P.O. Box 4959 * Fresno, CA 93744 * (559) 266-LINK info@communitylinkfresno.com
The 20th Annual Central Valley & Fresno's GLBT Pride Parade and Festival will take place on SATURDAY, June 5th 2010 in the Tower District between 10am and 3pm.
Latest News
The 2010 Fresno Rainbow Pride has come and gone with a huge BANG!
It is estimated that close to 5,000 people lined Olive Avenue or sat in Tower restaurants, coffee and tea houses to watch the largest parade (over 70 contingents) in the annual event’s 20 year history. Flags flew high and proudly in the newly created Rainbow Parkette/Pride Plaza inside the Pride festival area where the crowds measuring close to 2,500 came to together to join in queer culture at its best. This year saw the host organization, Community Link, expand its borders to accommodate so many merchandise vendors, food and information booths - the largest participation to date (over 90 booth spaces).
Activities included the Interpretations’ Dance Pavilion, an entertainment pavilion featuring the Raging Grannies, California Ground Pounders, Ballroom LIVE, and Drag sensations: Diva-Licious, Ariel, Anna Conda, Mizz Monique Moore, and Edison High School teenagers MATA.
Thank you and see you next year!
Photos can be found in June issue of NewsLink on pages 1, 14, 15 and 28; on gayfresno.com and queerfresno.com and probably many others - and videos of the Parade have also been posted on Youtube!
Fresno Rainbow Pride 2010 is finished accepting applications for the Festival and the Program! You can still sign up to participate in the Parade - just show up the morning of Saturday June 5th (9am) at the dirt lot on the corner of Palm & Olive, and bring CASH - and you can walk / ride / hop, skip and jump along!

"Motel 6 at Olive Avenue and Highway99 is the official Motel of Fresno Rainbow Pride. GLBT friendly and Pet Friendly! Affordable rates and minutes from the Fresno Rainbow Pride Parade and Festival"
1240 N. Crystal Ave.,
(559) 237-0855
OLD NEWS
SETUP INFORMATION
Parade
Setup
area: Dirt lot on the corner of Olive & Palm Avenues.
Once there, check in with our staff in our official Pride t-shirts
(Lime Green color), they are coordinating that area. They will give
you a pre-assigned number for the Parade.
Olive Ave will be closed at 9am, Parade starts 10am. You can set up
the float earlier than 9am, of course, but our coordinators may not be
there until 9am.
Parade ends at Maroa Ave, you must left turn at Maroa Ave to exit.
Please
contact the other Parade participants in your contingent and share
this information.
There are prizes for Parade entries, $100 each for 1) Largest
Contingent, 2) Best Float/Decorated Vehicle, and 3) Most Festive
entry.
Festival Booths
Setup: All vendors: informational, merchandise or food booths
will be provided with 2 (two) free entry passes for your staff that
will be working the booth. These passes are non transferrable from one
person to another. Please plan accordingly for any additional staff
that will be working your booth. The COVER CHARGE FOR ADDITIONAL STAFF
IS $5 PER PERSON.
Setup starts at 7am. The entrance is where Wishon Ave. and Fulton
Street merge (just south of Olive Ave.), the gates will be closed at
9am and all the vehicles must be out of the area by then.
We strongly
suggest that you drop off your stuff inside the festival area, remove
your vehicle and then set up the booth!
See map under LOCATION link above.
IMPORTANT: Olive Ave will be closed at 9am, and that's the only way to
get onto Wishon Ave., which is a one-way street! Be on site BEFORE
9am!
Josh and Sara and their crew in the Orange color official Pride
t-shirts are the booth coordinators and the individuals to check in
with, and they can answer any of your questions.
Once there, Josh, Sara and crew in the Orange color official Pride
t-shirts will direct you to your site and show you where to get your
table(s) / chair(s). After the festival is over (3pm), you need to
clean up your area, return the tables / chairs to the designated area,
take all trash and litter to the trash dumpsters, and then find Josh
or Sara to inspect the site and they will return the cleaning deposit.
THE DEPOSITS WILL ONLY BE GIVEN OUT AT
THE FESTIVAL BETWEEN 3pm and 4pm! If you leave without seeing Josh or
Sara, you will NOT receive your cleaning deposit back.
It is not possible to receive
the deposit before 3pm. Please don't break down the booths early.
Also, you need to be finished breaking down by 4pm.
Festival cover is $5
this year! It's NOT a donation, it's an entry fee!
Events have been scheduled to help us raise funds for Pride! Click
EVENTS above to see the list.
Our organizational meetings are on Wednesdays from March to June 2nd. They start at 6:30pm at 1055 N. Van Ness Ave. in the conference room. Everyone is invited!
April news:
Two decades, 20 years, of celebrating the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender experience in the Central Valley will be happening this June!
These past 20 years have seen the local GLBT community grow and expand the opportunities that queer individuals have to express themselves.
Fresno’s first Pride Parade took over a year of planning, networking, and activism within and without the Gay community. It was also literally over in 10 minutes. The festival was a much longer event stretching from 10:30am - 6pm in 110 degree heat of summer.
This year’s Pride Parade and Festival, “20 in 2010,” will be our grandest yet, we hope!
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
The sad fact is the economy is taking a huge toll on everyone. The bad news is that it looks like Fresno Rainbow Pride has lost $5,000 in sponsorships so far.
It appears one of our LGBT organizational Pride Partners, will not be able to sponsor this year's event, due to a lack of funds. A loss of $2,000.
One of our major LGBT business Pride Partners is also downsizing their sponsorship. This local business has been a huge part of Fresno Rainbow Pride’s success as well as the success of many other LBGT organizations, events and activities. A loss of $1,000.
