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 community for ourselves. We have forged organizations, revitalized neighborhoods, changed hearts and minds, and cared for each other through the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics because our community volunteers their talent, wisdom, strength, and time in service of the greater good. Volunteers, our Pride Family, truly lead our organization.
In the 70s, a handful of community members volunteered their time as they fought for permits, sold buttons for revenue, and hand-cranked mimeograph flyers to distribute around town so we could hold our first Pride events in San Diego. That foundational work built the scale and scope of our organization over the decades we engaged in intergenerational mentorship and leadership development. We grew as each one of our year-round programs began with one or a few people from our community approaching us with inspiration and a desire to lean in to serve, building on what came before.
In a typical year thousands of volunteers come together to build our event and organization as we have since the beginning, and every year their insights help us to be better than the year before. There are so many ways to volunteer with Pride. If you’re interested in taking on a leadership position for our annual celebration or year-round programs, supporting voter engagement efforts, outreach, advocacy, or even helping with a 5-hour clean-up shift, we would love to see you engaged with the Pride Family. As we begin to bring people safely back after years apart, your help is needed more than ever. I hope you’ll consider volunteering some time with us as together we work to pursue Justice with Joy.
P.S. You can learn more about our open volunteer-leadership positions and register as a volunteer here.
With Pride,
Fernando Zweifach López
Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs
Executive Director
San Diego Pride
Fernando Lopez was the Executive Director of San Diego Pride. Lopez’s years of LGBT advocacy, nonprofit management, public education, diversity consulting, media relations, guest lectures, and organizing have made them a consistent presence ensuring the struggles of the LGBT community are ever visible.
