Simi Prepares for City’s First Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival

Back in February, meeting with Police Chief Randy Adams to plan for a gay and lesbian pride festival, organizer Paul Waters had an idea that may forever symbolize the event: racing drag queens.

“It was a very serious meeting and I thought the mood needed to be lightened some,” Waters said. “I told him that, even though it’s illegal, we might have a drag race on Los Angeles Avenue, actually a drag queen race. . . . It was just a joke, but now it looks like it’s a reality.”

On Sunday, Simi Valley will play host to its first Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival, to be held in an open field at Los Angeles Avenue and Tapo Canyon Road.

Beginning at 11 a.m. and continuing until 7 p.m., the event will spotlight gay culture in Ventura County and Southern California with scores of lectures, music and dance performances, dance pavilions, food, crafts and plenty of flamboyant fun.

Also, the festival will include dozens of crafts vendors and information booths from organizations such as the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI, which will be recruiting, and local businesses such as Coldwell Banker and Century 21.

And of course, there is the drag queen race, a foot race for men in drag set for 1:45 p.m.

“It’s important that people know that this event is for everybody,” Waters said. “Yes, it’s celebrating gay culture, but not to the exclusion of anybody else. . . . It’s like a St. Patrick’s Day parade where everybody is invited to celebrate, not just the Irish.”

But not everyone will be there to celebrate. At least one church group opposed to the homosexual lifestyle is planning to attend.

A handful of members from Calvary Baptist Church in Simi Valley will be distributing scriptural literature to festival-goers in hopes of “enlightening” them.

And conservative groups--most recently the Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks Republican assemblies--have criticized the event as “destructive to the quality of life and health of a community.”

Even so, the Republican groups have no plans to attend the festival. And Adams said he doesn’t expect any major incidents and will not add extra officers to patrol the festival.

“We’re treating this like we would any other event,” he said.

Modeled after similar pride festivals in Santa Barbara and Long Beach, the Simi Valley event will be a first for Ventura County with organizers expecting as many as 10,000 people to attend.

For several months, organizers have capitalized on the incongruity of staging the event in Simi Valley--a community known for its conservative, middle-class values and suburban tranquillity--with advertisements that read “No Dorothy, you still are in Kansas. . . . Kansans live everywhere!”

Playing off Dorothy’s famous line to her dog, Toto, in “The Wizard of Oz,” the advertisement seeks to dispel the perception of Simi Valley as a bastion of 1950s-style morality, organizers say.

“For many, the words ‘gay pride’ and ‘Simi Valley’ are an oxymoron,” Waters said. “But it’s not. . . . This is the safest city in America that has a gay community and several organizations that support it and that’s why we chose it.”

Lambda Friends, which will be represented at the festival, is an organization formed six years ago that serves as a social hub for the city’s gay and lesbian residents.

Organized three years ago by Waters, the See-Me Squares is a square dance club for gay men that hosts classes and special events and serves as another social outlet for gay members of the community.

Although not a gay organization, the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley recently adopted an open policy toward gays and lesbians.

And city officials have embraced the festival, saying they understand why Simi Valley was chosen to play host.

“What better place to have a festival than the safest city in America,” Mayor Greg Stratton said after the event’s plans were announced several months ago.

But safety has been an issue for some familiar with the vicious abuse suffered by some gays and lesbians.

“That’s definitely been a concern, but I can assure everybody that this will, first and foremost, be a safe event,” Waters said.

With an admission fee of $7 for adults, $4 for seniors and teens, and children under 12 admitted free, Waters said he has little doubt the event will be one that the city will enjoy and remember for a long time.

“This festival is for everybody and it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Waters said. “And I can guarantee that it will be one of the most colorful events this city’s ever seen.”