Understandable in these tough times. Out of respect and concern for our past and current sponsors we will not be disclosing them by name. We hope their financial situations change for the better and soon!
The Ugly is that the Public Relations Officer of a Gaming Tribe's Casino in the mountains appears to have an personal issue with the Tribe giving any kind of financial support to our kind of group, being a Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender organization and the Pride Parade being a GLBT event. Since this person took the PR position we have seen their past sponsorship of $2,000 of the past three years be cut to a $250 gift certificate for lodging. Unfortunately it is not looking any better this year. Another loss of $2,000.
The good news is that we will have a Pride Parade and Festival regardless of our financial difficulties. We will make Fresno Rainbow Pride 2010 as memorable as possible. The queens at Community Link know how to throw a fabulous party on a Dollar Tree budget!
Help Us Meet Our Fundraising Goals
The Parade and Festival cost over $25,000 last year. Community Link’s Fresno Rainbow Pride needs to raise $10,000 by June 5, 2010 to ensure that this event will be successful.
A big thank you to our sponsors so far: Pet ER -$3,000, IDC - $1,000, Golden State Bears - $1,000, and Gay Central Valley - $400 & a media sponsor.
Please make plans on attending our fundraising events, such as:
* Dining Out for Pride at Tacos Marquitos on Friday, May 7th from 2pm - 10pm. Make sure to mention Pride and Javier will donate 20% of your check!
* The Ellos Latinos Pride show and party at The Red Lantern on Friday, May 14th at 10pm
* The Fresno GLBT Youth Alliance’s Car Wash, date and location TBA, Presale tickets and day of the event car washes $5
* The Lady Hit Pride Show and Fundraiser. Look for flyers and website postings for more information.
Become Our Friend on Facebook
Get updates and all the 411 on Pride happenings and many other happenings and information regarding everything else Community Link at http://www.facebook.com/CommunityLink
Come Join the Planning Party
Come help us plan our 20th anniversary of the Central Valley’s only Pride parade and Festival. We need your help to make it all happen. Planning/working meetings happen every Wednesday at 6:30pm at 1055 N. Van Ness, in the large conference room. Contact us at 559-486-3464
March news: "20 in 2010": Is Pride Still Relevant?
Nearing its 20th anniversary, we at Community Link's Fresno Rainbow Pride believe that Fresno and the Central Valley's Gay Pride Parade and Festival continues to be relevant and needed.
Gay Pride celebrations serve several purposes. They are more than just annual parties. Pride Parades are a celebration of survival. Our survival of another year in a culture where our rights, liberties, and even our very lives are under constant attack.
In May 2008, GLBT Californians had their rights to marriage validated by the Californian Supreme Court, which ruled separate is not equal when comparing marriage with Domestic Partnership. Shortly thereafter, on June 17, 2008, many of the 18,000 GLBT couples began a new chapter of our lives as recognized married individuals in the state of California. However, by November of that year the voters of California had stripped away those rights of being exercised to any other GLBT Californians.
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender communities suffered an agonizing defeat at the ballot box and our morale had taken a huge beating.
If you think about it in the above terms, the 2008 Pride Parade should have been a huge success (which it was) and last year's, 2009, should have been smaller without much to celebrate (which it wasn't.) In fact, last year's attendance was the largest in Fresno's Pride history!
Gay Pride celebrations are political statements that keep the Gay Rights Movements front and center in the public's minds. In areas like the Central Valley, public policy makers, elected officials, and political forces may easily ignore the GLBT community. The fact is that we pretty much go about our lives without much fanfare. Our quietness a.k.a. our silence and lack of constant and regular visibility make it possible for these above parties to sweep us under the carpet.
But that's not so on the days where we come out to celebrate our survival, such as Gay Pride Days. These Days are our moment to point out to the general society that we are a force that they need to take seriously, whether we are celebrating a large win or fighting back from a horrible loss.
Gay Pride is as much about visibility and securing our rights as it is a party. Additionally, Gay Pride is about rejuvenating our spirits, recharging our own batteries, empowering ourselves for the next attack on our rights. There is nothing like finding yourself among hundreds or thousands (in Fresno Rainbow Pride's case several thousand) of queer folk and our supportive friends. For a newly out person or a young queer individual there is nothing like finding that you are truly not alone and that there is a strength in numbers.
These celebrations serve other purposes as well, such as promotion, networking, and recruiting. Fresno Rainbow Pride offers the Valley its best opportunities to learn about what is going on in the queer community: what services and social outlets are available, what the community services organizations are providing, and what activism and political work needs to be done.
It's also important to know which businesses are GLBT-owned or are straight allies that support the GLBT community and will welcome you AND your boyfriend / girlfriend without discrimination. The Parade, the Festival and the program book may greatly help you decide where you spend your money.
There simply is no better way or day to make a statement, empower yourself and others, get the word out about your group's work, connect with others and get GLBT individuals involved in making our community a better place to live, than supporting Fresno Rainbow Pride's GLBT Parade and Festival.
It is that time for us all to pull together to make Fresno Rainbow Pride 2010 an event to be proud of!
Community Link's Involvement in Pride
Arguably the largest event of the year, and certainly one requiring
year-long preparations is our Fresno Rainbow Pride. Community Link formally took
over organizing the Fresno GLBT Pride Parade and Festival in 2003. The
renamed committee, Fresno Rainbow Pride, has worked hard on bringing back the
excitement and integrity of this very important cultural
event.
Community Link was a major player in founding GLBT Pride in 1991,
and during that first year 8 out of the 12 organizers were Community Link Board
members. Fresno Rainbow Pride has since grown into a regional event drawing
people from all over the Valley to celebrate the contributions of the GLBT
community. Expecting over 3,000 people to attend each year's GLBT Pride, this is
the largest one-day GLBT event in the Valley.

