate and "to increase awareness... and a greater sense of self-worth within the community" (from their website).

As even just highlighted by the Art Theatre's showing of a documentary addressing teenage violence and homophobia, there are still many who deny gay and lesbian people their right to live, love, work and play. This screening was held as a part of Pride Week, which also includes events such as "Communion on the Bluff" right before the Parade, an "inclusive celebration" held by St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

Though some may have only images of naked men, leather whips and raucous dancing in mind when thinking of Gay Pride, that's only a very partial picture. This celebration has plenty of family friendly activities and encourages a loving environment in all homes.

The Family Fun Zone is intended for families with children 15 and under and will be in the Rainbow Lagoon area from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. Presented by LBLGP, in conjunction with California Families in Focus, some of the activities include jumpers, carnival games, karaoke, a trackless train ride, face painting, puppet shows, magic shows, clowns, balloon animals and arts and crafts. Kids under 12 have a 5:30 p.m. curfew, so everything before then will be clean enough to eat off of. There was also a Teen Pride festival Friday May 20th.

Tickets to the festival are $20. Kids 12 and under and seniors over 60 are free.

For all the information you could possibly want regarding tickets, entertainment, festivities, parade times, parking and more, visit the Long Beach Pride website.