About 70 miles north of West Hollywood, California, is the conservative high-desert Antelope Valley. And while it’s far from a queer travel destination, this traditionalist township over the past few years (probably due to the passage of Proposition 8) has been experiencing a significant burst of queer pride.
Saturday, June 18th marked its 3rd annual pride festival and compared to its neighboring Los Angeles or Long Beach, the Antelope Valley Pride is, for lack of a better word, small. Over the course of six hours it probably saw no more than 500 participants. But its size is hardly the remarkable thing about the Antelope Valley Pride festival.
Craig Cincis, a 22-year-old volunteer, said that it’s important to have a pride festival at home. Last year he attended AV Pride for the first time. “I didn’t know anyone,” he told Queerty. “I was so nervous. I met some really cool people and a year later, I’m now helping out. When it’s home, you can relate to it and you have something to be proud of.” Brings you back to the original definition of PRIDE, doesn’t it?
The event itself took place in Palmdale’s Poncitlan Square. There were about 15 pop-up tents representing various local LGBT organizations, some familiar national organizations (HRC and Marriage Equality USA), and a few corporate booths including Walgreens and Starbucks. On the central gazebo, a handful of DJs, live bands, and drag performers entertained the crowd throughout the day.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The diversity was palpable. There were old and young, every shade of color, from black to white, including men, women, trans, and everything in between. There were families and singles and everyone was enjoying themselves and each other. Oh and hold on to your butts for this one… people had a blast even though no alcohol served. (There was free iced coffee and iced tea.)
The organizing power behind the festival is the local Center in the Antelope Valley known by its new name, the OUTReach Center. The Center has no physical building, a completely volunteer staff and board, and runs on an annual budget of about $8,000. And yet despite all the obstacles of organizing and connecting in a small town, it continues to grow. Sanie Anders, the new president of the OUTReach Center, says that “it’s a very conservative and religious area. We want to be able to be a part of the community and to let them know that we are family members; we are professionals… and we aren’t ashamed.”
In many small towns across the country, LGBT individuals have to struggle just to get by. That makes the support of local leadership and organizations all the more critical. The OUTReach Center is one such essential group.
We asked Coco Lecreme, a resident drag queen, how she would feel if there were no longer a PRIDE in the Antelope Valley and she said, straight up: “I would be pissed.”
Wanna show of your hometown pride–or wherever you visit? Check out the GayCities Pride Photo Challenge and submit your pics…
Eric
I’ve had tons more fun at Fargo Pride than Minneapolis Pride.
Josh Elder
Grew up and came out in Georgetown, KY. Small southern baptist town. Came out when I was 14. So I know all about being out in a small conservative town 😛
Niki
I live in a small town of about 2,000 in wild n’ wonderful West Virginia. Also, the welcoming sign for the travelors who visit our crappy mountain town (no one ever does) says: Welcome, come worship with us! Bleh. I’m still in the closet. Can you blame me?
bywaterdog
Wonderful that this is happening, I hope that others see this and try in their own home towns.
John
I DIDN’T know our small pride would be on QUEERTY’s radar.. how cool.. 🙂 Great article.. The OUTreach center has received quite the amount of criticism for hosting it’s Pride Fest.
Todd
I’m so glad to see this happening…again. The first Antelope Valley pride festival was actually held over the course of three days in July, 1994 at the old AV Fairgrounds. There was even an impromptu “parade” along the sidewalks adjoining the fairgrounds to open the event. There was a some criticism from within the community at that time too but it was nothing compared to the immense dedication of the volunteers who made it happen. Unfortunately the tradition didn’t take root back then but it’s really nice to see it catching on now. Congratulations to everyone who made this happen. Great work!
Michael
EXCELLENT article!!!
Elloreigh
500 is small? I don’t know how many attended the Pride celebrations in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the late 80s/early 90s, but I’d be surprised if it came anywhere close to 500.
jeff4justice
Glad to see Queerty showing love to the small town gays.
Glad to see the small town gays showing love to themselves.
You don’t even need a giant center to start to build community for LGBT folk in small areas. Just meet somewhere safe.
Next, to ensure Queerty staff are not wimps, I expect to see ya’ll at Yuba-Sutter Pride (45 mins north of Sacramento, 45 mins south of Chico) next time we can pull one off.
Mike
Speaking of other small conservative places, this coming weekend has Pride festivals going on in Baton Rouge, LA; Fayetteville, AR and Huntsville, AL! 🙂
Miguel Arteaga
Thank you so much for coming up and writing an article on our pride event. I was in charge of the Starbucks booth for the second year in a row and it was wonderful seeing the community come together again to show support for the LGBT of our town. I’m all about big pride events in big cities but by hosting an event in a small town it’s easy to see that we support each other anywhere. Thanks again!
