Mission & History
Christopher Street West (CSW), a 501(c)3 non-profit, organized the world’s first permitted parade advocating for gay rights on June 28, 1970 as a response to and in commemoration of the Stonewall Rebellion on Christopher Street in New York City the year prior. Since then, we have built a rich history as an active voice for the LGBTQ+ community across the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. And today, we continue to produce the LA Pride Parade and Festival every June in the City of West Hollywood. We also organize a number of events throughout the year with our non-profit, philanthropic, community, and corporate partners.
Our mission is to create safe and inclusive spaces for self-expression, inspire an authentic sense of activism in the continued fight for equality, and celebrate the unique heritage and diverse cultures of Los Angeles’ LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
LA Pride Values
Be Aware We must never forget our past.BE INSPIRED We are all activists.BE UNITED We are one community.BE MINDFUL We must support each other.BE TRUE We must be our most authentic selves.
While it may be true that our community has come a long way since the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, there is still a tremendous amount of work to do.
We believe that it’s absolutely critical for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community alongside our straight allies to acknowledge, celebrate, and learn from our rich history of social revolution. Constantly being aware our past helps to inform our future, making it better and more accepting for generations to come.
LA Pride was founded upon the spirit of activism – and today, continues in the footsteps of its founders.
We believe in inspiring today’s generation to come together as a community and take a stand for acceptance and equality. Our goal is to empower the LGBTQ+ community and its allies with essential information, education, resources, events, content, and communications so that everyone within our community can not only find their unique voice, but also use it to inspire positive change for all.
There are people from all walks of life in the LGBTQ+ community.
This incredible diversity has enabled the growth of niche communities – around shared lifestyles, cultures, identities, beliefs, and values – giving every person has a safe space to call “home” within the LGBTQ+ spectrum. We believe the vibrant diversity of our community is our greatest strength. And when we act as a single community, real change happens. This is the true meaning of Pride, and it’s something we celebrate in hearts and minds 365 days per year.
It’s easy to forget the impact we can make on each other’s lives.
Acting as a single community means being mindful and accepting of the diversity that exists within our community. For this reason, we believe that we must always be kind to ourselves, to our friends, to our colleagues, and to those we see as different from ourselves because, in doing so, we will make our community stronger and more able to overcome the political, social, and cultural headwinds that we will inevitably face as we continue to fight for our rights.
Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community means having the freedom to be our true selves at all times.
That’s why we believe it’s our responsibility to create safe spaces for self-expression, understanding that acknowledging, accepting, and embracing our differences are what make us stronger as both individuals and as a community. Bringing our true selves to everything we do is how we each play an important part in standing up for what we believe in as a community as well as what we want to inspire in the hearts and minds of those around us.
Board of Directors
Gregory Alexander
Board Member / Programming Lead
Gregory AlexanderBoard Member / Programming Lead
Gregory Alexander is a southern California native who has built his life around a love of culture. From college he spent his days working in fashion and visual design while simultaneously building the nightlife institution A Club Called Rhonda or Rhonda INTL. After quitting his “day job” and focusing solely on Rhonda for years, Gregory chose to branch out into other enterprises, creating a non-profit fraternity of queer travelers called The Wander Boys and joining the board of directors at LA Pride / CSW where he has taken the lead in festival programming.
Mistress Cyan
Board Member
Mistress CyanBoard Member
Mistress Cyan has been a supporter of LA Pride since 2007 when she was named as an Honoree and recipient of The Connie Norman Award. She has been named Woman of The Year three times and Fundraiser of The Year twice, as well as Mentor of The Year. The LA Weekly named her “The Most Respected Dominatrix in Los Angeles”, and she has been a guest speaker at Stanford University, UCLA, Occidental College and California State Universities Los Angeles, Long Beach and Northridge. She is currently the President/CEO of Sanctuary Studios, Inc., and Executive Producer of DomCon Los Angeles and New Orleans.
Gerald Garth
Board Treasurer
Gerald GarthBoard Treasurer
Gerald Garth, CSW Board Treasurer, currently serves as Manager of Program Operations for the AMAAD Institute (Arming Minorities Against Addiction and Disease) providing programs and services to LGBTQ people of color in South Los Angeles. He is currently a Fellow of the California HIV Policy Research Center and serves as editor-in-chief of Chill Magazine-- a print, digital, and social brand designed for Black and Latino men. Gerald will also complete his Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management with Antioch University in 2019.
