A participant in the 2019 LA Pride parade holds a poster honoring activist and drag queen Marsha P. Johnson. (photo by Jon Viscott)

West Hollywood City Council finalized plans May 17 for the city’s inaugural WeHo Pride, which will take place over the June 3-5 weekend. While this will be far from the first time West Hollywood has hosted Pride activities, it will be the first time that the city has organized its own event. This Pride will be separate from the events planned the following weekend for LA Pride, hosted by Christopher Street West and to be centered around a parade in Hollywood.

WeHo Pride has worked to offer a wide range of activities and to be more inclusive than perhaps any similar Pride weekend.

To kick off the festivities, the city’s annual reading of “Dear Harvey,” staged in honor of Harvey Milk Day on May 22, will be performed by an entirely transgender and non-binary cast. This also marks the first event of the 40-day WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, which is using the theme “With Liberty, Diversity, Inclusion and Progress For All.”

“I am proud to be part of a city that values inclusion and welcomes all people,” Mayor Lauren Meister said. “The city of West Hollywood’s concerted efforts to include the many voices that live, work and play in West Hollywood will certainly be reflected in the city’s inaugural WeHo Pride.”

“Now that the city is producing its own WeHo Pride, everything is now directly controlled by the city,” West Hollywood’s art coordinator Mike Che said. “It’s very intentional to be inclusive. I, myself, am a person of color. I know what it was like to not feel accepted because [of being] gay. Once I came out to the gay community, [I found out] that it wasn’t all that accepting if you were a person of color. I’ve always been very mindful of that. This year, especially, we have a lot of transgender artists that are represented.”

Che said that the inclusiveness across Pride events is especially important at this moment in time.

“There is such a pushback, especially against the transgender community, [and] people’s rights in general, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights in general with the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills,” Che said, adding that the diversity extends to even putting together the panel that determines which organizations will receive grants from the West Hollywood Arts Division during Pride month.

“I try to be thoughtful about the panel that we’re putting together, because I try to make sure that there is a lot of diversity on the grant panel so that there are people of color, women, transgender people on that panel who are doing the reviews,” Che said.

“I think Pride is definitely expanding its horizons beyond a cis white gay male narrative,” model, host and socialite Arisce Wanzer said. Wanzer can also be seen in the fifth season of the MTV series “Ex on the Beach.”

“That being said, I’d love to see a balance of the Harvey Milk storytelling with another, more likely next year, of the Marsha P. Johnson story by queer people who aren’t trans or non-binary too,” Wanzer added.

Wanzer will also be one of the hosts on the main stage at the WeHo Pride “OUTLOUD: WeHo Pride” music festival throughout Pride weekend.

“I personally have had the honor and privilege to host the main stage twice already, this being my third time live. We’ve gone from just two hosts, Billy Francesca and myself, to a much more diverse expanse of six. All are different identifying in the community and very talented. I’m excited to share the stage with them.”

“Every year, we [challenge] the event organizers to further expand the idea, the story, the expression and the celebration of Pride, knowing that each year, and each generation brings new meaning to bear on what it means to be LGBTQ,” Councilman John D’Amico said.

“The producers of WeHo Pride have gotten an array of singers, drag performers, hosts and stage crew with diverse backgrounds and queer identities,” Wanzer said. “I mean, I never thought I’d get to see and announce Lil Kil and Years and Years at the same venue. It’s amazing.”

On the first day of Pride weekend, the city will host the annual Dyke March, which will include poetry reading, sign-making, special speakers, a DJ and the Dykes on Bikes contingent. The Dyke March will begin at the corners of Robertson and Santa Monica boulevards, and will also feature the presentation of the Melissa Etheridge and Community Activists awards.

Following the march, the Women’s Freedom Festival will be held at the WeHo Pride Street Fair stage, located near West Hollywood Park. The festival will showcase LGBTQ and BIPOC women and non-binary musicians, comedian, poets and activists. Milck will also sing her new protest song, “We Won’t Go Back.”

On June 16, the city will co-sponsor a Slay Model Management community and press event at the Heart WeHo nightclub. Slay is a management company that represents transgender fashion talent. Slay started in 2016 as the first and, at the time, only trans-exclusive model management organization.

“[We are] bringing trans identity, TGI identity in fashion and entertainment,” said Abdullah Hall, who represented Slay at the May 16 City Council meeting. “We’ll be inviting plenty of the community people out, [including] Trans Latina Coalition, Unique Women’s Coalition APAIT, Trans Chorus Los Angeles and everybody else in the TGI community to show fair and equal representation of the trans community here in West Hollywood.”

Additionally, Che said that the arts division is helping to fund New Stages, a group that works with LGBTQ seniors, and Pride Poets, which sets up typewriters at Pride events and gives the community opportunities to write poetry.

“It feels exhilarating to be a big part of shaping a new inclusive and equitable vision for WeHo Pride which includes all members of our LGBTQ+ community,” Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne said. “As part of the Pride subcommittee as well as on council, I have prioritized more transparency, pushed for a large portion of sponsorship money back to the city to lower our spend of taxpayer dollars, created more inclusion through actual opportunities for all our community members to participate and a partnership with our contracted Pride producer, JJLA, which centers West Hollywood.”

“West Hollywood has not only put out the hand but our monetary investments to ensure that they’re not only a part of our story, but they’re a part of our story from the very beginning,” Councilman John Erickson said. “That’s why West Hollywood is the first Pride in June here in Los Angeles that’s going to show everyone how, why and the importance of having the beautiful rainbow of our community centered first and foremost for everyone to take part in.”