Among the 35 artists scheduled to perform were Big Freedia, Charli XCX, Da Brat, Daya, Faith Evans, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lion Babe, Robin S., Hailee Steinfeld, and Trina. The headlining artists for the festival were Wilson Phillips, Tinashe, Kesha, Tamar Braxton, Ty Herndon, Eden xo, and Fifth Harmony. In 2015 LA Pride was held on June 12 to June 14, 2015. By the early 2000's, attendance of LA Pride weekend was estimated to be 400,000-500,000, making it one of the largest Pride celebrations in the United States, and the world. Thus, LA Pride actually predates West Hollywood by five years.Įventually, CSW trademarked the annual event as the LA Pride Festival & Parade™ and expanded the event to include a three-day celebration with music performances and other Pride events in and around Los Angeles during the entire month of June, Pride month. In 1984, that area became part of the newly incorporated City of West Hollywood. Continuing hostility and harassment from the Los Angeles Police Department led CSW to relocate the parade and festival in 1979 to a more welcoming unincorporated LA neighborhood around Santa Monica Blvd.
The first festival was a carnival with rides, games, food, and vendor booths in a Hollywood parking lot. In 1974, CSW board member and pioneering gay filmmaker, Pat Rocco, pitched the idea adding a festival to accompany the parade. CSW's "Gay Pride Parade" became the first permitted gay parade in the world. On June 28, 1970, approximately 2,000 people gathered on McCadden Place in Los Angeles, marched north to Hollywood Blvd, and proceeded east towards Vine Street. The California Superior Court ruled in favor of CSW and ordered the Police Commission to issue a parade permit to CSW for a $1,500 security payment, and furthermore, that all other requirements be dropped.
The ACLU joined CSW in their legal challenge of the LAPD's excessive fees, and restrictions that other parade permits were not required to follow. And they were, 1) you'd have to put up a bond for a million dollars to pay out the businesses when people throw rocks at ya'll 2) you have to put up a cash bond of $500,000, and 3) you've got to have at least 5000 people marching." Perry, "The Police Commission voted 4 to 1 to place conditions on the parade permit. Bob Humphries, and Morris Kight originally discussed organizing a march or a demonstration, but Troy Perry famously said, "No. While best known for producing the LA Pride Festival & Parade™, CSW also "organizes, sponsors or supports other community events throughout the year, and works with nonprofit, philanthropic, community and corporate partners to further diversity, equity and inclusion." LA Pride Festival & Parade The first permitted gay parade in the world ĬSW co-founders Rev.
CSW is still run by an all-volunteer board of directors.ĬSW states its mission is to "create safe and inclusive spaces of self-expression, celebration, and diversity/equity/inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Los Angeles." Its eponymous name is an homage to The Stonewall Inn's address on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.ĬSW remained an ad hoc organization run by an all-volunteer board of directors until 1976, when it incorporated and was granted 501(c)3 nonprofit status by the Internal Revenue Service. Bob Humphries (founder, United States Mission), and Morris Kight (founder, Gay Liberation Front) to organize a gay parade in Los Angeles to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York City, the year prior. Troy Perry (founder, Metropolitan Community Church), Rev.
Ĭhristopher Street West Association (CSW) was established in 1970 by co-founders Rev.