city – began serving a 60-day sentence in May 1986 for embezzling public funds from a counseling center where she was director. That unfortunate distinction goes back exactly 30 years to when West Hollywood’s Valerie Terrigno – the first openly gay mayor of a U.S. The most recent flare-up, as unpleasant as the vitriol seemed, was far from the worst of times for festival organizers and the city, though. So LA Pride, born of controversy and mixed missions, continues to travel treacherous territory in its 46th year of being run by Christopher Street West (CSW). The parade and festival commemorate one of the most important events in gay history, the 1969 rebellion at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in New York. On one hand, it’s an unabashed celebration of the LGBT community’s out-and-proud mantra, but it also has deep roots in political activism and protests.
LA Pride’s split personality virtually guarantees a lively if not dicey festival, this year being an especially painful case in point.
(Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive, UCLA Library Special Collections)
