LAX pylons light up like a rainbow for LA Pride weekend

Visitors to Los Angeles International Airport this weekend will find the towering, lighted pylons at the entrance bathed in the colors of the rainbow in recognition of LGBTQ pride events.

“Los Angeles World Airports is proud to join City Hall and the city of Los Angeles in support of diversity and equality,” Trevor Daley, director of external affairs, said in a news release Friday.

“With the LA Pride Festival in West Hollywood this weekend, and on behalf of more than 4,000 LAWA employees, we stand strong with the LGBTQ community and are glad to play a role in reminding the public of this important fight,” he said.

The 1.5 miles of pylons along Century Boulevard increase progressively from 25 feet to 60 feet in height before culminating in a ring of 15 100-foot-tall columns at the airport’s entrance, Daley’s statement says. The structures were installed in 2000 and updated five years later, when the original lamps were replaced with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

The pylons are capable of displaying more than 16 million colors, according to LAX officials. The rainbow hues were to be on display through the weekend, beginning Friday night.

But while the airport entrance will be awash in color this weekend, West Hollywood will be a little less so than usual for the annual pride celebration.

Colorful floats that typically roll down Santa Monica Boulevard in the LA Pride Parade will not make an appearance this year. Instead, thousands of people are expected to turn out Sunday for a demonstration called Resist March.

The march will begin in Los Angeles, with participants gathering at 8 a.m. for an opening ceremony at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Marchers will walk south on La Brea Avenue, west on Sunset Boulevard, south on Fairfax Avenue, west on Santa Monica Boulevard and stop near West Hollywood Park.

Event organizers said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman were among those lined up to speak at the end of the march.

[email protected]

Twitter: kchristensenLAT

Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.