Last night San Diego Pride sent a proposal to the Mayor of San Diego entitled Law Enforcement & Pride – A Path To Healing & Safer Communities.
We hope you will take a moment to read the proposal in its entirety before passing judgment.
If you agree with the proposal, we are asking organizations to add their name to a growing list of supporters. Here is an excerpt from the first page.
Progress, Protest, & Pride
Progress: For the last three decades, the overall relationship between the LGBTQ community and law enforcement has made incredible strides towards progress. Regional LGBTQ law enforcement agencies march in our Parade, have openly LGBTQ officers, retain LGBTQ advisory councils, created LGBTQ and Trans liaison positions, host an annual LGBTQ Law Enforcement Summit, and keep us safe at our events, marches, protests, and times of crisis. LGBTQ activists and law enforcement officers, many of whom are transgender and people of color, drove that change forward. The legacy of their work has built better policy reform, safer communities, and stronger relations.
Protest: The Black LGBTQ community, transgender community, and communities of color, however, feel left behind. For years, these communities have approached San Diego Pride and made public cries for support, as they attempt to explain the disparities they live through every day. Every year these calls for help echo with calls to protest or boycott Pride. These activists and community members believe we do not value their lived experiences. In 2015, the Pride Parade was delayed with a die-in led by trans activists of color out of anger at their lived disparity and Pride’s lack of responsiveness. In 2019, the year of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, saw renewed calls to protest Prides and direct action led by trans and people of color activists delayed nearly every single major Pride event in the county.
Pride: The San Diego Pride organization finds itself in the middle of these two lived realities. The progress is real and important. The lack of progress for our Black, trans, and people of color communities is also real and devastating. For 50 years, Pride events have grown and brought communities together, but this one issue is tearing us apart. The recent civil unrest across the nation sparked by the recent killings of unarmed Black Americans have brought new light to this issue and is deepening the fractures within our community. Something needs to change. In the name of the lives and safety for everyone in our community, we need to find a path to come together, honor both lived realities, and heal. We hope to find that path together with you.
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.
