Finding LGBTQ Community on the Central Coast

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Santa Barbara County is not known for its LGBTQ representation, like San Francisco or Los Angeles, but groups on the Central Coast are making it easier to find a community.

"I think there are some efforts growing but I would give [Santa Barbara County] a D," said Vivian Storm, LGBTQ Leader in the area.

Some local groups on the central coast, such as the Santa Barbara Gay Men's Chorus, are making safe spaces for gay, lesbian, and transgender people to meet other LGBTQ people.

"I was struggling to find any gay community in Santa Barbara at all," said Chax Richter, a transgender member of the Santa Barbara Gay Men's Chorus. "I've lived here for almost five years and this is like the first group of people that I've met that's like out and proud. It is the first group of people and a group of men that have allowed that have embraced me for who I am."

Kai Tilley, a transgender member of the chorus, says having a community like the Gay Men's Chorus is very important for queer people.

"I don't think I'd be able to come out without community," said Tilley. "People who do it alone, I don't know how they do it. They often go back in the closet."

The Santa Barbara Gay Men's Chorus is a non-audition chorus based in Santa Barbara. The group recently sang at the San Ynez Pride Festival and Parade in Solvang.

The Danish-themed town was recently embroiled in a controversy after the Solvang City Council initially voted to not have pride flags flown in town.

The vote made international news when Copenhagen mayor, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, wrote an open letter to Solvang's mayor saying, "opposition to Pride does not reflect the genuine warmth and acceptance of Pride that can be seen across Denmark and especially in Copenhagen."

Eventually, the city council partially reversed its decision to allow pride flags to be flown in town, but only for the first two weeks of June.

Recently, 10 local nonprofits that serve the LGBTQ community on the Central Coast signed a joint statement of unity.

Storm said having these nonprofits come together is important because one organization cannot support everyone in the community.

"I think that when you think about the organizations that are doing this great work and I think every organization is doing great work, I think sometimes in a lot of spaces there are those holes and for the [People of Color] communities, a lot of those communities in different parts of the state and around the world are missing that piece," said Storm.

The joint statement was organized by Chief Esparza, executive director at ColorBloq.org, which highlights the important work each nonprofit is doing for the LGBTQ community on the Central Coast.

"Some of our organizations are empowering our youth. Some are engaged in the work of harm reduction. Some are telling our stories and changing narratives. Others are providing direct support services, creating art and preserving culture, or building spaces for our community to celebrate, connect, and thrive."

Esparza and Storm are organizing another Pride Festival in Santa Barbara in October, "Santa Barbara Pride and Joy." Storm says it is important for LGBTQ people on the Central Coast to create spaces and events for themselves.

"We need to become creators if we have the capacity to do so because it's done by us and for us," said Storm.

Leighton Jones, from Goleta, moved to the area just before the COVID-19 pandemic and saw a need to create a gay pop-up event.

"I was meeting these people and I just wanted to meet them all on one evening and get to know more people and so I started the pop up gay bars because of that," said Jones.

In the beginning, Jones thought no more than 15 people would show up and now he says he gets at least 140 people at his monthly gay pop-up bar events.

Jones also runs the instagram page, Gay Santa Barbara. People in the LGBTQ community can see what local events are happening on the central coast.

"We we've got a lot of followers and people really appreciate that," said Jones. "Definitely another way of creating that community, supporting all of the different events from all the different groups and organizations across the LGBT community in the Santa Barbara area."

Jones says it is important for the LGBTQ community on the Central Coast to be united.

"There's not that many of us. So we have to come together and be unified and do things together and support each other in the in the events and efforts that are going across the community."

Santa Barbara's Pacific Pride Festival is August 26 at Chase Palm Park Beach.