Three years ago, Woodland celebrated its first Pride Parade at Woodland Community College welcoming roughly 100 community members to march around the perimeter of the school demonstrating their support for the city's LGBTQ+ community.
On Saturday, the city celebrated its fourth annual Pride Parade along Main Street in downtown Woodland with a few hundred people in attendance showing that the event has been growing in popularity and awareness.
CommuniCare+OLE hosted the event in partnership with Yolo County Health and Human Services and Woodland United Methodist Church.
Several organizations participated in the parade including CommuniCare+OLE, the Davis Phoenix Coalition, Mojo's Lounge & Bar, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Visión y Compromiso, Woodland Area Roller Derby, Woodland United Methodist Church, Yolo County Diversion Courts and Empower Yolo.
Mayor Tania Garcia-Cadena helped announce the participating organizations during the parade noting that she canceled her plans for the weekend to make sure she could be there.
"Any events that we have in Woodland that are family-inclusive and bring people out to celebrate is something that we all should be involved in, and we should be out here supporting," she emphasized. "CommuniCare+OLE did a great job of organizing. I just had to show up."
Ricky Hurtado, outreach manager for CommuniCare+OLE, explained that his organization has been able to expand the event every year.
"Last year with some road closures for the first time," he stated. "Previous years to that, we were walking on the sidewalk here on Main Street."
He thanked the many local organizations who have gotten involved arguing that the "support from either Woodland or the nearby communities coming out to support this important day and month" is important to ensure the city's LGBTQ+ community feels supported.
Councilman Tom Stallard participated in the parade to show his support. He argued that the city has made "great progress" in recent years towards "being a far more accepting place."
"It's been often said that we've reached a point where everybody knows somebody who's gay, oftentimes somebody in their own family," Stallard remarked. "In our family, our oldest son's gay. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska and recently married a fellow from Argentina, and they're really good people and are very happy.
"I've taken some pictures to send up to Tim to show him how his hometown is embracing people of all points of view to identities and the like."
The parade lasted roughly 30 minutes, but the festivities continued at United Methodist Church, located at 212 Second St., with an ice cream social and resource fair featuring giveaways, games, a photo booth and more.
Joe Gonzales, associate pastor and director of Latino ministries for the church, highlighted the church's goals to be more inclusive given its "exclusive" mentality in the past.
"We're trying to show everybody how inclusive we're trying to be while also trying to fix the problems and the errors that we've caused before," Gonzales stressed. "Historically, many churches have had this opinion that you have to be a certain color, race, gender or sexuality and we're breaking down that barrier."
Gonzales noted that the United Methodist Church recently removed anti-LGBTQ+ verbiage from its laws meaning that its churches are now able to hold events like these without worrying about negative consequences.
The 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. event continued with guests enjoying festivities and music from DJ Lady Char, who created "a festive atmosphere to celebrate love and inclusion."
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