(Photo by Anne Knudsen, Los Angeles Herald Examiner Collection, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection)įor times like that in LA Pride’s history, an item posted last year to a blog maintained by the Los Angeles Public Library provides much needed perspective. “There’s no way she would go down that parade route,” he said, adding: “She would disgrace herself if she tried.”Ī headline in the Los Angeles Times from June 1986 summarized the city’s embarrassment succinctly: “When West Hollywood’s First Mayor Was Driven from City Hall, She Took Part of the Dream of a ‘Gay Camelot’ with Her.” A participant in West Hollywood’s Gay Pride Parade June 28, 1982. A vice president of CSW said the group had hoped Terrigno would not force the issue, but noted the parade organizer was prepared to block her appearance. When West Hollywood was incorporated in November 1984, Terrigno was elected to the city council and chosen as its first mayor by her elected cohorts.Īt least she spared the organizers of the Gay Pride Parade an uncomfortable decision by opting not to ride in a restaurant-sponsored parade vehicle the following month. 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)