Friday, May 11, 2001 | 10:24 a.m.
This is not your old-fashioned gay pride parade.
It is the parade organizers hope will be the envy of every other major pride event organizer in the country.
It is a pride parade that will make history for the Las Vegas gay and lesbian community.
For years the gay pride parade in Las Vegas has been on a Sunday morning two hours before the beginning of the annual gay pride festival at Sunset Park, near Sunset Road and Eastern Avenue.
This year the parade, now in its 18th year and organized by the Las Vegas Association of Pride, will be at night for the first time in its history. And this year the grand marshal of the parade is Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.
Organizers expect nearly 10,000 people to attend the event that covers a 1.2- mile route downtown, which begins at 7 p.m. at Coolidge and Fourth Street and ends at Fourth Street and Ogden Avenue.
A parade this ambitious is important, because "it simply acknowledges the contributions gay and lesbians make to the community at large," Joshua Ryan, spokesman for the Las Vegas Association of Pride, said.
Las Vegas will be only the third location in the world to host a pride event at night. Of the 200 cities and 25 countries that will be celebrating this weekend, Sydney, Australia, and Houston join the local event in holding festivities at night.
More than 50 entrants will walk or ride in the parade, including local entrants and groups coming in from Phoenix and San Francisco.
Over the past few years the parade has also enjoyed substantial corporate support, and organizers say this year there is a record number of business sponsors, including Aid for AIDS Nevada, Southwest Ambulance, United Airlines and an $11,000 donation from main sponsor Coors Brewing Co.
The mayor's participation in the parade is as important as corporate sponsorship, because it is the first time that a major political figure in Nevada has agreed to take part in a pride event, Ryan said.
Goodman declined to comment, his spokesman Erik Pappa, said.
But in a letter he wrote to the Las Vegas Association of Pride last month, he said "the City Council and I are working diligently to make downtown the beacon it once was. With events like the Pride Parade, we're taking significant steps to achieve this goal. I'm anxious to host so many individuals in our dowtown area."
Goodman is also expected to speak at the Las Vegas Gay Pride Festival on Saturday, which starts at 11 a.m. at the football practice fields north of Sam Boyd Stadium.
Tickets for the festival are $8 and can be purchased in advance at Get Booked on Paradise Road near Harmon, Metropolitan Community Church on Almond Tree Lane near Sahara and Maryland Parkway, or the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, 912 E. Sahara Ave.
For more information call the parade and festival hotline 233-9761.
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