Dear Pride Family,
It has been an honor to serve our community as Interim Co-Executive Directors during a pivotal time of transition for our organization. We are excited to share that after an extensive search process, we will announce San Diego Pride’s new Executive Director on Monday, August 26. At that time, we will both transition back into our prior roles (Sarafina as Deputy Executive Director and Jen as Director of Education & Advocacy). We couldn’t close this chapter without expressing our gratitude.
The reality is that LGBTQIA+ women and femmes are rarely recognized for their leadership abilities in our community, and when they are, it tends to be in times of crisis or transition. There’s a lot of repair work that needs to be done in these transitional times, which requires a lot of listening, learning, and an extension of grace to all involved. One of our prior newsletters was titled “When in doubt, find a dyke” – we’re grateful to have been the nonbinary lesbian and femme dyke who you trusted with this privilege and responsibility.
This was truly a labor of love for both of us. When we took on these roles last November, we did so out of a commitment to you, our community. It’s been joyful and challenging, smooth sailing and tumultuous, and – like our Pride celebrations have always been – full of both celebration and grief, often in the same breath.
We want to give a special thank you to our volunteers who kept the ship afloat, and to our staff colleagues who leaned in to support each other in large and small ways this past year. Our community partners, our Board, our donors, our sponsors, our attendees, and our fellow Pride organizers around the country and around the world have been indispensable in offering advice and support during these past 9 months.
“We couldn’t have done it without you” is overused, but a more accurate statement is: we wouldn’t have wanted to do this without any of you. Thank you for the support, for the challenges, and for the love, San Diego.
Also, though: we are not going anywhere, so see you out there and/or at the polls! (It’s Vote with Pride season, y’all!)
Stay tuned for our exciting announcement on Monday!
Sarafina Scapicchio (she/her) & Jen LaBarbera (they/them)
Interim Co-Executive Directors
PS: Extra special shoutouts to our partners who kept US afloat this year – thank you SO much to AD and Stacy for your love and support!
San Diego Pride raises funds primarily through festival ticket and beverage sales, and through sponsorships, and exhibitor fees. These funds support San Diego Pride’s community philanthropy which has distributed more than $2.5 million in advancement of its mission to foster pride, equality, and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities locally, nationally, and globally.
