Christopher Street West

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Christopher Street West is the LGBT (Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Transexual) Pride Parade and Festival held in June in West Hollywood, California, USA.

Named after New York City's famed Christopher Street, the site of the Stonewall Rebellion a year previously, the Christopher Street West parade was started in 1970 by a number of Los Angeles' gay activists, prominent among them Morris Kight and Reverend Troy Perry. The first parade in June, 1970, moved down Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. After several troubled years (no parade was held in 1971), CSW finally was able to hold both a parade and a festival in 1974.

In 1979, the parade and festival were moved to the City of West Hollywood, California. The parade now moves down Santa Monica Boulevard and the festival is held in West Hollywood Park, on San Vicente Blvd and in the parking lot of the Pacific Design Center. Attendance has blossomed: in 2006, attendance at both the parade and festival was well over 100,000 people.