Twelve-year-old Isabella Sofia Hernandez, who recently came out as lesbian, rode on West Hollywood’s official float with Lindsey Horvath and other council members. (photo courtesy of Lindsey Horvath)

West Hollywood kicked off Pride Month on June 3, providing thousands of residents and visitors with events, activities and concerts celebrating the entire LGBTQ+ community.

“The city of West Hollywood’s inaugural WeHo Pride was a huge success,” Mayor Lauren Meister said. “City staff, the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station and JJLA did a great job of organizing the event, focusing on inclusivity, providing space for a variety of organizations and keeping attendees safe.”

“A lot of people told me they felt more inclusivity this year,” Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne said. “This year, we didn’t just say that everyone is welcome, we made sure that we created spaces where everyone felt welcome.”

Meister said that, in particular, the Dyke March on June 3 was “spectacular.”

“Seeing LGBTQ people and allies en masse, all different ages and races, couples, families and, of course, the motorcycles leading the charge down Santa Monica Boulevard was inspiring.”

Newly-out lesbian 12-year-old Isabella Sofia Hernandez rode on the city’s official float in the June 5 WeHo Pride Parade with the council members.

“I was extremely excited, but at the same time very overwhelmed,” Hernandez said. “I was not sure what to expect while attending the parade. But when I got on that float and saw everyone together, it gave me a sense of excitement and relief. I saw the love and excitement people were showing. I saw the smiles on many people’s faces and heard cheers that could have been heard from a mile away. And when I saw my family cheering me on, I just wanted to run to them and give them the biggest hug in the world.”

“We are so proud of her for having the courage to tell us who she is,” Isabella’s father Omar Hernandez said. “We will always be there for her, her sister and the LGBTQ+ community as we seek their support in raising strong, intelligent and proud little women.”

WeHo Pride was one of two large-scale Pride weekends to be hosted in Los Angeles County this month, with LA Pride set to kickoff June 10 with events around the city, including a Pride parade in Hollywood June 12, which will step off from the corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga boulevards at 10:30 a.m.

A ticketed Pride concert will include performances from Christina Aguilera and Anitta on June 11 at the L.A. State Historic Park. For information about the events, visit lapride.org.

“As the representative for Hollywood and a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I couldn’t be more excited for the return of the LA Pride Parade to Hollywood, where it originated 52 years ago [in 1970],” Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell said. “Hollywood and the 13th District are foundational to the LGBTQ+ movement in Los Angeles. We are looking forward to a welcoming, inclusive event that brings visibility to our community, pays homage to our history and looks to the future. We are still fighting to ensure that members of the LGBTQ+ community can live openly and equitably with pride.”

O’Farrell led an initiative to light a .6 mile stretch of Hollywood Boulevard in rainbow colors for the month of June, alongside the The Hollywood Partnership, the nonprofit that manages the public domain within the Hollywood Entertainment District.

LA Pride, which is produced by the company Christopher Street West, will move to Hollywood as its base for the first time in almost 40 years.

“LA Pride is the original, official Pride of Los Angeles,” said Gerald Garth, vice president of community programming and initiatives with Christopher Street West. With the support of our great partners and friends, such as TikTok and ABC7, we’re excited to make Pride available this month through a host of events. Pride in the Park headlined by Christina Aguilera on June 11 at the Los Angeles Historic State Park is our biggest music moment to date. On June 12, we’ll be in Hollywood for our official LA Pride Parade with our Icon Grand Marshal Paula Abdul, and a time to share and celebrate with all our community. The parade is followed by the Hollywood Pride Village, a free, open-to-the-public daylong event.”

Garth noted that the organization will hold additional Pride events until the end of June.

“We’ll be celebrating Pride throughout the month with Pride Makes a Difference, our community volunteer and donation program, and our very first Salon Series event on June 16, which is centered around community education, dialogue, and socializing,” Garth added.

Other annual Pride events have been organized in Los Angeles County locations in recent decades, including in Venice and Long Beach. On June 2, Beverly Hills held its first Pride event, with an evening of music, dancing and socializing at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

“I want to thank everybody who put this together,” Mayor Lili Bosse said. “This was a gift of love. This truly is Beverly Hills saying, ‘We have Pride.’”

In West Hollywood, there were some criticisms from the community in regards to certain aspects of the city’s inaugural Pride event, particularly the inclusion of Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva in the June 5 parade.

“When I learned the sheriff was on sight, that was news to me,” Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath said. “I would agree with comments characterizing his leadership [negatively] in regards to the LGBTQ community.”

“He is the elected sheriff of this county, and we allow elected representatives to participate in this festival and parade, and… if people booed, if people turned their thumbs, if people turned their backs, he arrived for that experience,” D’Amico said. “I think we have a lot of work to do in terms of our sheriff’s department, but we also have to oftentimes be the adults in the room and say that he was elected … and got himself into that position, and we can institutionalize the critique of his work and work to make the entire sheriff’s department better as well as support our local station and our newly-to-be-installed captain to keep us safe.”

Councilman John D’Amico suggested that WeHo Pride was a “new” kind of event in comparison with other cities’ Pride celebrations.

“We are inventing a new way of celebrating Pride,” D’Amico said. “The old way is happening in Hollywood [a few] days from now. Have a great time, I’m sure it will be terrific. It will be more reminiscent of the kind of things that used to happen here. But what’s happening here, is we are inventing a new future, one that acknowledges the history of Pride but is not suffering under its over-burdened history. Frankly, sometimes, you need to break some eggs to come up with a different kind of omelet.”

D’Amico also pointed out the many free events the city provided.

“There was more free, zero-cost entertainment and opportunity to participate than ever before,” D’Amico said.

“I think that we have room to grow and do better and we should,” Horvath said. “And I take [these] comments seriously, and I hope that they will be taken seriously as part of a broader discussion of Pride. But that being said, for an inaugural event, there was a lot that was inclusive and representative of what is good about our community and what we celebrate about our LGBTQ+ community.”

“For being [the city’s] first Pride, you wouldn’t thought we’d been doing it for years,” Councilman John Erickson said. “We know how to do Pride because Pride lives in West Hollywood.”