Estevan Montemayor
Board President
Estevan MontemayorBoard President
Estevan currently serves as CSW Board President and has been recently promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff for Los Angeles City Councilmember David Ryu. He has worked on numerous political and advocacy campaigns, including on the communications and research team for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the sole sponsor of the federal constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8. Estevan started his political career in the office of L.A. Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa. From 2015-2017, he served as a member of the Public Safety Commission in the City of West Hollywood, where he's lived over the past six years. A native of San Diego, Estevan graduated with a B.A. in Theater from UCLA.
Julie Neumark
Board Member
Julie NeumarkBoard Member
Julie joined the CSW Board in 2017. She is excited to share her 10+ years of digital content, social media and event marketing experience to the LGBTQ+ community and contribute to building positive awareness of the organization exponentially. Julie owns and operates her company, Neu Marketing Group, in West Hollywood, where she resides with her wife and their three 4-legged children.
Brian Rosman
Board Member / PR Lead
Brian RosmanBoard Member / PR Lead
Brian is the owner of DOG AND A DUCK a marketing and public relations agency with offices in Los Angeles and Nashville. Brian previously served as a board member for LAXART and a member of Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa’s LGBT Heritage Month Committee and the Safe WeHo Leadership Council. Brian was previously a partner at The Rose Group and Vice President Branded Entertainment at The Firm. He started his career in the Endeavor (now WME) mailroom. Brian graduated from University of Virginia with degrees in Biochemistry and Drama
Shayne Thomas
Board Member / Marketing Lead
Shayne ThomasBoard Member / Marketing Lead
Shayne leads marketing and communications initiatives for CSW and LA Pride, including brand strategy, digital advertising, event marketing, communications strategy, content creation, digital and social media management, website presence, media partnerships, and more. He was instrumental in architecting and executing all components of the successful 2018 #JUSTBE campaign. Now in his second term on the CSW Board of Directors, Shayne is most interested in developing an inspiring narrative that will take LA Pride into its 50th anniversary in 2020, working closely with brand, media, and community partners to bring that story to life in the most impactful ways possible. When not working on all things LA Pride, Shayne runs his own content marketing and strategy business, Le Bon Vivant Media, working with a variety of clients in the U.S., Australia, and Europe and across all industries to create and publish content that drives long-term business value. A San Diego native, Shayne now splits his time between West Hollywood, California and Paris, France. He also graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Communication and French.
Management Team
Madonna Cacciatore
Executive Director
Madonna CacciatoreExecutive Director
Madonna Cacciatore is the Executive Director of Christopher Street West / LA Pride.
Prior to joining the organization, Madonna was Director of Special Events for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. There, she oversaw the growth and development of the special events fundraising activities of the largest LGBT organization in the world. During her tenure, which began in 2012, Madonna successfully cultivated and managed relationships with members of the organization’s leadership and board of directors, high-profile event co-chairs, celebrities, volunteer committee members, other community and nonprofit organizations, major vendors and venues, community members, and allies. The Center’s two largest events grew to record-breaking levels under Madonna’s oversight, highlighted by the 2017 Anniversary Gala Vanguard Awards raising more than $1 million and 2018’s Simply diVine tripling in size while raising the most support in the event’s 13-year history.
Prior to joining the Center, Madonna began her professional nonprofit career at AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) in 2006. She joined the organization shortly after losing her brother Johnny to AIDS-related complications. Madonna began her activism for women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community almost in the same moment that she came out as a lesbian in 1973. Born a proud Italian-American in Mineral Wells, Texas, Madonna grew up in Irving, Texas, before moving to Chicago as a young adult. She moved next to Washington, D.C., where she did grassroots work for marriage equality and volunteered at The NAMES Project – AIDS Memorial Quilt. From D.C., Madonna landed in New York City, where she continued to care for the community and her brother at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Her marriage equality work continued in Seattle before she moved to Los Angeles to work for APLA.
With a background in and passion for dance, theatre, and acting, Madonna strives to find projects that advance social justice through creativity and artistry. On August 5, 2017, Madonna married her partner of 14 years, Robin McWilliams. Although they had no plans to marry at the time, a photo of the couple landed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times the morning after the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made marriage equality the law of the land. The newlyweds currently live in Los Angeles, where they continue to care for and create change for their community.
