Hundreds of local residents, families, and couples descended on the parking lot of Santa Maria’s Town Center West on Aug. 12 to celebrate the city’s first ever Pride event, organized by several LGBTQ organizations.
Jessie Funes—organizer with House of Pride and Equality (HOPE), the group that spearheaded the event—said the goal of the event was to increase visibility for the valley’s gay and transgendered community. She estimated that more than 500 guests had joined the celebration as of 1 p.m., but many more came as the event continued into the early evening.
“I think, for Santa Maria, this is like our coming out experience,” Funes said. “We are coming out as a community, as a city, we are coming out as old people, young people, students, teachers, everybody. We want people to feel proud.”
HOPE had help from the Central Coast Future Leaders, another community group, Funes said, in getting the event off the ground. HOPE first started to expand the representation and activities available for the city’s Latinx (the non-gendered term for Hispanic LGBTQ people) community in Santa Maria, and the Pride event was a benchmark for both the organization and the city, Funes said.
The sunny afternoon event felt much like any other Santa Maria outdoor festival, with tri-tip and elotes for sale, live music, activities for kids, and booths for community organizations. Attendees listened to music, watched a live drag queen lip synch show, and sat to eat or relax in a shaded area near the stage.
Jessi Phillips, who wore a rainbow flag as a cape, had her arm around Marissa Aguirre’s shoulders as they strolled through the corridor with friends and family. The couple was excited to attend a Pride event in their hometown, they said, and had previously attended similar events in San Luis Obispo.
“Hopefully it’s a first step to more things we can do here. Santa Maria hasn’t always been very friendly,” Aguirre said. “Our high school wasn’t bad, but there’s a lot of older people here, families that aren’t really open to that type of thing.
“It’s inclusive, it’s a celebration,” Phillips added. “It’s saying, ‘These people are here. They’re a minority, and they need to be celebrated like everyone else.’”
The event included an appearance and speech from Congressman Salud Carbajal.
“Anytime we can celebrate everyone in our community, including the LGBTQ communities, I think it’s important because it reminds people that we are a diverse community and we are all a part of the mosaic that makes our community special and great,” Carbajal told the Sun. “And the LGBTQ community shouldn’t be a marginalized community, but rather a major and whole part of our community.”
Funes and the other organizers thanked everyone who attended and helped organize the event after Carbajal’s speech, marking the event a success.
One attendee in the crowd was Gale McNeeley, a longtime actor who moved to Santa Maria in 2002 with his husband. He said the event was an important milestone for the city.
“I don’t think I ever thought I’d see the day when there would be gay pride in Santa Maria,” he said, “because gay people used to be in the shadows, they didn’t come out readily.”
The last outward showing of gay pride McNeeley could recall was a protest just before California voted on Proposition 8 in 2008, which sought to ban gay marriage in the state and passed, but was later ruled unconstitutional. Dozens of locals held signs in support of marriage equality at the corners of Main Street and Broadway, he said.
“I cried that day,” he said. “Today is a day to celebrate that so many people are here celebrating equality. It really is equality. We weren’t equal before, but we are equal now, and we should celebrate that.”
