This post was updated June 25 at 11:31 p.m.
There is Pride even amid prejudice.
Christopher Street West held its 56th annual Los Angeles Pride Parade in Hollywood on June 14. The nonprofit’s theme for the celebration was “Rise with Pride,” which serves the dual purpose of encouraging celebration and inspiring action, according to an emailed statement from Michael Samonte of The Samonte Group communications and public relations agency. The parade honored Celebrity Grand Marshal and Emmy Award-winning actor Jeff Hiller as well as Community Grand Marshal Mia Yamamoto, a UCLA School of Law alumnus and civil rights activist. Legacy Grand Marshal Shirley Raines was celebrated posthumously for her contributions to the LGBTQ+ community, such as through founding Beauty 2 The Streetz, a nonprofit that offers beauty and hygiene services to people experiencing homelessness in Skid Row. Beauty 2 The Streetz board member Joy Taylor represented Raines on the parade route.
CSW board president Lawrence Carroll and Taylor spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon about what the parade’s theme looks like in practice.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Daily Bruin: As a CSW board member for about half a decade, you mentioned you realized an important aspect of LA Pride is its free admission. Can you elaborate on that value?
Lawrence Carroll: It’s hard out here in these streets. To price people out of something that should be for them, and that started as a movement where money wasn’t involved, would go against what Pride is really all about. This is a movement to declare that we have a right to exist, that people should not be kept out of certain spaces just because of who we love and how we identify. So why put a dollar amount on that? There shouldn’t be.
That’s not to say that we don’t need resources. We are a nonprofit. Every nonprofit and every organization needs resources, even monetary resources, in order to create things and to serve, so that’s where our partnerships come into play. We have fantastic partners who understand that mission, and so without them it will be difficult to do this work, but we also need the community to also be part of that as well.
DB: You mentioned CSW is engaging Generation Z in its efforts, such as through its Youth Advisory Board. Why Gen Z specifically?
LC: Every generation has something of value to add. What I love about Gen Z, and what I’ve learned from Gen Z, is that fairness is paramount, and treating people right is paramount. Those are some of my takeaways from Gen Z, and Gen Z pushes people to think about – how are we treating others, how are we treating the world, how are we treating ourselves and are we doing things right? Without Gen Z being so vocal about it, I think a lot of folks would just be OK with the status quo. Gen Z has now come up and been like, “No, we’re going to shake (it) up.”
[Related: Gallery: ‘Love yourself, no matter who you are’: 2026 WeHo Pride Parade celebrates in style]
DB: You described Raines’ work as humanizing. What does that look like in practice for other people hoping to embody that value?
Joy Taylor: We are very disconnected, and we have gotten to a place in society with technology where people are sort of replaceable and interchangeable. When you really connect with your local community first – and then your global community – in a way where you see people for who they are and where they are, rather than what you aspire for things to be or what you expect things to be, it really changes things.
There’s a lot of rhetoric around who deserves what and who should have what rights and what’s accepted in the world, and we’re all here together, equal. It’s something that people should really think about, because as the world seems to get a bit darker, we have to come together. Days like today are a good representation of that.
DB: What would you want to share with younger generations this Pride Month?
JT: It’s your time to paint the world the way that you want it to be. A lot of us have done the work when we were students, when we were younger. You guys have a whole lot of mess, unfortunately, that the generations before you have left at your feet, but I have a lot of faith that the younger generation will find their voice and push back on this regime and the impending oppression that they’re trying to really do to your generation.
I’m very excited about the future and having students be able to have the voice that they have. The freedom to express themselves to stand up for what they believe in is very important. Every generation has their battle, and you guys have a big one, but I think that when you come together and really get a movement started, there are more of us than there are of them. It’s the world that you’re going to create for yourselves.
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