Ricardo Gallego and Orlando Espín

Inspirational Couple – Ricardo Gallego and Dr. Orlando Espin

Ricardo Gallego and Orlando Espín have been together 26 years, and were civilly married in California in 2008. They are very proud of their affirming, supportive families and friends. They are also the proud fathers of several canine sons. Ricardo has been very much involved in the San Diego LGBTQ community since 1999. A trained counselor, he worked for Bienestar Human Services, and then began working at the San Diego LGBT Community Center in 2004, and has been director of the Center’s Latinoax Services department for the past four years. More recently, he led the Center’s efforts to serve the many LGBTQ refugees arriving at our local border, and continues to work with several local immigrant-rights organizations.

Orlando has been professor at the University of San Diego since 1991, after serving on the faculty of the University of Florida. A much published academic author specialized in the study of “popular religions” (non-institutional forms of religions), he was among the first in his field to write and speak on LGBTQ rights and realities, and has encouraged others to do so. Orlando was co-founder and co-chair of the Latinoax Roundtable, a program of Berkeley’s Center for LGBTQ Studies in Religion. He continues to lecture locally, nationally and internationally on Latinoax LGBTQ persons, families and religions.

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About 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.