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It’s not deja vu, Waikiki, just two parades with the same message.
A gay pride parade will wind its way through Waikiki on Saturday, with about 300 marchers, 18 vehicles and the Royal Hawaiian Band. The parade, sponsored by the Honolulu Pride Festival, will be a lot like the gay pride parade held June 5 in Waikiki, which had some 41 units.
This is the first year there are two gay pride parades in Waikiki.
The June 5 parade was sponsored by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and organizer Carolyn Golojuch said PFLAG and Honolulu Pride Festival will probably go back to one parade next year.
She said PFLAG started planning its parade, and then learned Honolulu Pride Festival was putting on its own parade.
It was too late to cancel, she said, so organizers decided to go ahead with both.
The two groups had in the past worked together to put on the parade. "It’s not a falling out," she said. "It’s just really a difference of opinion of how we’re going to run things."
Honolulu Pride Festival President Janel Dulan apologized for any inconvenience to residents because of the added parade. "It’s going to be a fabulous parade," she said.
Saturday’s parade kicks off at 9 a.m. at Ala Moana Beach Park and will end at Kapiolani Park.
Festival Vice President Arlei Patterson said the group did try to bring PFLAG in on planning sessions. "Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out," she said. "We tried to ask them to come on board with us. They decided to go in a different direction."
The parades bring the total number of big events closing streets in Waikiki this month to seven.
