From the Pacific Pride Foundation web site:
Pacific Pride Foundation (PPF) began in 1976 as a Drug and Alcohol Abuse Counseling and Referral center for Gay men and Lesbians. In 1984 the agency initiated the AIDS Counseling and Assistance Program (AIDS CAP), in an effort to contend with the emerging HIV epidemic, and began offering free, anonymous HIV Testing in 1985 as one of the first county test sites.
In 1994, the organization changed its name to Pacific Pride Foundation, providing high quality, compassionate health and social service programs not available through any other organization in Santa Barbara County.
So, they are celebrating their 50th year of service in our community. The celebration was quite colorful and welcoming at Chase Palm Park this past Saturday. I met up with a number of friends and I don’t know if they are LGBTQ+ or are just supporters like me.
Before I even entered, I was happy to talk to my friend Kim Stanley who was running the MOVE Santa Barbara Bike Valet. I took the bus from Goleta then biked on over from the Transit Center.
And then I met my friend Nimita, of Nimita’s Cuisine. She was the official provider of food for the staff and performers at the event. Her food is so delicious and I was honored and delighted that she gave me the royal treatment, giving me samples of all of her tasty treats! Nimita grew up in the Canary Islands of Spain and had just returned from there. Her background is very multicultural. She told me that her family is distantly related to Gandhi’s and much of her cuisine is Indian.
My timing was such that I missed the drag shows. But some of the performers came to Nimita! These two are grad students at UCSB. The one on the right is Linda and studies cell biology. The one on the left is in linguistics and studies gay styles of speaking as well as pronoun usage.
These volunteers made for a colorful photo with the twins forming a sandwich with the guy in the middle.
For some reason the event was surrounded by a tall fence, with just one point of entry. Even though the event was free to attend. Here I entered that point, which of course was decorated with a rainbow of balloons.
Immediately upon entering I encountered my friends Katie and Ana, who you may recognize from Solstice. Ana is also a long time volunteer with BUNS, rescuing pet bunnies without a home. Bunnies are not only good pets, but they are very environmentally sustainable as they don’t eat meat!
The one performance I did catch really caught me by surprise. A Mariachi band! Was this Fiesta? The lead singer paused to explain the song before finishing it up. “Basically, I’m telling him off because he’s leaving me for her.”
This guy kindly posed with his MILF t-shirt. I told him the last MILF variant I saw said “Man I Love Frogs”. This one was a tribute to protecting Mother Earth.
There were two walls of tribute to friends who have been lost. Here was one.
The Santa Barbara Public Library was there with a portable library collection.
There were dozens of booths of a wide range of organizations and services.
My dear friend DJ Darla Bea was spinning tunes for the occasion.
Her friend Patricia posed with this glittery butterfly.
Not sure if Honda approved this shirt, but this gentleman was definitely showing his pride!
Darla Bea invited these kids up on stage to dance to her music.
Next to Darla Bea was a petting zoo with a variety of animals.
One big surprise: A rather powerful downpour! Here is my video of the petting zoo where you can see the rain coming down hard! You can see the bunnies being rescued from the rain.
The Santa Barbara Police were showing their pride, giving out candy and blowing colorful bubbles!
For more information about this event and about Pacific Pride, here is their web site. Now more than ever they need community support.
https://pacificpridefoundation.org/summer-of-pride/pacific-pride-festival/
– Robert Bernstein
Man I Love Frogs!