This weekend, Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ community gathers for Pride with a message that cuts through the current moment: we’re still here, and we’re not backing down.
Alvin Prasad, an LGBT advocate killed in a hate-motivated attack on Halloween last year, will be honored as the Grand Marshal of Sacramento’s Pride march this Sunday. His family will lead the procession in a convertible donated by the California Automobile Museum, a gesture that carries both celebration and grief. Priya Kumar, Communications Manager at the Sacramento LGBT Center, framed it plainly:“It’s really heavy. We want to share that weight with Alvin’s family and our community.”
The timing feels particularly resonant. The Sacramento LGBT Center, which organizes the annual Pride march and festival, is operating under real constraints this year. Funding cuts have hit hard—several grant-funded programs are ending at the end of June, and the center faced genuine uncertainty about whether it could even host Pride 2026. The decision to proceed anyway sends a signal worth noting. As Kumar put it:“We also want to send a message that we’re not going anywhere.”
This year’s festival, running June 13 and 14 at the Capitol Mall, features performances from RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Willam and Detox alongside local talent like the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus and SAC DANCE LAB. Beyond the marquee acts, there’s the Maker’s Market—a space for local queer artisans who can’t typically afford booth fees but create quality work that deserves exposure. There will also be HIV testing, healthcare services, and community groups on hand, turning the festival into more than spectacle. As Hollis Sweet, the center’s Community Engagement&Volunteer Services Manager, noted, Pride weekend remains“a good entry point”for people to engage with essential services.
If funds are tight on your end too, the center’s offering volunteer shifts in exchange for free festival entry—one five-hour shift nets you a weekend pass. They ran on 370 volunteers last year and could use well over a thousand. Sweet acknowledged the labor bluntly: volunteers will“work hard, but the work that they do will be meaningful.”
The march steps off at 11 a.m. on Sunday from Southside Park and proceeds to the Capitol, with the festival running from noon to 5 p.m. In a climate where funding for LGBTQ+ nonprofits has tightened and attacks on the community have mounted, showing up this weekend—whether marching, attending, or volunteering—is less about celebration and more about persistence.
About the Author
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
