Pride Month 2021: Culver City's First Pride Rally, Queer Prom

CULVER CITY, CA — As parades, celebrations and parties for Pride Month 2021 are held all over the country this June, people in and near Santa Monica are planning and holding gay pride events of their own.

Pride Month celebrations in Culver City and nearby include:

• Culver City Pride Rally: Bring your favorite pride colors, family and friends to Culver City's first-ever pride event Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. at Dale Jones City Hall Courtyard in front of City Hall, 9770 Culver Blvd., Culver City. The event features a line-up of speakers from community leaders and elected officials, along with information about local organizations, and activities for kids and adults. Light refreshments will be served. Anyone with questions can email event organizers.
• SaMo Pride Art Walk "safely celebrates our city's inclusive and diverse spirit, with a focus on family-friendly displays and activities that can be enjoyed at your leisure." The locations include the Santa Monica Pier, Downtown Santa Monica, and Santa Monica Place. It's in collaboration with the City of Santa Monica and Santa Monica Travel and Tourism.
• Queer Prom is held at Annenberg Community Beach House Friday. The theme is Enchanted Forest Masquerade Ball and it's open to all ages. Tickets are available for purchase.
• Heal the Bay Presents Queers on the Pier celebrates the "bridge between the Queer Community and Environmentalism." The drag show is streaming on Friday from Heal the Bay Aquarium at the Santa Monica Pier. Tickets are available online.

Pride Month spotlights LGBTQ+ people, their influence and the challenges they face. June was chosen in recognition of the 1969 Stonewall riots, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

The raid led to a riot among patrons and local residents, with days of protests and violent clashes with police. The Stonewall riots ultimately sparked a gay rights movement nationally and globally, according to the Library of Congress.

The Pride celebration was originally dubbed "Gay Pride Day" and marked the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a parade in New York City.

The "day" soon grew to encompass a monthlong series of events in many American cities. It now includes millions of people across the world with parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, the Library of Congress said.

New York City, where Pride Month began, has hosted an annual march to note its historical connection since 1984, with this year's NYC Pride march set for June 27.

Several other big cities across the country hold similar annual events in late June. Chicago Pride 2021 will include a variety of events around the city this month, with the Chicago Pride Parade delayed until October due to the coronavirus pandemic. Houston Pride 2021 has also been delayed until the fall.

Virtual Pride events are being held all month, according to a University of Georgia list that includes many of them.

Police officers in Elgin, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, are wearing a Pride Month badge throughout June to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. In Arlington Heights, Illinois, another Chicago suburb, a Pride Month proclamation states that the village "cherishes the value and dignity of each person."

Read More On Patch: Illinois Police Officers Show Support With Pride Month Badge

More rural areas have also began marking June as Pride Month in recent years.

"Each summer, Pride is an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of identities, experiences and histories in the LGBTQ community and recognize all who have and continue to advocate for LGBTQ lives, rights and visibility," Rayne Parker, assistant director of the office of LGBTQ resources at the University of Kentucky, said in a news release.

"As with other recognition months, this is an opportunity to highlight LGBTQ pride and advocacy and should continue to be recognized all year long," Parker said.

Pride events worldwide in 2021 are accompanied by the unveiling of a new pride flag that was changed to include intersex people, Advocate.com and others have reported. Intersex people have bodies that fall outside the strict male/female binary, according to Planned Parenthood.

- Patch Editors Emily Leayman and Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

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