Larry T. Baza believed in art as advocacy for social justice. He first joined our board in 1990 and in 1992 became our organization’s first Latino co-chair. At the same time, Vertez Burks became our first Black co-chair. It was the first time San…
Your rage is valid. So is your fear. Those aren’t easy words to say to anyone, but it’s the clarion reality of this moment in our lives. We are under attack. We have been. It is not new. The Supreme Court’s draft opinion regarding…
Within our community, there is an ongoing debate about what Pride events and organizations should be. Are we a celebration or a protest? We are both. There is art in our advocacy, and advocacy in our art. Our annual celebrations bring together hundreds of…
Since before Stonewall, LGBTQ people have too often been severed from family and support networks. Our queer resilience and ingenuity have made us experts at the concept of found family. Over the generations of our movement, our creativity has shone through in the way…
Nine years ago I was drugged and raped right here in my own community. While this was not the first time I was raped by someone in our community, it was the first time I sought help. In my journey to find support and…
Over the decades, the anti-LGBTQ establishment has used “protecting youth,” marriage equality, military service, and bathroom bills as wedge issues to divide our country, drive radical anti-LGBTQ folks to the polls, and even disunite our own community. It’s an election year, so we’re here…
As a first-generation Mexican-American, the product of migrant field workers, today, César Chávez Day, holds a special significance to me. This isn’t just because I personally know what it’s like to wake up before dawn to irrigate the fields with my father, or because…
“On behalf of San Diego Pride, I write in strong support of the amendments to the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund, renaming it the Transgender, Gender-Variant, and Intersex (TGI) Wellness and Equity Fund. The fund already provides funding to support transgender, gender non-conforming, and…
In 2013 we were approached by a group of women led by community organizer, Kelcie Kopf, that was interested in creating a trans-inclusive LGBTQ-women centered event in San Diego. Knowing full well at the time that LGBTQ women’s spaces were disappearing all over the…
Over the past two years, we have seen a disturbing rise in anti-API hate-fueled violence and xenophobic attitudes stoked by the former administration’s disgusting rhetoric. In 2013, our Spirit of Stonewall Rally had openly gay artist, author, and activist, George Takei, as our keynote…
The ways our world of LGBTQ people and their safety are connected is not always abundantly clear. As Russia invades and wages war on Ukraine, we should all be deeply concerned for the state of global stability, world peace, and the safety of the…
“Protect Children and Families!” We’ve heard these words before. Over and over again as LGBTQ issues have been used as political wedges to the harm of LGBTQ lives. Whether it was anti-LGBTQ propaganda films in the 1960s, the Brigg’s Initiative attacking our LGBTQ teachers…
One year ago this week, the US House of Representatives voted in support of the Equality Act. The bill is stalled in the Senate where it would need at least 60 votes to break a filibuster. While the Senate is comprised of 50 Republicans,…
In 1990, Vertez Burks joined our board and in 1992 became the first Black co-chair of San Diego Pride. Vertez Burks, was instrumental in formalizing us from an ad-hoc committee into a nonprofit organization and shifting us to a profitable model that led us…
Just last year I was told by a government official that “there is no LGBTQ arts and culture.” San Diego Pride is one of our region’s largest civic events, a celebration of LGBTQ arts and culture with a 26.6 million dollar economic impact on…
LGBTQI exclusion from athletic spaces starts at a young age as misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic environments cultivate bullying and harassment that forces aspiring LGBTQI athletes into the closet or out of sports entirely. Too many of our stories have been erased leaving LGBTQI athletes…
The first time I went to San Diego Pride’s Spirit of Stonewall Rally was in 2000. It was only a few weeks before that I had been homeless and living in my car. I was from the rural border town of El Centro which…
Throughout our movement, LGBTQ people have too often been severed from family and support networks. Our queer resilience and ingenuity have made us experts at building found family. Over the generations, our creativity has shone through in the ways we build spaces, resources, and…
Within our community, there is an ongoing debate about what Pride events and organizations should be. For some, it is only a protest. “No justice, no Pride.” For others, it is the only safe outlet for joy, the free expression of love, and identity.…
On the one-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at our Nation’s Capital, I wish I could tell you that fight is over. It isn’t. Repairing and expanding access to voting is vital if we are to live in a world where American democracy…
The COVID-19 pandemic halted our traditional 2020 and 2021 Pride Parade and Festival, our organization’s largest fundraisers. The loss of these events and the funding they provide forced us to pause our community grants in 2020 and identify entirely new income sources in order…
It is still so hard to wrap my head around how much you all kept us going for the last two years. This organization, our programming, and our funding have historically relied on bringing folks together in person, but when COVID-19 emerged this team…
Pride brings us together in times of protest, mourning, victory, and celebration. Pride helps connect us to community and our found family. Pride gives us access to life-saving direct services and provides grant funding to our local and global LGBTQ community. This work is…
I am so grateful that vaccines are bringing hope back to the holidays as many of us begin to feel safer gathering with our friends and family this season. With that said, this time of year I’m always reminded of the fear, pain, and…