Participants in the Long Beach Pride Parade have a gay old time marching along Ocean Boulevard May 20, 2018. Photo: Stephen Carr/StephenCarrPhotography.com
The Long Beach Pride Parade grand marshals were announced by the city Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Long Beach Pride, the nonprofit that traditionally produces the parade and the festival, asked city council to pay and manage the parade because the organization didn’t have the money to support it. It’s unclear why the organization didn’t have the funds to pay for it as it had for more than 35 years.
The council agreed to bailout the group and spend $130,000 to be the official host and funder for the parade while Long Beach Pride restructures the organization.
The parade will coincide with the Long Beach Pride Festival, taking place May 18 and May 19 along Shoreline Drive. The festival will still be organized by the Long Beach Pride organization.
Ivy Queen has been announced as the May 19 headliner.
This year’s festival and parade theme is Rhythm and Rainbows.
Led by the grand marshals, Long Beach Pride Parade will feature more than 130 participating organizations, business and stakeholder groups showcasing a variety of floats and displays.
The parade will kick off at Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Avenue at 10 a.m. and march west to Alamitos Avenue.
Here are the grand marshals:
- Parade grand marshal – Past Long Beach Pride board members as a group: Alexis Garcia, Brian Bonner, Elisa McConnehea, Eric Valdez, Fred Echevarria, Freddy Herrera, Jacqueline Casey, Jannay Lima, Kathleen Pitts, Kelly Harvey, Lee Parkhurst, Manny Lemos, Ric Bragg, Robert Reedy, Sonia Ponce, Tina Probasco, Vanessa Romain
- Celebrity grand marshal – Saucy Santana
- Pride progress grand marshal – Donzaleigh Abernathy
- Media grand marshal – Annabelle Sedano of NBC4 and Enrique Chiabra of Telemundo 52
- Marilyn Barlow grand marshal – Irene “DJ Irene” Guiterrez
- Robert Crow grand marshal – Robert Cano
- Judith Doyle grand marshal – Dykes on Bikes
- Bryan “Whitey” Littlefield community bridge building grand marshal – Evan Braude
- “Morris Knight” political grand marshal – Stuart Milk (Harvey Milk Foundation)
- Robert Garcia Youth grand marshal – Kelly Melvin