Craig
This article expresses exactly how I feel about AV’s 2011 Pride.
It obviously wasn’t the size of a Long Beach, San Francisco or LA Pride but it didn’t matter. In fact, that wasn’t the point at all. The fact that we were able to come together and put on a Pride Festival in such a conservative area exemplifies the true meaning of Pride. We are unashamed of who we are and we want our community to recognize our voice. Thank you Tanner for such an awesome article!
Kev C
@Niki: I lived in a small town for a while. Everyone knows your business in a small town. Gossiping about neighbors is the only entertainment and everyone has gaydar. So don’t be surprised if they already know.
JoAnn Nevermann
Congratulation!!!!! If you experienced the hated being spewed forth by the anti-gay parties, this event is a statement of convictio9n and bravery
Mike
Our magazine was at Pensacola, FL’s Pride celebration last October and I was surprised that there were no anti-gay Christians protesting the event. I thought that was nice. 🙂
clairey
I don’t necessarily come from a small town, but here in Eastern Europe, Pride is the controversy of the month. With over 90% of the population admitting they are against the parade, us paying the police for heavy security, attempts for attacks each year and constantly hearing the stupid argument ‘I don’t mind the homosexuals, but they shouldn’t parade their sexuality’ it’s hard to imagine the big metropolitan celebration for hundreds of thousands that pride is supposed to be. Yet when you march with those 500 or 1000 people that dared to come, it’s amazingly liberating and bright and colorful and it’s the sense of community that those conservative places haven’t ever dreamed of. It feels totally awesome and it’s about time we get the numbers even in the small conservative towns or pseudo-patriarchal, neo-nazi tolerating ex-communist nations. People will eventually realize that there’s far more space when you get out of your stupid comfort zone.
Mike
@clairey: I had a friend who participated in the Pride in Belgrade last year and he was absolutely afraid to even show his face because people would think he was gay and try to bash him (he was a straight ally), but at the end of the day he was surprised at how much the Belgrade police protected him and really went after the protesters, especially after they tried wrecking property when they couldn’t wreck people. The thing that moved me the most was a policeman yelling at an anti-gay protester/wrecker, “You asshole, you will not ruin my city!” I thought that was nice. 🙂 I hope Belgrade has a good Pride again this year.
Alex
It was a great honor to have been able to bring and represent HRC here in the AV for the 3rd year in a row. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my dear friend Helen, she is AWESOME!!! and my HRC family as well , Jason, Lynn, Zack, Tommy… you guys have really inspired me .. I promise to keep HRC very visible here in the AV, because change will come to the High Desert.
Evan
“men, women, trans, and everything in between”?
There are many ways to phrase that without implying that “trans” is a third gender. Please consider finding one.
Roody Tabooty
@Evan i think they meant genderless as the “in between” yes there are people who choose to be niether and yes have there own pronouns 🙂 just sayin
Evan
@Roody Tabooty: I know that. But the sentence as written implies that “trans” is something different and separate from “men, women, and everything in between.” Which we’re not. We’re men, or we’re women, or we’re part of the in between/outside/genderless brigade – we can be any of those things. We are not, however, our own separate category.
Basically, the sentence would have felt a whole lot more inclusive if “trans” had been left out. But if the writer wanted to include it, there are a couple of ways to do so without implying that we’re neither men nor women nor in between but rather some sort of alien species.
Jeff Feliciano
There is no Pride in the AV all the queens in the AV are FAKE all they do is talk bad about eachother they still from eachother and don’t ever go to the back door it is a strap you go in there and you are sure to get jumped by at least 15 or more People they are fake and trifling and as for Miss Thing CoCo LeCreme AKA CoCO Le ConCrete.Is the worst of them all.Everyone of you so called queens need to go to school and learn how to acted.All i’m say’ing is i have lived up here since 1992 and the bar aka The Back Door is the most violet gay bar i have ever seen in my life. An d the DJs what a joke there is Chuck aka Candy whom has a patern of playing the same songs in the same order you can sit there and know what song is next.And then there is Dancer where do i strat with this mess I know lets start with his Cd collection every song he plays is scratchy CDs Skippy all night long every song he play and then he plays the music so low so he can hear people talk across the bar.All i’m saying is the Back Door is a True Mess For your own safety STAY AWAY.And watch out for the owner he likes to get drunk and then wave his gun around that he keep in his Right Pocket.So if you do deside to come out to the Back Door GOOD LUCK I HOPE NOTHING HAPPENS TO YOU.I’m writing this Because me and my Boy Freind Got Jumped there Twice and the owner did nothing to help or stop it he didn’t even call the police or anything the same people stiil go there they beat up the Drag Queens to so next time someone puts ut how great the AV is Comment to they YEA WRITE!!!!!!!