Happy New Year! We did it. We made it. Another year in the books, and what a year it was. 2022 brought our community a deluge of unexpected challenges. We saw historic levels of anti-LGBTQ threats, violence, and harmful legislation. We also saw the meningitis and mpox outbreaks while COVID-19 surged. All of this while our community worked to regain our connections after years apart, to bring back Pride.
In our struggle to survive the moment, we can lose focus on how we thrive. This is the goal of oppression. To make us weary. To keep us in trauma and triage. Let’s change that.
Going into 2020, our theme was Together We Rise, as we knew it would be a pivotal election year. We knew what was on the line. We had no idea COVID-19, George Flyod, and a racial reckoning were on the horizon. There was no in-person Pride.
In 2021, Resilient was our theme, as we focused on the ways queer resilience has always been a part of our brilliance. We spent the year looking at how we could collectively tap into our generations of action, activism, and advocacy to restore, rebuild, redeem, and revive one another. There was a smaller and diffused in-person Pride.
In 2022, with hope of a full comeback, Justice with Joy, our San Diego Pride motto, became our theme. Through our year-round programs and Pride, we emphasized what our founders instilled, that art and advocacy are powerful accomplices. That the veterans of our movement did not struggle so we would only suffer. We had a full-scale Pride!
This year, our theme is, Thrive! Not only did San Diego Pride survive the struggles of the last several years, we came out bigger, and stronger, with more staff, volunteers, and programs than ever before! With that, we have new and exciting things in store for our community this year!
We’re starting a new Entertainment Workshop Series to help elevate our region’s LGBTQ performing artists. We will be adding to our year-round grassroots organizing efforts and a Pride Power Summit in the spring to train the next generation of activists. In the fall, we will bring the international Pride conference back to San Diego for the first time in 40 years as activists from around the world converge to build our global movement that much stronger. Of course, save the date, November 11, for our annual Pride Youth Leadership Academy where we will train youth, educators, and guardians on how to create safer communities and educational environments for the next generation.
This is just the beginning. We hope you’ll find engagement in our year-round programs, volunteer to join our leadership team, support this work by becoming an Ambassador of Pride, or simply attend any of our events. We hope you will join us in approaching 2023 with an abundance mindset so our community can truly Thrive!
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.
