2-Day Long Beach Gay Pride Festival Approved Despite Protest

A divided City Council has approved a two-day gay pride festival in June despite protest from fundamentalist Christians who said the event should not be held at all.

The council voted 5 to 4 Tuesday before an overflow crowd at City Hall to allow the festival to run two days, dashing a move by City Manager John Dever to limit the event to one day.

Leaders of Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Inc., the group organizing the festival June 15 and 16 at Shoreline Aquatic Park, said they were pleased by the council’s decision.

Group’s Leader ‘Thrilled’

“We’re just thrilled,” said Judith Doyle, the group’s president. “But for the City of Long Beach, this is just the beginning of having to deal with the gay and lesbian issue.”

Doyle and other gay leaders said they feared that pressure from fundamentalist Christians could prompt the council to restrict the event to just one day. Since last year’s gay pride festival, a steady stream of fundamentalists have appeared at nearly every council meeting to protest the event.

Fundamentalist leaders, meanwhile, said they were disappointed but not surprised by the council’s vote.

“The council does not have the moral courage to make the proper decision,” said Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Anaheim-based California Coalition for Traditional Values. “Most of the people in this community do not want homosexuality advocated in public.”

About 300 people crowded into the council chambers Tuesday for the emotional showdown on the issue. Nine police officers were stationed at various points in the packed room throughout the three-hour hearing. Scores of people were turned away from the chambers and had to watch the proceedings on television monitors in conference rooms at the nearby library.

When Doyle and about 50 other gays and lesbians left City Hall after the hearing, they were confronted by half a dozen fundamentalists waving Bibles and yelling “Repent, homos.” Several of the fundamentalists wore surgical masks bearing the inked-in words “AIDS mask.” Both groups dispersed without incident.

Earlier this month, Dever announced he would limit the festival to just one day because of heavy public demand for the park during the summer months. The festival’s backers called the move “a pretext for discrimination” and threatened to file a lawsuit. Dever denied those charges.

Organizers of the festival, which drew about 8,000 people over two days last year, said they applied more than nine months ago for a city permit but did not learn until Dever’s announcement that the event would be limited to one day. Dever said the decision was delayed because various city departments were studying the proposal.

The dispute erupted about two weeks ago when the festival’s backers came before the council for a license to serve beer and wine at the event, which is held at Shoreline Aquatic Park.

An effort by the council to resolve the dispute May 7 ended in a 4 to 4 deadlock. The council decided to delay the matter until Councilman Marc Wilder, who missed the meeting, returned from a trip to Europe.

On Tuesday, Wilder returned to help swing the vote in favor of the two-day festival. He was joined by council members Wallace Edgerton, Jan Hall, Thomas Clark and James Wilson. Mayor Ernie Kell and council members Warren Harwood, Edd Tuttle and Eunice Sato voted against the measure.

Dever, as the city’s chief administrator, has full authority over granting permits to hold events on city property. But the council, by approving a two-day permit for liquor sales at the festival, forced Dever to reconsider his decision to scale back the event to one day. Faced with the council vote, Dever said he would allow the festival to run the full two days.

The Tuesday hearing quickly became a litmus test on the issue of gay rights in Long Beach.

Several leaders of local churches questioned the morality of homosexuality. Others raised the specter that the festival could help contribute to the spread of AIDS, a disease that has primarily hit homosexual men.

‘Danger to Public’ Claimed

“This really is not an issue of a group of individuals having their civil rights denied,” said Robert McBirnie, president of the Grace Bible Institute in Long Beach. “Clearly it’s a question of the advocacy of a life style. And what is built into that life style is a documented health hazard that represents a clear and present danger to the public.”

But Dr. Rugmini Shah, the city’s chief health officer, said there is little chance that AIDS, which researchers believe is transmitted through blood or sexual relations, could be spread through the air or by routine contact during the festival.

Although no council members came out in favor of a blanket ban on the festival, several indicated that they were uncomfortable with the event.

“I don’t think our streets or parks are the place for showcasing or celebrating homosexuality,” Tuttle said, adding that he does not want Long Beach to become “a focal point” for the gay life style.

Other council members said they opposed the sale of alcohol during the festival and were miffed that the event’s organizers would have exclusive use of a large section of the park during the weekend.

Issued Called Distorted

“The issue here is not one of civil rights,” Harwood said, adding that gay leaders had “distorted” the matter by leveling charges of discrimination.

Several other city residents and church leaders, who stressed they were not fundamentalists, also attacked the festival because liquor would be served.

But Edgerton, in an interview later, insisted that the dispute over alcohol at the festival “has nothing to do with this,” pointing to the battle between the gays and fundamentalists as the root issue.

Councilman Wilson agreed that civil rights was the matter at hand. Wilson, who is black, recalled his years in the South before the federal government enacted civil rights legislation.

“I’m old enough to remember being excluded from public parks, from the right to march, all those things that are guaranteed by our Constitution,” Wilson said.

Hall noted that other organizations have been granted exclusive use of the parks, adding that “we should not single out one group” for different treatment.

The festival is a fund-raiser for gay charities and includes a parade along Ocean Boulevard and other shoreline streets leading to the park. Organizers of the event fence off a large portion of Shoreline Park during the celebration and raise money by charging an admission fee and through the sale of beer.

Although similar celebrations have become common in homosexual enclaves such a San Francisco and West Hollywood, last year’s festival was the first event of its type in Long Beach.

Organizers say they made commitments of more than $30,000 for vendors and entertainment before learning that the festival might be shortened. The event must run the full two days to meet those expenses, they say.