Each year in California, the City of West Hollywood celebrates the artistic contributions of the LGBTQ community with its 40-day-long One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival.
The festival kicked off on Harvey Milk Day (May 22) and runs through Wed., June 30, which marks the end of Pride month.
This year, to recognize Harvey Milk Day weekend, the city conferred two special proclamations officially declaring May 23 as "Born This Way Day" to honor Lady Gaga and the Born This Way Foundation on the 10th anniversary of the iconic Born This Way album; and officially declaring "The Abbey Day" on the occasion of celebrating The Abbey Food & Bar's 30 years of success.
Proclamations marking these official declarations were presented by Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath to Lady Gaga and to The Abbey owner David Cooley, respectively, on behalf of the City Council of the City of West Hollywood. Horvath also presented a Key to the City to Gaga with a note of thanks: "Thank you for encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud!"
On May 22, the City of West Hollywood kicked-off its One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival with a special online performance of Patricia Loughrey's play Dear Harvey: Stories of Harvey Milk, which recounts the life and lasting impact of groundbreaking LGBTQ activist/politician Harvey Milk. A complete list of this year's One City One Pride festival events is available at www.weho.org/pride. Due to the COVID pandemic, festival events have moved to an online virtual platform to respond to the City of West Hollywood's efforts to prioritize health and public safety.
