05 Jun From Dark Clouds to Rainbow Flags: Richmond’s 11th Annual Pride Event Shines at Civic Center Plaza

Richmond Rainbow Pride’s annual event Sunday at Civic Center Plaza was titled “Forged in Resistance, Shaped by Love,” which is meant to symbolize standing up for LGBTQ+ rights and identity at a time in which they are being threatened.

Photo Essay, Denis Perez Bravo

For more than a decade, Richmond has stood as a beacon of LGBTQ+ pride in the Bay Area. On Sunday, that commitment was on full display as hundreds of residents gathered at Civic Center Plaza to celebrate the city’s 11th annual Richmond Rainbow Pride.

Throughout the day, attendees enjoyed DJ music, speakers, performers, vendors, food trucks, and community interaction at this year’s event, titled “Forged in Resistance, Shaped by Love.”

 

The theme reflects the current political climate, in which LGBTQ+ rights face renewed challenges nationwide, making local celebrations of identity vital to self-expression.

Among the many vendors was Joceline Suhaimi, a 27-year-old roller derby skater who rolled around the plaza handing out leaflets with information for the Bay Area Derby 2025 season.

“We’re primarily a queer- and woman-led sports organization,” Suhaimi said. “It is important for sports like roller derby, that are explicitly trans athlete-friendly, to be really visible.”

 

Suhaimi’s team, the Oakland Outlaws, plays its home games at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium, where it will host the San Francisco Rolling Dead at 6 p.m. June 28 for the Bay Area Derby Pride Game. (Some tickets are on sale now.)

Angelica Rendon, a 20-year-old Richmond resident, said Richmond’s pride event is important during these “trying times.”

“I think more than ever, we deserve community,” Rendon said. “Joy is resistance.”

Rendon helped work a table for the RYSE Center alongside friend and fellow Richmond resident Jude Guzman, who echoed the sentiment about self-expression and community.

 

“This event is important to me because it’s a celebration to really express your inner self and not let that wither away,” Guzman said.

For Guzman, the festivities began earlier in the day at Nicholl Park, where he joined others in a pride parade to Civic Center Plaza. Along the way, participants showed off special outfits. The night before, as he prepared his outfit, his anticipation heightened.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I wanted to do an outfit that I am not used to doing.”

The city of Richmond, Richmond Community Fund, and Republic Services sponsored this year’s event. Many different LGBTQ-friendly organizations and businesses also participated, including East Bay Regional Parks District, East Bay FrontRunners, Yes! Neighborhoods to Nature, ShopTheBFF, House Rabbit Society, Moving Forward, East Brother Beer Co., Pickles N’ Smoke, Urban Tilth, Contra Costa College, and Richmond Art Center.

 

The robust community support is a stark contrast to the challenges that sparked Richmond’s first pride event. Speaking at the event, Richmond City Council member Cesar Zepeda recalled the homophobia that prompted the community to act.

“We came together after a dark cloud of homophobia was hitting Richmond back in 2014,” Zepeda said.

He referred to the verbal attacks and harassment directed at Jovanka Beckles, the first openly gay person elected to the Richmond City Council. The targeted hostility Beckles faced galvanized the community, transforming anger and hurt into organized action and ultimately leading to the inaugural Richmond Pride event that same year.

Nearly a decade later, Zepeda, the council’s first openly gay male member, acknowledged that the “dark cloud” of homophobia and transphobia remains rampant across the nation, but Richmond’s response has been to double down on its commitment to inclusion.

To show solidarity with the LGBTQ community, he said this year he hopes to have a pride flag put up on every city-owned flagpole.

“Every place that we have a pole, we’re going to put a pride flag on it, because we want to make sure that we bring hope and pride to every corner of our city.”