How to Celebrate Pride in Long Beach

What does the City of Long Beach have to offer for those who celebrate pride? How do those in Long Beach come together and express their Pride?

Image taken at Downtown Long Beach, CA.

One very important event in the LGBTQ+ community, is that of Pride; which takes place during the month of June, also known as Pride month. Seeing that Pride month is here, and the pandemic has been lifting, events and outings have begun to pick up again.

Mural of Mary outside of Hamburger Mary's, Long Beach, CA.

Out of a couple places that I have seen so far, one in particular, Hamburger Mary's, has been the perfect place in Long Beach to celebrate one's Pride. Located on 330 Pine Ave., Long Beach Ave. in Long Beach, CA, Hamburger Mary's is a restaurant/bar that hosts drag shows and events fun for all (ages 21+).

A line of attendants for a Drag Brunch event waiting to get in.

Hamburger Mary's includes burgers, specialty cocktails, birthday dinners, bachelorette dinner parties, Drag Brunch, drag shows, Dynamic Dance Floors, bottomless mimosas, RuPaul Drag Race Shows and more. Their phrase of business is to "eat, drink, and be Mary!"

Here is a mural that can be found just outside of Hamburger Mary's, great for Instagram pictures.

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Being a hotspot for members of the LGBTQ+ community, I decided to interview some of the attendants and asked them what Pride means to them.

So, what's your name? Hi, my name is Mailea Ang.

What are your pronouns? They're she/they/ siya, which is a Filipino pronoun which doesn't really have a gender specific.

How do you celebrate Pride? For me, I like to celebrate Pride by really remembering, you know, that this is a genuine self that I am and like taking it in in my community like I really like to go to Pride themed events like we just came from Hamburger Mary's and watched a drag show, that was so cool being able to be around other people, celebrate like you know, being art of the gay community and I'm pansexual myself and I love that, I love celebrating that with other people, that's awesome.

So, what is your name? My name is Casey.

What are your pronouns? My pronouns is she.

How do you celebrate Pride in Long Beach, or just in general? I have never celebrated Pride in Long Beach, but I have celebrated in San Fransisco cause I'm from the Bay Area, and I love it there. And it's an amazing experience and I feel like celebrating people you love and including him, one of my best friends is gay and I love just celebrating them, celebrating sexuality and being open and I feel like it's a beautiful thing. I feel like everybody should at least experience that kind of love at one point in their lives.

What does Pride mean to you? I feel like Pride just means being accepting of both yourself and other people. So like, no matter who you are or what you identify as, I feel like, it's just feeling like you can love yourself and also being able to love, obviously other people. That's what I feel it is.

So what is your name? Hello, my name is Julia Gonzalez.

And what are your pronouns? She and hers.

What does Pride mean to you? It makes me kind of wish how much I want to go to Pride, how I want to go there one day. But besides that, I'd say being prideful of who you are, in who you are as a person, and who you identify with. And yeah, just taking pride in that.

How would you like to celebrate Pride, here in Long Beach, especially? Just a huge celebration of people just celebrating one big thing and just all their energy and just love goes into this collective. It's just a good unitedness I would say, yeah.

Video performance of a Drag King at a Drag Brunch event.

Drag Queen at Drag Brunch performing to a disco medley carrying a net in order to catch their tips.

So what's your name? My name is Carlos.

What are your pronouns? My pronouns are he/him/they.

How do you celebrate Pride in Long Beach? Well, I never celebrated Pride in Long Beach, but I do feel like Pride has to do with like, because I feel like for me I grew up in not accepting my homosexuality and I feel like older, I'm just like you know what, I should be proud to be gay. I shouldn't hide it. I shouldn't have to disclose it. So, I feel like now that I'm older, I feel like I'm more proud about it and I'm just like, if nobody likes it, oh fucking well; that's not my problem, that's their problem. So, I feel like that's what Pride means to me; I've never celebrated Pride in Long Beach, but I feel like Long Beach is a really accepting place. That's what I really like about it.

So what's your name? My name's Kevin.

Pronouns? He/Him/Princess

How do you celebrate Pride in Long Beach? I haven't. I would love to come spend Pride here.

What does Pride mean to you? Being yourself. I think just enjoying life and not giving a fuck about what other people think or say about you, because at the end of the day it's all about yourself and fuck what other people think. Fuck them. If you're enjoying life and you're having fun, let it be. Literally. Love who you wanna love; it doesn't matter.

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Happy Pride month to all my readers! How do you celebrate Pride in your community? I'd love to hear about what your favorite thing about Hamburger Mary's is.