While not as raucous as our summer celebrations, Russian River Pride gave us a worthy cause for all our rainbow outfits and flags to come out on a sunny Oct. 15.
The Sunday festivities marked a reboot of the celebration since 2019, with a few motivations: promoting sobriety, queer seniors, national Coming Out Day, and raising awareness of LGBTQ issues in a moment that legislation has tried to quell those discussions.
“This is not a time to allow Pride celebrations to go away,” said noted LGBTQ-rights activist Cleve Jones in The Press Democrat. “In our opinion, this is a time to make sure these things happen.”
He teamed with Brian Hughes of Russian River Alliance and Juanita More to host a parade, beach party, health fair and other activities over a weekend calendar. The whole affair acted as a $70,000 fundraiser for Guerneville library, the Russian River Alliance’s Workforce Fund, the Guerneville Youth Center, Watch Duty Fire Alert System, and the Food for Thought Food bank.
And it provided reason to don our multicolored outfits during a month we’re typically focused on other costumes. October is definitely our month to party before steering headlong into ugly sweater and family obligation season.
Photos from Russian River Pride
All photos by Gooch.
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