Thousands of people lined Pacific Avenue late Sunday morning, many dressed in rainbow colors and waving flags, as they watched the annual Pride Parade.
Santa Cruz Pride is the largest LGBTQ+ event on the Central Coast and the third-oldest annual Pride festival in California.
Marching in the parade was a mix of nonprofits, social groups, individuals and performers such as dancers and cheerleaders.
This included Santa Cruz Gay Beach Volleyball, which meets on Wednesdays from 5:30pm to sunset at Main Beach in Santa Cruz.
The group set up a mobile volleyball net bedazzled with an estimated 18,000 tiny beads in rainbow colors and flanked by two tile-mosaic planters filled with colorful flowers.
“Visibility, visibility,” group member Joe Cosentino said of the group’s reason for being there. “We’re not going away, ever.”
Pride, Cosentino said, is a “family reunion.”
“People showing up for the first time, not knowing where they are in this community, they find us and they find family,” he said.
Nearby, members of the Book Truck Precision Drill Team stood ready with their book carts painted in various rainbow shades.
“We have a long history of doing this,” Santa Cruz Public Libraries Director Christopher Platt said. “We celebrate everyone in our community, and this is a great way to do it. Libraries welcome everyone. No matter who you are, all the time.”
In another staging area, the Nor Cal Pride Band waited, most members wearing rainbow-inspired clothing and practicing with their instruments.
The group is an amalgamation of about 85 young musicians from schools around Northern California, most of them from Santa Cruz County.
Instructor Keegan McCoy said the group was excited to participate.
“We’re just here to be in the community and support love and support acceptance and just people loving each other,” he said. “And we’re here to spread happiness and positivity.”
Percussionist Jayden Ross, 11, who attends Mission Hill Middle School in Santa Cruz, said performing in the parade was an exciting opportunity.
“Everybody’s here today to celebrate pride,” he said. “Because some people come from families and roots that don’t really let them be themselves. So it’s kind of, like, a chance to celebrate people being free and being themselves.”
Emi Akioshi, who volunteers with Teen Kitchen Project, said she came with the organization to show her support for the queer community.
The spirit of the parade, she said, matches the mission of Teen Kitchen Project, which teaches young people to cook nutritious meals that are delivered to people with serious illnesses.
“It feels good to be here. I mean, I’m part of the community myself,” she said.
Rachel Williams, who chairs the Santa Cruz County Board of Education, said she was there to support all of the county’s students.
“We really feel like there’s a place for every student with academics, but we want to make sure that we create a safe space for all students to learn, to thrive, to grow and to advance,” Williams said. “We want to be here in support of them and our entire community of individuals.”
Elaine Johnson, president of the Santa Cruz NAACP and CEO of Housing Santa Cruz County, said the celebration is important in the current political climate.
“I’m just so happy that we’re here today celebrating who we are, who we truly are,” she said. “And I get to do it with people that I love and respect. And my thing is that it doesn’t stop when the sun sets tonight. We keep on celebrating life.”
Cabrillo College Trustee Adam Spickler agreed.
“We spend, as the LGBTQIA2S-plus community, most of our time since President Donald Trump’s inauguration living in shadows, fearful of the ways they’re going to take back our rights,” he said. “That we’re going to lose our access to health care, you know, all this stuff. And we get to show up visibly in our community today and put all of that aside and celebrate and unite with each other in a way that really allows us to remember what we fight for in the first place.”
