The Central Coast may not be known for its LGBTQ-plus nightlife, but some businesses are using Pride Month as an opportunity to change that.
Pride Month, which became official in 1999, offers a period of time to recognize, celebrate, and uplift members of the LGBTQ-plus community.
While locals can find a Pride Month dance party at Chido Bar in Santa Maria—which will host the Official Pride After Party on June 8, starting at 5 p.m. featuring music from DJ CARIII—Vanessa Perez, who handles marketing at Chido, said that even though the venue doesn’t necessarily host Pride-centric events every night, it welcomes all walks of life at all times.
“It doesn’t matter what day or time it is, everybody’s welcome, and I want people to understand that,” Perez said. “I think once we host parties like this, people will understand how comfortable it actually is here and how they can just let loose and be safe.”
To put on this event, Chido is partnering with the Central Coast’s House of Pride and Equality (HOPE). Executive Director Suzette Lopez said that this is the organization’s seventh annual Pride celebration, noting that with all of the events being hosted, they are raising money for HOPE to be able to hold gatherings throughout the year.
“We want to create safe spaces for everyone in the community all year round,” Lopez said. “We hope that the community can engage and continue the momentum and continue to come to our events and just keep growing the community in Santa Maria and the Central Coast.”
According to Lopez, the point of Pride Month is to remind people that it’s OK to be their true and authentic selves all day, every day. In her lifetime, she has noticed a positive shift in Santa Maria, where the LGBTQ-plus community has become more visible and proud.
“We’re not afraid anymore, and we want to celebrate our differences and ourselves,” she said. “I think a wonderful thing is that there’s not just one organization on the Central Coast, there’s multiple organizations doing the good work.”
Some of those local organizations and safe spaces are a harder to come by in other places on the Central Coast. Libertine Brewing Company Event and Marketing Manager John Pranjic said that the lack of queer-friendly places in San Luis Obispo is “both scary and sad.”
“There’s not very many friendly, safe spaces for [LGBTQ-plus] people to gather,” Pranjic said. “As inclusive of an image as SLO tries to portray, there just aren’t very many spaces that are friendly, safe spaces for these types of events, and I struggle to think of any to name to even tell you right now.”
Libertine Brewing Company in downtown SLO has hosted That’s So Drag brunches for several years now, which Pranjic said always bring in enthusiastic and fun crowds. On June 7 at 8 p.m., the brewery will host an event to premiere the That’s So Drag documentary.
The idea for the documentary came about after hearing one of the catchphrases of San Luis Obispo-based drag queen, Nala Diamond, he said. According to Pranjic, Diamond, who uses nonbinary pronouns, ends every drag brunch at Libertine by saying something along the lines of, “a wise queen once told [me], stand for those who have fallen, be a voice for those who are silent, be here, and be yourself.”
“I think it was the second or third time that I heard them say that, I was hanging out on the sidewalk, and I saw everybody seated inside and all eyes on Nala,” Pranjic explained. “They said that quote, and I was like, more people should probably hear that because it’s really inspiring and really positive. This community is typically looked down upon, and there are a lot of negative connotations when it comes to this environment. I had the idea to just kind of share more of the positive side of this experience.”
The documentary, which features behind-the-scenes footage from some of the previous drag shows hosted at Libertine along with interviews of drag queens, aims to honor the art and beauty of drag.
“We sat down and interviewed the queens, and they got to tell their stories,” Pranjic said. “Why do they do this? What scares them about doing it? What excites them about doing it? Overall, we set out with the vision to kind of tell a serious, funny story, and I feel like we nailed it.”
After the premiere of the documentary, Diamond and other featured drag queens, such as Juicy CW, will be available to answer questions and engage with attendees. Then, the event will turn into a dance party.
Reach Staff Writer Emma Montalbano at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jun 5-15, 2025.