County’s First Gay Pride Festival to Open

After months of protests from some fundamentalist Christians, Orange County’s first gay pride festival is set to open today at Centennial Regional Park in Santa Ana.

The two-day festival is the first major organized gay celebration in a county known for its conservativism, and national gay activists and opponents of homosexuality alike have stated they will monitor the event. Opponents say 300 persons will march today along the park’s boundaries to protest the event.

The festival itself will be a modest production compared to other gay pride festivals in West Hollywood and San Francisco, which feature hundreds of booths and dozens of stages.

In Orange County, simplicity is the key word. The festival will be one-fifth the scale of the one in West Hollywood.

It will be a “generic” celebration, said Janet Avery, president of Orange County Cultural Pride, the nonprofit group organizing the event.

“We have no glitz or glamour,” Avery said.

On Friday, organizers began setting up about 50 booths from a variety of organizations, including the Gay Democrats of Orange County and the Republican Log Cabin club, in the 87-acre park’s multipurpose field. A chain-link fence has been put up to border the festival grounds.

Volunteers have pitched a 40-by-70-foot tent to house Art Expo, a display of more than 100 works of art by 20 artists that range from simple sketches of a pickup truck to landscape oil paintings. The Art Expo is the festival’s largest exhibition.

An outdoor cafe has been built in the center of the site.

Music and comedy will be performed both days on a main stage in the corner of the site. Festival hours will be 10 a.m. to 11 p.m today and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10.

The festival’s main draw is expected to be a parade Sunday in which more than 60 participants, including Orange County’s chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, will march a mile around the park’s lake.

The theme, like that at many other gay pride celebrations this year, is “Stonewall 20: A Generation of Pride,” marking the 20th anniversary of the birth of the gay movement in New York City. In 1969, a police raid on a gay bar called the Stonewall provoked a three-day riot, increasing awareness of homosexual rights issues.

In Orange County, organizers have also adopted the slogan “Orange County Comes Out.” A pink triangle inside an orange is the symbol of the event. Organizers adopted the pink triangle because homosexuals were forced to wear pink triangles in Nazi concentration camps.

The cost of the festival will be about $65,000 and will be covered by donations and fund-raisers, Avery said. About $15,000 of the money already has gone to Santa Ana for a security bond.

Despite contentions from opponents that the festival would present a “clear and present danger” to the community because of the number of people it would attract, Santa Ana police said they do not foresee problems.

Police Lt. Robert Helton said the police are prepared to handle crowds as large as the 10,000 predicted by organizers.

The park will also be patrolled by county park rangers and security guards, Avery said.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, leader of an Anaheim-based lobbying group called the Traditional Values Coalition and the festival’s staunchest opponent, said he expects more than 300 protesters to turn out Saturday. The counterdemonstration will be held on sidewalks of Edinger and Fairview streets bordering the park.

“We are doing peaceful demonstrations on the sidewalk for the heterosexual ethic,” Sheldon said in an interview.

Sheldon said his protest will be held Saturday, but not Sunday.

“We’re not going to desecrate the Lord’s day,” he said.

Sheldon said his supporters are continuing their effort to recall six of the seven Santa Ana City Council members who refused to sign a statement promising to ban the gay pride festival.