Prior to joining the organization, Madonna was Director of Special Events for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. There, she oversaw the growth and development of the special events fundraising activities of the largest LGBT organization in the world. During her tenure, which began in 2012, Madonna successfully cultivated and managed relationships with members of the organization’s leadership and board of directors, high-profile event co-chairs, celebrities, volunteer committee members, other community and nonprofit organizations, major vendors and venues, community members, and allies. The Center’s two largest events grew to record-breaking levels under Madonna’s oversight, highlighted by the 2017 Anniversary Gala Vanguard Awards raising more than $1 million and 2018’s Simply diVine tripling in size while raising the most support in the event’s 13-year history.
Prior to joining the Center, Madonna began her professional nonprofit career at AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) in 2006. She joined the organization shortly after losing her brother Johnny to AIDS-related complications. Madonna began her activism for women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community almost in the same moment that she came out as a lesbian in 1973. Born a proud Italian-American in Mineral Wells, Texas, Madonna grew up in Irving, Texas, before moving to Chicago as a young adult. She moved next to Washington, D.C., where she did grassroots work for marriage equality and volunteered at The NAMES Project – AIDS Memorial Quilt. From D.C., Madonna landed in New York City, where she continued to care for the community and her brother at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Her marriage equality work continued in Seattle before she moved to Los Angeles to work for APLA.
With a background in and passion for dance, theatre, and acting, Madonna strives to find projects that advance social justice through creativity and artistry. On August 5, 2017, Madonna married her partner of 14 years, Robin McWilliams. Although they had no plans to marry at the time, a photo of the couple landed on the front page of the Los Angeles Times the morning after the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made marriage equality the law of the land. The newlyweds currently live in Los Angeles, where they continue to care for and create change for their community.
Open Positions
There are no open positions at this time.
CSW Financials
As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, we are required by the IRS to publish our most recent tax returns. Please see our latest Form 990 (IRS) filings by clicking the links below. Due to the fiscal year schedule, financial statements from the year prior will not be available until the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year.
Board Emeritus
The role of Director Emeritus is a lifetime advisory position that recognizes the exemplary contributions of former CSW Board members who have demonstrated only the highest levels of service and dedication to the Christopher Street West Association. Individuals who have successfully served a minimum of four years on the CSW Board of Directors may only be considered for election to the CSW Board Emeritus.
- Rodney Scott (President Emeritus)
- Craig Bowers
- Sharon Donning
- James Fields
- Hope Hindrichs
- Danny Levy
- Jerry Lovell
- Raymond Rector
- Pat Rocco
- N. Lee Waddell
- Irene Williams
- Michael Yates
OUR PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS
Casa del Sol
Casa del Sol is a prime example of how Christopher Street West directly impacts the community. It is a joint project between AIDS Project Los Angeles, and CSW to provide low-income housing for people with HIV/AIDS. CSW purchased the Hollywood property in 1988 and it opened for occupancy in 1993, following various bureaucratic issues and renovation needs. It remains a precedent-setting undertaking, laying the groundwork for all future independent living programs for persons with HIV/AIDS. Casa del Sol was groundbreaking as it was the first low-income housing project for people with HIV/AIDS to receive HUD funding. AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) manages the property, screening prospective tenants and providing ongoing tenant advocacy and support. CSW holds the mortgage and pays the yearly mortgage interest on the property.
USC GLASS Endowed Scholarship
In 1990, Christopher Street West, in conjunction with GLASS — the name of the University of Southern California (USC) LGBT student group at that time — established a $5000 endowment with the purpose of funding scholarship for students pursuing degrees and research for the improvement of LGBTQ+ people around the world. Unfortunately, the scholarship went dormant until it was reinstated in 2017.
The GLASS Endowed Scholarship is awarded to USC students to help them conduct or present research affirming the important role that the LGBTQ+ community plays in society today. The grant is established so that LGBTQ+ identified students can develop their scholarly pursuits without added financial burden. When the scholarship was first established in 1990, being open about one’s gender or sexual identity was oftentimes met with financial disadvantages or loss. This scholarship was, therefore, designed to empower students to own their identities and to further the knowledge on topics concerning the LGBTQ+ community.
PLATform
Currently, there is legislation in the works that threatens to erase the transgender/non-binary community from the federal definition of gender — and beyond. LA Pride understands there is a critical need for advocacy and policy training within this community. Therefore, we are committed to not only amplifying the voices of the transgender/non-binary community but also providing a “PLATform” — wherein “PLAT” stands for “Policy, Leadership, and Advocacy Training” — for these voices to echo through the halls of justice. Our goal is to provide tools and education to enable and empower transgender/non-binary people to become leaders in policy and advocacy, using their own experiences and voices to inspire much-needed change.
Program development is in progress. More details to be shared soon.
