Long Beach Pride Opens 2023 Board Installation to the Community

Long Beach Pride will host its first Membership Installation Dinner for the Community on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hamburger Mary’s Long Beach, 330 Pine Ave. Everyone is welcome.

Long Beach Pride has just marked its 40th anniversary, and with a new year come a new President and Board of Directors. In the past, the installation was a private ceremony honoring our all-volunteer membership. This year the newly elected President and Board voted unanimously to open it to the public, as a way to deepen our bond with the community we serve.

I truly believe that Long Beach Pride is the ‘Community’s Pride’ and we must start making the changes to strengthen our core. May this event serve as a valuable first step.

Tonya Martin, President, Long Beach Pride

I am honored to be working for our community with an incredible and dedicated Board. It is worldwide Pride events like Long Beach Pride, that celebrates past achievements and identifies the needs for advocacy in order for our community to surge forward.

Tonya Martin

The dinner doubles as a fundraiser, with performances by Psycadella, Big Dee and SABREENA and Pride swag giveaways. Details are on our fundraiser page.

Why It Matters

LGBTQ+ people still face discrimination in their personal lives, at work, in public and in getting the health care they need, and that takes a real toll on financial, mental and physical well-being. Long Beach Pride was founded in 1983 by a small group of community activists, among them Judi Doyle, Marilyn Barlow and Robert Crow, who wanted to bring our community together and honor its part in the city’s growth and cultural identity. Our mission is to produce and support activities that educate, encourage and celebrate LGBTQ+ pride, education and inclusion.

Over four decades, the festival has grown into a three-day celebration that draws thousands of visitors each year, along with A-list celebrities and Grammy-winning artists.

The 2023 Executive Committee and Board

• President: Tonya Martin
• Secretary: Dr. Cassandra Richards
• Treasurer and VP Festival: Wayne Manous
• VP Administration: LaRhonda Slaughter
• VP Entertainment: Dwashonique “Shay” Sanford
• VP Production: Chris Duvali
• Board of Directors: Grace Licerio, Elsa Martinez, Denise Newman and Renea Page
• Extended Members: Daniel Almazan and Ulysses Brand
• Associate Member: Lovette McDonald

Meet the Board

Tonya Martin, President

Tonya Martin has made it her mission to share her gifts in the name of equality for all. Volunteering with Long Beach Pride taught her how to produce events that support that goal, and it led her to the heartbeat of the community: its people. She volunteered for two years to learn festival and parade logistics from the ground up, then served on the Board for five years. For her, Pride is the course no college or university offers.

Tonya brings more than 25 years of public service and currently works for the State of California under California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, the state’s first openly gay statewide elected official. She was recently inducted onto the wall at Long Beach’s Harvey Milk Park. She is a former Long Beach Pride Grand Marshal and has been honored as the Long Beach Lambda Democratic Club’s Jean Harris Woman of the Year and the NAACP’s Woman of the Year. She co-founded Long Beach Festival Gay Latino, which supports the Latino LGBTQ+ community, and uniTy, a transgender awareness and support event.

In 2022, Tonya wrote and advocated for the City of Long Beach’s Gender-Inclusive Language Policy. Brought forward by Vice Mayor Cindy Allen and Councilwoman Suely Saro and since adopted, the policy calls for future amendments to the Municipal Code, Council Policies, regulatory legislation and City Charter ballot proposals to be drafted in gender-inclusive language that reflects Long Beach’s transgender and nonbinary residents. Language holds power, and the language of our laws should reflect the diversity of our city.

Dr. Cassandra Richards, Secretary

Dr. Richards has been an educator with the Long Beach Unified School District for 28 years and was twice named Teacher of the Year. She is an adjunct professor in the Teacher Education Department at California State University, Long Beach, and a past recipient of the Whitey Littlefield Award as Parade Grand Marshal. Long Beach Pride families may remember her from 2018, when she helped bring LBUSD into our redesigned Family Fun Zone.

Wayne Manous, Treasurer and VP Festival

Born and raised in Southern California, Wayne is the eldest of seven children. He earned a degree in radio and TV from Cal State Long Beach and works at KTLA in the engineering and production departments on special telecasts.

Music was his first love. He has played with many groups, including the Cal State Long Beach Big Brown Music Machine and the 1984 Olympic All-American Marching Band.

Wayne attended the first Long Beach Pride parade in 1984 and has been coming back ever since. After 20 years as our annual video producer, he joined the organization as a volunteer in 2017.

Christopher J. Duvali, VP Production

Christopher began his LGBTQ+ volunteer work in 2008 with Equality California, building bridges across communities. He was first elected to the Long Beach Pride Board in 2019 and was recently elected to the Executive Board as Vice President of Production.

Dwashonique “Shay” Sanford, VP Entertainment

Shay has volunteered with the Long Beach Pride Festival and Parade since 2014. That work grew into a strong desire to make positive change and help others, and seeing what collective action can do in people’s lives pushed her to step up her involvement.

Long Beach Pride formally welcomed her as a member in 2021, giving her a more focused way to put that energy to work alongside people who share her passion for the community. As Vice President of Entertainment, she wants to create experiences people remember, built through teamwork and collaboration.

Renea Page, Board Member

Renea Page has been with Long Beach Pride since 2016. She has served on the Board for the past four years, including a term as Treasurer, and says it has been her pleasure to serve this organization.

Elsa Martinez, Board Member

Elsa Martinez retired after 23 years as an educator with the Los Angeles Unified School District. She is a proud lesbian mom. Elsa started volunteering with Long Beach Pride in 2015, joined as an associate in 2016, and over the past four years has served as President and Co-President.

Grace Licerio, Board Member

Grace Licerio began volunteering in 2018 and was sworn in as a member in 2022. She has helped with our Thanksgiving baskets, Toys for Tots, fundraisers and the Long Beach Pride Festival, and her family volunteers with us too. When she isn’t at Pride, you might find her at a pinball tournament.

Come meet them. We hope to see you at Hamburger Mary’s on Sept. 23, and we hope it is the first of many evenings where the community and its Board share the same room.