Santa Cruz Pride 2017 shows a unified front
SANTA CRUZ >> Tam Welch is a queer single parent and a Korean-American adoptee. Welch is also a gender and sexuality specialist at UC Santa Cruz's Cantú Queer Center and Grand Marshal of the 2017 Santa Cruz Pride.
Despite the multiple signifiers attached to identity these days, Welch asked the crowd gathered at Santa Cruz Pride on Sunday to cast aside labels and rally together as a unified, activist whole.
"We have seen local activist groups lose sight of the big picture by attacking potential allies. Now is not the time undermine one another. It's a time to come together with one voice," said Welch.
Welch's call to action echoed the theme of Sunday's event — Indivisible, which was conceived by Santa Cruz Pride committee member and webmaster Mike Tossy.
"Now more than ever we have to come together," said Tossy.
Dressed in a shimmering sequin tank top, Dahlia Michaels of Eugene, Oregon agreed wholeheartedly.
"We're at a time and place in history where we have to unify to address the larger, conspiring forces," said Michaels. "It's like the ‘Lord of the (damn) Rings,' sister. We all need to put our petty differences aside and rally together to fight against ‘President Sauron' and his minions."
California Secretary for Natural Resources and longtime local leader John Laird has spoken at Santa Cruz Pride for 36 consecutive years. On Sunday, he acknowledged the great strides the LGBTQ community has made over the decades, but said there is still much to be done.
"People are still being persecuted abroad and even here at home for their sexuality. Until every human being can feel safe and respected, the movement will never rest," said Laird.
Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, who marched in the parade with his 10-year-old daughter Gia, mirrored the messaging around him.
"By coming together at events just like this one we show solidarity and a larger unified front," said Panetta.
In addition to the thousands of Pride celebrants, dozens of local organizations also gathered at the event.
Kalila Zunes-Wolfe was on hand Sunday to get the word out that the Santa Cruz Aids Project provides HIV testing in both the Santa Cruz and Watsonville areas.
"Totally anonymous, totally free," said Zunes-Wolfe.
As Santa Cruz queer party band Frootie Flavors knocked out punchy, punk-flavored originals, Michaels spoke of the one-year anniversary of the Orlando nightclub shooting, which will be observed June 12.
On that night, a security guard killed 49 people and wounded 53 others inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. It was both the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQ people U.S. history.
"Violence towards a community of people is violence. Trump and his people think we can be intimidated or that we can't or won't fight back, but they're wrong," said Michaels. "It's only going to make us stronger."