The annual Pride Celebration arrives June 24-25th, with the Pride Parade set for June 25th, going down Market Street from Embarcadero to the Celebration at Civic Center.
Marin’s Spahr Center has arranged for the community to meet at the Larkspur Ferry by 7:45-8am on June 25, as the ferry to the Embarcadero leaves at 8:15am and the group will walk the short distance to the contingent staging area on Market between Freemont & Steuart. The parade ends on Market Street at the intersection of 8th Street. The Spahr Center group will be be marching as part of the Resistance Contingent, where many community leaders, activists, and nonprofit organizations join together to remind our community — “No Pride For Some of Us Without Liberation For All of Us” –Marsha P. Johnson.
As we get ready for the exciting weekend, the Mill Valley Public Library is doing its part to remind us all about the history of Marin’s LGBTQ+ history with a new exhibition called “Chains of Fire: LGBTQ+ History in Mill Valley,” which features photographs, poems, writing and primary source documents from LGBTQ+ pioneers, past and present. It will be on display through July.
Mill Valley library archivist Benja Thompson says the exhibit weaves an interconnected story that has gone largely untold. “The shifting visibility that happens almost generationally, you almost don’t have access to that history,” Thompson told the Marin Independent Journal. “This is a small taste of what it has looked like in the Mill Valley and Marin County gay community.”
The exhibit title is derived from “Chains of Fire,” a piece by Mill Valley poet Esla Gidlow. In it, Gidlow writes, “I know myself linked by chains of fires to every woman who has kept a hearth.”
Mill Valley Librarian Anji Brenner said the exhibit gave representation to the LGBTQ+ community. “That’s what libraries do,” she told the IJ. “We’re one of the few places that welcomes everyone regardless of gender, race, economic status or religious beliefs. When everyone is represented, a community thrives.”
Residents interested in sharing oral histories can email bthompson@cityofmillvalley.org.