In 1981, just 12 years after the Stonewall Riots, San Diego Pride board member Doug Moore created a list of Pride organizers from around the country, and from that list in 1982 InterPride was founded with a half dozen Pride organizations meeting in Boston that year. In 1983, the first official InterPride conference was then held in San Diego as our movement’s activists and organizations made efforts to share strategies, political pull, resources, and best practices.
The San Diego region has held on to that sense of collective action, as we have learned that for all of our differences, we are stronger as a movement when we work together. In 2003 The Center created the San Diego LGBT Community Leadership Council where every month more than 40 LGBTQ-serving organizations come together to build relationships and address community issues. As new challenges have emerged over time we’ve formed coalitions to address issues and causes like HIV, the meth epidemic, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, marriage equality, binational capacity building, sexual assault, and LGBTQ youth. In the last few years, newer groups have emerged like the San Diego Black LGBTQ Coalition, San Diego County Latinx Coalition,QAPIMEDA Collation, and the DevOUT Interfaith Coalition. I love that we have this culture of coalitions in San Diego as each of these collectives works to bridge individual and organizational capacity in service of the greater good for our movement.
Just this last week San Diego Pride announced that we will be hosting the CAPI Conference in 2020 as we bring together Prides and LGBTQ-serving organizations from across the western United States of America and Mexico to continue that San Diego tradition of collaborative support. Whether we see you at CAPI 2020, participating in one of these coalitions, or even attending one of their many community events, all of these provide for us a way to participate in this Legacy of Liberation.
Fernando Lopez is 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.
