Today is Thanksgiving. It can be hard to find gratitude in moments like this. We again find ourselves mourning our dead and fearful for our future. It’s okay to be raging mad. It’s perfectly valid to feel numb. It’s understandable if you’re afraid. There is no right way to feel after something as traumatic as the mass shooting in Colorado Spring’s Club Q. This is the goal of targeted terrorism. To wear us down.
We won’t go away quietly.
As we’ve learned that the shooter had a San Diego connection, we’ve also learned the hero, the person who stopped the shooter was an ally, veteran, and San Diegan.
We know how to fight back.
Throughout the exhausting few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, our community found innovative ways to stay connected and support each other. In 2022, we saw the return of our community’s safe spaces to full scale. Our LGBTQ owned bars, clubs, and restaurants welcomed us all back! Pride returned to full scale and record numbers! All of that was possible thanks to our community sticking by each other, volunteering, donating, learning new skills, and wielding our queer brilliance as resilience.
We will heal from this too. We will rise from this too. We will revel in the warmth of the family we find, keep, and choose. We will continue to fight for our right to live and love freely, without fear. We will always recover to pursue Justice with Joy. For that and more, I am forever grateful.
With Love, Hope, and Pride,
Fernando Z. López
Pronouns: they/them/theirs
Executive Director
San Diego Pride
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.
