UFO float descends on Kaua‘i Pride Parade & Festival; speakers tell youth ‘You are loved’

The Garden Isle kicked off the month of June on Saturday with the Sixth Annual Kaua‘i Pride Parade & Festival, an out-of-this-world celebration complete with a massive UFO.

The flying saucer float – crewed by a diverse group of aliens including Barf from “Spaceballs” and Marvin the Martian – brought up the rear of the 9 a.m. parade on Rice Street in downtown Līhu‘e, leading a colorful crowd of locals and visitors to the main event on the grounds of the Historic County Building. A rock band aboard the spaceship performed Peter Schilling’s extraterrestrial classic “Major Tom (I’m Coming Home).”

Others who marched in the parade included Kaua‘i County Council Vice Chair KipuKai Kuali‘i, who made not one but two appearances: First with members of local government and again with his husband and colleagues at YWCA Kaua‘i.

“It’s so important that we continue to celebrate and lift up the love, aloha and pride that is here in our community and across our islands together as one beautiful rainbow family,” Kuali‘i later said from the festival’s center stage, as he and Council Member Addison Bulosan presented a certificate celebrating Pride Month.

“I especially want to say to our young people and our young at Pride … know you are seen, you are valued and more than anything, you are loved,” Kuali‘i continued.

Other speakers included Mayor Derek Kawakami, who issued a proclamation declaring June Pride Month in the County of Kaua‘i, and Honolulu City Council Member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who flew from O‘ahu to join in the day’s festivities.

“We celebrate Pride because out there is a fourth grader who has his first crush on a boy and doesn’t know what that means. There’s a middle schooler who’s not comfortable in her skin and doesn’t quite know how to express that,” said Dos Santos-Tam, whom emcee Mathew Sagun introduced as a champion of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. “There’s a high schooler just waiting to say a few really important words that’ve been burning inside of them and doesn’t know how their friends and teachers are going to react.

“But I know for all of them if they were standing up here on this stage, they would feel how loved they really are, they would feel that because this is a loving community … all across our state,” Dos Santos-Tam continued.

Between performances by kumu hula Troy Hinano Lazaro and Halau Ka Pa Hula O Hinano, drag artists, belly dancers and more, the Kaua‘i Pride Parade & Festival also honored its 2024 scholarship winners. Amber Barbieri, a clinical intern at YWCA Kaua‘i completing her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling with the University of Oklahoma, was on hand to receive her award in person.

“Garden Island Goddess” and “Princess Hanalei” Bianka Tasaka was also honored as the Kaua‘i Pride Parade & Festival’s 2024 grand marshal.

“I realized that it was part of my culture to be Native Hawaiian māhū (third gender) and respected as a leader in my community. Yes, I am multicultural. As an Asian Pacific Islander, it was hard. Asian, it was a little bit taboo to be māhū,” Tasaka said. “In Hawaiian, it was okay to be … With these types of services and people that I surround myself with, I realized that I belong, I was worth it, and I can be the authentic person that I am today.”

Abigail Naaykens, a volunteer member of the Kaua‘i Pride Committee and director of crisis services at YWCA of Kaua‘i, discussed the role of advocacy during Pride Month, noting Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates were on hand to discuss abortion access and gender-affirming care.

“We also have Moms Demand Action, which is the local Kaua‘i chapter for Everytown for Gun Safety,” Naaykens said. “I think that when it comes to LGBTQIA2S+ rights, it’s really important to consider all of the different intersectional advocacy standpoints that there might be.”