Albuquerque is gearing up to show its pride.
The city’s annual Pride Festival kicks off this week to show support for the community’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.
Danny Hernandez, organizer and public relations director for Albuquerque Pride, said the organization is expecting more than 20,000 spectators to show up for the Pride parade on Saturday.
“If you go out there, you’ll see that, starting at Girard and Central all the way to between Central and San Pedro, the streets are almost completely lined with people,” he said.
Hernandez said the event is important to the United States gay rights movement.
“Napoleon decriminalized homosexual acts in 1810,” he said. “It took until the 1990s before Georgia decriminalized homosexual acts. We still can’t get a same-sex marriage bill passed. Hell, we can’t even get a domestic partnership bill passed! ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is being rescinded as we speak, probably, and yet the Netherlands has allowed homosexuals to serve in the military since 1973. We’ve got a long ways to go.”
UNM Queer-Straight Alliance Chair Adam Quintero said the event is important to show the community how many LGBT members reside in Albuquerque.
“Getting youth active now and making them more involved, and letting the whole Albuquerque community see us marching in the parade and seeing how strong of a youth group we are, I think that’s important — and (also) just normalizing being gay,” Quintero said.
Pride Volunteer Director Angie Poss said Pride events are held nationally to commemorate the anti-discrimination riots at New York City’s Stonewall gay bar in 1969.
“Basically, the police had been raiding different gay bars. (Eventually), (gays) realized, ‘There’s more of us than there are of them,’ so they rioted back,” Poss said. “They started marching as a group and finally got the police to protect them instead of attacking them.”
Although Hernandez doesn’t identify as a gay man, he said he feels connected to the victims of the Stonewall incident.
“I feel a kindred spirit to the (LGBT) community. I was only a few miles away when Stonewall took place on June 28, 1969,” he said. “Ten years later, a few miles away from where Stonewall took place, I too was roughed up by a few Irish cops, because I was dating an Irish girl. I understand what it feels like to be discriminated against.”
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Still, the Albuquerque Pride Festival is not only about protesting injustice; it’s also about having a good time.
For example, UNM QSA is hosting a youth dance on Saturday night. The event is for people aged 21 and under and will take place at the State Fairgrounds.
Quintero said the Pride festivities are meant to be enjoyed by the whole city, regardless of an individual’s sexual orientation.
“It’s for allies,” he said. “It’s for everyone to celebrate diversity, in full — in every aspect. We’re inviting everyone. It’s going to be a red-carpet event.”
UNM students who want to march in the parade can meet with QSA on Johnson Field at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Hernandez said the event has already attracted about 100 people wishing to volunteer.
“We will have more youth than ever,” he said. “I think this is a beginning of statewide organizations for Pride.”
Besides the parade, Pride will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday night at Morningside Park in addition to parties going on throughout the weekend, Hernandez said.
“There’s going to be loud music, people dancing, people in skimpy outfits — lots of skimpy outfits,” Hernandez said. “We’re going to outdo Don Schrader on that one.”
By far, Hernandez said, the parade will be the most visually spectacular part of the weekend’s events.
“There’s going to be people square dancing. There’s going to be lots of people on horses. There’s going to be ‘Dikes on Bikes,’ which is (an organization of) women on motorcycles,” Hernandez said. “We’re going to have an all-GLBT marching band, and that will hopefully grow. And we’re going to have a bus from the City of Albuquerque, a really old bus, from the 1920s … And, of course, we’re going to have drag queens inside of it, which will remind everybody of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.’”
*Visit ABQPride.com for a full schedule of events.
Ticket prices vary.
Pride Parade starts at Central & Girard at 10:30 a.m. Saturday*
