Aunty Oba rests in the background as a pride flag flies on the 500 Sails Guma Sakman beach.
Event organizer Roberto Santos stands in front of 500 Sails canoe Aunty Oba with his niece Victoria Santos, his brother Carlos Santos and sister-in-law Raquel Santos.
THE annual Lailai For Pride event took place at the 500 Sails Guma Sakman beach on Saturday, June 9.
The event was a collaboration between Pride Marianas, a local LGBTQ advocacy group, and 500 Sails. Around 20 people throughout the day sailed on 500 Sails traditional Chamorro canoes Anåguan and Aunty Oba.
Event organizer Roberto Santos called the event a way for Pride Marianas to “grow more closely to what is more authentic to us here in the Marianas.”
“[Lailai for Pride] is such a relaxing event,” Santos said. “It’s a great way for us to connect to the ocean, connect to our roots, and our indigenous identity and that intersection of the LGBTQ identity.”
Santos has a great interest in the ways LGBTQ issues intersect with Pacific identity. Santos himself has roots in the Chamorro and Carolinian cultures. He said although Pride Marianas today uses Western queer terms to identify their movement, there is space to indigenize their terms to more closely reflect their Pacific identity.
“Every day we look back and we wonder what terminology we would otherwise use,” Santos said. “We have the power to create that or recreate that as it comes from within us.”
Later this month, Pride Marianas will hold this year’s Pride Talks in conjunction with the Northern Marianas Humanities Council. It will be a panel discussion featuring LGBTQ advocates, educators, and other professionals discussing, among other things, the terms they used growing up.
More details about the event will be announced soon.
