Dozens of pride celebrations in Southern California this month are undergirded by the celebrants’ steely defiance against recent anti-LGBTQ legislation, pointed rhetoric and protests at local schools.
While the 53rd annual Los Angeles Pride Parade in Hollywood on Sunday, June 11 will feature floats of waving participants, often dressed in drag or colorful costumes, and as smaller pride events this month dot communities from Van Nuys to Pomona, participants say this year’s gay Pride celebrations are taking on added significance.
“Pride becomes more important as a form of resistance, to subvert these negative, inaccurate views about queer people and queer lives,” said Thuan Nguyen, a gay man and LGBTQ+ rights activist from Montclair who is researching race relations and ethnicity in queer communities, and is a sociology lecturer at Cal State Fullerton.
At least 17 states have enacted laws banning or restricting medical procedures for youth who want to change their gender, which the medical field calls gender dysphoria. Some laws have banned drag queens from performing in public spaces.
The laws, some of which are being challenged in court, and some protests in local schools have increased tensions between conservatives and gay rights advocates in Southern California. The debate has raised the temperature at Pride events during June Pride Month which celebrates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary residents who are estimated to number about 500,000 in Los Angeles County.
Tension over school protests
In Temecula, the school board recently rejected an elementary school social studies curriculum that mentions gay rights leader Harvey Milk, drawing criticism from teachers, parents and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
At Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood on June 2, conservative parents and Armenian-American parents protested against a LGBTQ+ assembly in which students were read a book that talks about different kinds of families,…
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