To Our San Diego Pride Community
The message below was sent in response to authors of the Letter of Community Concern received by the San Diego Pride Board of Directors on June 2, 2025.
Dear concerned members of the San Diego Pride community,
We received your thoughtful letter and want you to know that, as a Board, and as individuals, we are taking to heart the important issues you have raised. Most importantly, it is clear that all of us at San Diego Pride, past and present, are committed to our long-standing mission of fostering pride, equality, and respect for our LGBTQ+ communities, and to our vision of helping to create a world free of prejudice and bias. We share our core mission, vision, and values including our Pillars of Justice, year-round programming, and advocacy initiatives. And now, more than ever, in a world where our community is under attack, with an Administration targeting us in unprecedented ways – we need to find a path to come together.
With that said, there is no question that there are concerns within Pride as an organization that date back over the course of many years, including under prior Boards and prior Executive Directors.
Knowing that the only way to heal these types of harms is through sunlight and transparency, we are committed to airing out these issues and any harms that have resulted – to the extent we’re legally able – so that the community – and our organization – can collectively learn and heal from them.
To that end, earlier this year, we hired an HR investigator, an operations consultant, an Interim Executive Director who focuses on organizational transition and cultural alignment, as well as a strategic planning firm specifically to address these issues. The strategic planning firm, with the help of the Board and our staff, have already begun developing a plan for deep community engagement in the co-creation of our plan for the future. We are deeply committed to continuing that process, and to working together toward a stronger, more cohesive Pride.
This is all to say that we hear your shared concern for the future of the organization, and we look forward to working with all who are committed to healing and a path forward.
In that vein, we specifically request that you, as former staff, board, and volunteers of the organization committed to this important restorative work, preserve all documents, communications, emails, texts, voicemails, notes, etc., that relate in any way to your time and your work with San Diego Pride, so that we are sure to capture and surface any past actions and issues that need to be brought out into the light and addressed.
For the next 31 days, leading up to Pride’s signature two-day Annual Pride Parade and Festival, the staff of San Diego Pride will be focused solely on producing a safe and welcoming Pride Week for our community. We, as the board of San Diego Pride, will be moving the important work of cultural alignment and community engagement forward in the weeks and months ahead.
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the important work of healing in our San Diego Pride community.
In Pride,
The Board of Directors of San Diego Pride