Pride Weekend Kicks Off In Palm Springs
PALM SPRINGS – Gays should participate in this weekend’s Greater Palm Springs Festival and Parade to show straights they’re “not something to be feared,” a local resident said today.
“When gay people become visible and are visible, then people come to understand that we are everybody and we are not something to be feared,” said Bob Thomas, 55, of Palm Springs, who plans to march in Sunday’s parade with his husband.
“It’s demonstrated over and over again that the more people realize they know gay people, the more they come to understand that having bias and prejudice about people being gay ultimately doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.
More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the 23rd annual parade and festival, themed “Your Rights, Our Rights, Human Rights.”
The festival begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at Palm Springs Stadium, 1901 Baristo Road.
Thomas, who has participated in the Palm Springs Task Force for Marriage Equality, said he was disappointed by the rejection of the legalization of same-sex marriage by voters in Maine earlier this week and Californians last year.
“The other side of the coin is if you can look past the disappointment, you can see the progress. The progress is inevitable,” Thomas said.
Cleve Jones, a gay-rights activist, will be the grand marshal of Sunday’s parade along Palm Canyon Drive between Alejo and Ramon roads.
Jones, a Palm Springs resident, served as an historical consultantin Gus Van Sant’s film “Milk” about slain activist Harvey Milk, a San Francisco County supervisor who was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California.
Jones is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Harvard AIDS Institute and a board member of the Foundation for AIDS and Immune Research.
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, his partner and their two children will participate in the parade, along with Mayor Pro Tem Chris Mills and Councilwoman Ginny Foat, who were recently reelected, and fellow council members Rick Hutcheson and Lee Weigel and their families.
