By Louis Medina

Local gay community members want Proposition 8 supporters, religious critics and bigots to take note: “Gay is good.” That’s the slogan they’re embracing as the theme of this year’s Bakersfield Pride Celebration, to be held Oct. 17 at Stramler Park.

Shelby Himes has volunteered as entertainment chair for Bakersfield Pride for several years. Recently, she led about 15 planning committee members at the Metropolitan Community Church of the Harvest. Photo by Louis Medina

The festival’s organizing committee was unanimous in choosing “Gay is good” as almost a kind of battle cry in January, said Whitney Weddell, Bakersfield Pride director with gay rights advocacy group Bakersfield LGBTQ.

“I’m tired of this right-wing implication that gay is bad,” was the overall sentiment, she said. The gay community found comfort in the slogan as it climbed from the depths of disappointment over the passage, just two months prior of Prop. 8, which took away gays’ right to marry in California.

Bakersfield native Melissa Gibson said “Gay is good” is “a bold statement that we’re good, too. There’s nothing inherently negative about being gay.”

The 28-year-old case manager for a local social service agency grew up in Bakersfield but lived in the San Francisco Bay Area during most of her 20s. There, she said, the gay community is a “celebrated community” with lots of noticeably gay-friendly shops, bars, restaurants and other businesses and organizations—unlike Bakersfield. Here, she said, “You kind of have to know the secret code: where things are and where people are”—as gay-friendly bars and online meet-up groups can pretty much be counted on the fingers of one hand.

She is grateful for Bakersfield Pride, saying, “I think it’s very important that we continue to have these types of events that shed positive light and that are social in nature.” Gibson liked last year’s Pride. “It was very family oriented,” she said, “which I think is important in this community. Family is important in Bakersfield.”

New Venue and Federal Sponsors

The sixth annual Bakersfield Pride will be held for the first time at Stramler Park, having outgrown its previous venue, the gardens of the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Attendance, which had usually been about 500, shot up to 700 last year.

The U.S. Census Bureau took notice: The 2010 Census is a main sponsor of Bakersfield Pride this year and will be on hand the day of the event to gather demographic information on attendees. “They’re making a concerted effort to count gay and lesbian couples,” Weddell said.

Stramler Park is a “lovely venue” that comes with a built-in stage, said Weddell, who likes that the park is surrounded by a fence, much like the BMOA gardens are. “We want Pride to be a private event,” she said, mainly because it is a fundraiser for Bakersfield LGBTQ and “if we didn’t charge admission we couldn’t pay for it.” Cost-prohibitive fence rentals in just about any other park made Stramler Park the obvious choice.

Bakersfield Pride Present and Future

Recently, about 15 members of the planning committee met at the Metropolitan Community Church of the Harvest to discuss such logistics as printed programs, festival T-shirts, food and drink sales, games and activities for kids, portable restrooms and live music and entertainment – including a must-have drag show.

Dustin Peterson, 21, an American Sign Language interpreter, will be one of several on hand for the 20 to 50 members of the deaf community who are expected to show up from all over Kern County. His partner, Steven Marquez, 23, a manager at a local pizza chain, will be a volunteer floater ready to help with whatever needs doing at the festival.

Marquez said he had spread the word about Pride to family members and friends. Both he and Peterson know the annual event is growing, and Peterson said he envisions it becoming a two-day event in five to 10 years.

“I would love to see a Pride parade in Bakersfield,” said entertainment chair Shelby Himes, 25. “The more the community comes out and shows support, the more we’re going to lead down that road.”

For now, “I just really want to see people come out and have a good time,” she said. “We’re serving more and more people every year and it’s awesome.”

Sixth Annual Bakersfield Pride 2009: “Gay is Good”

WHEN: Starting at 3 p.m. Oct. 17

WHERE: At Stramler Park, 3805 Chester Ave. (between 34th Street and Columbus). Park in the back lot, using the entrance just south of the Bakersfield Blaze sign. There will be no gates open on the Chester Avenue side of the event.

ADMISSION: $10 per person at the gate; $7 discount tickets are available in front of Club Casablanca, 1825 N St., from 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays before the festival. Food, beverages and vendor booth items will be available for purchase.

INFORMATION: facebook.com/bakolgbtq or 302-4266