Countywide : Lesbian, Gay Pride Festival Starts Today

The 1993 Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival opens today at UC Irvine with a two-day schedule of music, book and poetry readings, art exhibits and a parade along Pereira Drive.

British band Bronski Beat and pop singer Stacy Q headline the entertainment bill for the event’s fifth-anniversary celebration at the campus’s Aldrich Park, which organizers said is expected to draw 10,000 people.

Dozens of musical acts will be featured throughout the festival on four stages, including three tents devoted exclusively to Latin dance, country-Western and disco music.

A fifth venue, the Coffee House Performance Theater, will debut this year with a slate of wedding ceremonies early this afternoon, followed by lectures, fashion shows, performance troupes and video presentations.

Therapist and author Tina Tessina will speak at 3 p.m. today on relationships, while writer Patricia Nell Warren will read from her works at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Stacy Q will perform at 8 tonight on the main stage, while Bronski Beat takes the spotlight on the same stage at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, after the 1993 Pride Parade, which begins at noon.

The festival will also offer activities of a more political nature.

Service members suing to remove the ban on homosexuals in the military will appear as parade leaders, among them Navy Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, who will be the grand marshal.

Meinhold was discharged by the Navy last summer after he revealed his homosexuality on television. He was reinstated after a federal judge ruled the discharge unconstitutional.

Festival hours have been extended this year. Today’s events start at noon and will continue to 11 p.m. The hours for Sunday will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Admission to the festival is $10 each day. The parking fee is $3 for each vehicle. For visitor, volunteer or vendor information, call the festival sponsor, the nonprofit Orange County Cultural Pride Inc., at (714) 637-7768.