'Pride' Takes Center Stage In Palm Springs

Leather vests, rainbow-spangled baseball hats covering white hair, rainbow suspenders, rainbow dog kerchiefs and that special blend of tourism, rodeo, retirement, youth, Gay Pride and real estate.
It’s the 20th year of Palm Springs Pride, a two-day festival dedicated to celebrating the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in a city measured by the Census as one of the “gayest” per capita in the United States.
Rick Bard, 45, of Salisbury, N.C. came to town for five days for the Pride Festival and to visit friends. He said he had not been to Palm Springs Pride, but had been to Palm Springs for vacation before.
“I think it’s a welcome embrace to the cultural diversity of the town, “ said Bard, who has been out for 25 years, he said. “It’s nice to see couples from the young to the old. I’ve been to Pride events before (in other cities) where everybody is.”
Bard said he was most looking forward to Dykes on Bikes, who returned to the parade this year with 17 motorcycles.
He admits the other thing he likes about Pride is “the dyed poodles.”
Bard said he likes Palm Springs because it is a place with a “comfortable population.”
Renee Divine, of Sky Valley, an out lesbian for about 20 years, was attending her 14 or 15th Palm Springs Pride parade. She and her partner remembered going to the parade many years ago when it wasn’t held on Palm Canyon, but on auxiliary streets.
“I think it’s fantastic and that it’s downtown and right in the heart of Palm Springs. We don’t have to worry about people staring at us.”
Thousands lined the parade route from Alejo to Ramon — from men in their early 20s to couples both male and female who are of retirement age. The golf shirt and shorts, the $450 LA jeans, the barechested, the proud t-shirt slogans, the lesbian clad in only a brown bikini, the Leather Order of the Desert in boots and and straps, all different uniforms were accepted.
Scott Betti of Palm Desert, who works for Trader Joe’s and his friends Gary Goodrich, who is in management in San Diego and Jan Hensley, who’s retired and lives in Hemet styled themselves as the “Drag Queen Repair Team,” dressed in shocking green t-shirts, equiped with extra false eyelashes, hydrogen peroxide and nail polish remover in tool belts as they passed out beads to Pride attendees.
“We’re beautifying the street, a little pink at a time,” Betti quipped. It’s their second year as the “Drag Queen Repair Team.”
“There’s no such thing as natural beauty,” said Goodrich, quoting the line from movie “Steel Magnolias” line for line from memory.
Betti and Goodrich described themselves as out gay males. Hensley said “I’m married. I’m straight. I’m just here to support my boys.”
Betti said that despite their fun-filled endeavor, Pride is “all about getting together and having a good time,” as a community — not just about the more extravagantly made up members of the community, though local female impersonators — like the famed Pinkie — passed by looking in no need of repairs.
The parade was led by a flower-adorned car bearing a portrait of Bob Hoven, considered the “father of Pride” in the desert, who passed away this year.
“Bob Hoven, 1931-2006 Man of the Year,” the black convertible’s placard read.
Hoven was the founder of one of the desert’s first gay publications and was one of the best-known people in the local community.
Other messages were also sent by floats in the parade. The California Teachers Association group urged Pride attendees to vote on Tuesday and carried printed rainbow placards reading “Thank You Fire Fighters” to the fire fighters who fought the deadly 40,200-acre Esperanza Fire near Cabazon in the past weeks.
Gay veterans, real estate and home building companies and local gay politicians were also out in force in the parade.
Palm Springs Councilman Steve Pougnet rode in a convertible with his partner Chris Green. The two dads have just welcomed a set of twins. “The babies are home sleeping,” Pougnet said from the car. “They’re too young.”
Other Palm Springs politicians including Mayor Pro Tem Ginny Foat, Councilman Mike McCullough and Mayor Ron Oden, rode in convertibles. Oden greeted paradgoers with “Good Morning Everyone!Happy Pride!“
Cathedral City’s politicians were out in force as well, with Chuck Vaszquez and Paul Marchand, both openly gay and up for re-election riding in convertibles. Councilman Greg Pettis rode in a convertible with Mark Leno, a Demoractic state official. Mayor Kathy DeRosa, also on the Nov. 7 ballot for re-election, waved to constituents from her convertible.
Democratic candidate for Congress David Roth brought a contingent of about 50 marchers, decked out in blue Roth t-shirts and rainbow Roth bumperstickers.
High school and college students were represented, with a group of Palm Springs High School students on a Gay Associated Youth float and students from Twentynine Palms High School marching to represent their school. College of the Desert and Riverside Community College students also brought chapters of their schools’ gay student groups.
Gay Rodeo paraded the flags of the 50 states, held by 50 gay cowboys. “Great Outdoors,” a group of 4X4 Jeep outdoor enthusiasts also had floats in the parade.
Boots In Squares, “GLBT Square Dancing in the Coachella Valley” danced along and invited people to join their Monday night square dances.
Pride groups from other California cities checked in as well, with contingents from San Diego, Long Beach and San Francisco. The Bienestar group from the greater LA area marched to Latin dance music.
The Los Angeles Police Department, which stressed that it is hiring, sent a sharp black Hummer with a female officer waving a large rainbow flag. Cheerleading groups from San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles marched and did stunts.
The Palm Springs High School Marching Band was greeted with great enthusiasm, their red, black and white uniforms and marching movements crisp in the November warmth.
The Braille Institute of Rancho Mirage entered a group that got some of the loudest applause along the route. The “Cane Pride: Precision White Cane Drill Team,” a group of visually impaired and blind marchers, stepped right along with their red-tipped white canes leading the way.
It was the 17 motorcycles ridden by more than 30 Dykes on Bikes that brought up the parade’s finale. The group had not been allowed to ride last year.
Women, two to a bike, from Sharon Stone look alikes on Harleys to a regal blonde in turquoise fringed suede chaps to a gal resembling a more masculine Ernest Borgnine revved their hogs to the approval of the crowd.
As thousands lining the streets made their way to the Pride Festival at Sunrise Park, to the area’s clubs and bars and to downtown restaurants, Tom Sweet, recently retired to Thousand Palms, said “There’s nothing like Palm Springs.”
from The Desert Sun