Long Beach Post: Pride Co-Founders Receive Keys to the City

In May 2013, as Long Beach Pride marked its 30th year, Mayor Bob Foster presented keys to the City to our three co-founders: Marilyn Barlow, Bob Crow and Judith Doyle. The Long Beach Post covered the honor in a story by Brian Addison, and it remains one of the proudest moments in our history.

According to the Post, the Mayor presented the keys during his annual address to Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride and the wider LGBTQ community, held at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The three founders also served that year as Grand Marshals of the parade along Ocean Boulevard.

Three Founders, Honored by the City

Barlow, Crow and Doyle gathered a small group of neighbors and friends to start the very first Long Beach Pride, then kept it going year after year. Judi Doyle went on to serve as our first president, and Bob Crow later led the board as president as well.

The founders have gone against enormous oppositions, hardships and struggles but it did not deter these three leaders.

Mayor Bob Foster, via the Long Beach Post

These core individuals are the true pioneers that brought equality and diversity to our community.

Mayor Bob Foster, via the Long Beach Post

Remembering the Early Years

The Post looked back on how hard those first celebrations were to hold. When a plan surfaced to limit the second year to a single day, about 300 people filled the City Council chambers to speak up for Pride. Doyle remembered how much courage it took simply to be seen.

People were scared. If you were anyone, you were afraid you would lose your life.

Judith Doyle, co-founder, via the Long Beach Post

She described a time when police officers, teachers and many others feared they could lose their jobs for being out. Thirty years later, the Post reported, Long Beach Pride had grown into one of the largest events in the city, drawing some 80,000 people.

Why It Matters to Us

Every festival and parade since rests on what these three started in 1983. We’re grateful to the City for honoring them, and to the Long Beach Post for telling their story so our community can keep it close.

Read the full story at Long Beach Post.