Pride Picks and Pans

WEHO PRIDE 2024 is over.

The most important thing is that we all had a safe Pride. Let’s thank the City and the Sheriff for keeping the peace.

This year’s OUTLOUD Music Festival appeared to be a hit in a Coachella kind of way, with big-name headliners such as Kylie Minogue and Adam Lambert.

The TV crews were out with WEHO PRIDE being telecast live on KTLA. Cyndi Lauper accepted the ICON Award, and our little town’s Pride event hit the big time.

There were lots of complaints that seemed to bother many of the guests and business owners. One of them was the ticket prices to the events. Most do not understand where WEHO PRIDE ends and the OUTLOUD Music Festival begins.

The railings along Santa Monica Blvd. that boxed in people to one lane were a big problem. The Bayou owner was furious at how the rails prevented the traffic from flowing.. I personally asked about these rails in the Pride briefing meetings and could not get a consensus that this would be a problem. The rails were a hazard. People were boxed into lanes. On Sunday, a person could only cross Santa Monica Blvd. at La Cienega or San Vicente unless they wanted to hop over rails.

One officer told me it was poor planning. Another officer said there was supposed to be an opening at the ferris wheel.  But overall, people could not cross the street to get to El Pollo Loco or LA Buns without hopping the metal rail. It was hazardous. People were getting boxed in like sardines. They cut off the whole north side of the street without access both ways.

And down in the OUTLOUD concert area, a highly dangerous crowd crush occurred as concertgoers rushed toward the main stage ahead of Diplo’s performance.

Then there was the seemingly unusual positioning of the City of West Hollywood float, the Free Palestine float, and then the City Commissioner float. The Free Palestine flag was sandwiched between the two City of West Hollywood floats, their flags waving in unison.

With both Mayor John M. Erickson and Councilmember Sepi Shyne on the Pride subcommittee,  along with Chelsea Byers being a Director of a pro=Palestinian organization the placement seemed intentional — like an endorsement of the Free Palestine movement.

And there were large gaps between floats. There were no parade monitors, so long gaps left many wondering if the parade had ended. At one point, the Sheriff said the parade was over, and a bunch of people left mid-city and began walking down to the festival.  Ten minutes later I went back to the same Sheriff, ‘I thought you said the parade was over’.   But it had plenty to go..just empty gaps between floats.

Beaches Tropicana debuted a float just days after their public announcement that they would be taking over the Heart location.   The Abbey reminded us that they are just getting the party started.  At times, the parade gave hope that we can all march together and celebrate who we are, our differences, and our common ground.

We could not escape the preachers declaring homosexuality is a sin. The prophets spewed their verses at many of the passersby who just wanted to live in harmony. I’m not a fan— they got a giant “go fuck yourself” from me. Don’t come here and rain on our parade.

Lots of unpermitted street vendors selling merchandise. At one point, I stood next to the rails with two African American women selling Pride merchandise out of their carts. A friend passed by and said ” if the women were gay. She replied, “No, honey, it’s all about the money.” It seemed like outsiders were taking over our Pride.

Although Pride is supposed to be inclusive, don’t tell that to all the organizations that did not receive funding to participate. Among those were Emerald Village, whose job it is to promote the cannabis businesses within the City of West Hollywood.  Many spoke of the Trans and Latin communities being downplayed in this Pride celebration and that funding went to friends of certain council members.

The Women’s Freedom Festival also proved to be an inside payoff among friends of the City Council.  The received a 3 year contract for almost $250,000 worth of city dollars.   But the Women’s Freedom Festival had no significant operations and the funding was on its own, separate from all other grants.  Public records show a $1500 payment made to a local publication last year in exchange for positive coverage.

While putting together the WEHO PRIDE GUIDE, I reached out to Jackie Steele to get help to make the “best woman and lesbian page because I don’t want to hear any crap from you.” Jackie answered “You have those other lesbians,” a dig at Renee Sotile and MJ Godges, who had written two articles for WEHOonline. Renee was at her sisters bedside while she died.   She gave me the email to Chris Baldwin to offer a free page to promote their activities, but they just took the city money.  Never called back.  They were literally given almost a quarter of a million dollars, outside of the regular Pride allocations, to their friends. But we can do a story on them some other time.

It’s hard to celebrate when some people can’t find common ground during Pride . That goes for Chelsea Lee Byers and Sepi Shyne, too, who could not submit a “what pride means to me” for the Pride Guide.   And Lindsey Horvath who claimed she is ‘like Harvey Milk”. But Harvey Milk did not scrub the LGBTQ bio from his resume when he ran for office.   Feels like they are using the LGBTQ+community for political gain.

Then there is code compliance. Nowhere to be found when you need them. On Saturday, there were nine illegal hot dog vendors within 100 feet of my shop, all boxed in by those rails, and code enforcement showed up to ticket a dancer at Micky’s.   A very mean code compliance department let the illegal hot dog vendors have their day but disrupted Micky’s mood and celebration with a senseless ticket for a dancer shaking his buns.  And Im told AHF had a bare ass dancer on their float but they were not cited. 

And then I came home to the giant yard sale that took over the corner of Huntley and Sherwood. A giant truck, complete with dressing rooms for a huge store sale. No permit. Code compliance nowhere to be found. Traffic circling around the closed street. The giant truck in the red zone the entire day.

One Sunset Blvd. business owner summed it up this way: “It felt different this year, much more like a spectacle than a celebration.”