(Santa Monica is hosting its first-ever SaMo Pride fest this year and Van Nuys hosts Valley Pride at the end of the month.) Then there are the endless freebies, discounts and themed products - from edibles to ice cream - businesses are rolling out, many donating a portion of proceeds to LGBT non-profits. Everyone (and we mean everyone) is welcome.Īll of June is LGBT Pride month in LA, and thus you can expect a roster of activities and festivals throughout the city.
The result is an over-the-top fun and fabulous festival - filled with parties, parades, music, revelry and rides - to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community along with its friends and supporters. Pride events now take place around the world to help raise awareness about equality and inclusion, because while times have changed, they still haven’t changed enough.
You may very well not have been around back then, but you can imagine that the country was a very different place, especially for the LGBTQ+ community. When the non-profit Christopher Street West put on the planet’s first-ever permitted parade advocating for gay rights in June of 1970, it was just a year after the police raid of Greenwich Village gay bar the Stonewall Inn, which led to days of escalating violence, protests, riots, and the beginnings of the gay liberation movement.