In 1974, when it was still legal to lobotomize gay men in the state of California, the Pride March was denied a permit here in San Diego. Undaunted, a brave few dozen from our community defiantly took to the streets, many of those folks were service members, and many wore paper bags over their heads to shield their identity in protection of their careers and very lives.
Fast forward to 2011, before the repeal of DADT went into effect, when San Diego Pride became the first in the nation to have an official Military Contingent where hundreds of active duty service members marched in the daylight as their authentic selves. The very next year service members were granted full approval from the Department of Defense to march in uniform at San Diego Pride. Both of those Pride Parades were historic and made international news helping to shift a narrative about who comprises the LGBTQ community.
In 2015 we founded the Pride Youth Marching Band, a first of its kind program bringing in talented LGBTQ youth from all over southern California to work and learn along side LGBTQ music instructors from around the region. Now a crowd favorite at the Parade and sponsored by the San Diego Unified School District; a far cry from the 1978 Parade where we marched to protect our LGBTQ educators against Anita Bryant and the Briggs initiative.
In 1987 Pride marched to city hall to demand action amidst the AIDS crisis. In 2016 our parade was lead by our Latinx community as they carried signs with names, ages, and faces of the 49 lives we lost at Pulse. In 2017 over 50 leaders from different LGBTQ open and affirming congregations led the Parade to combat the ongoing attempts to use religion as a weapon against our community. Every year the spectrum of our community gets to shine in the free air in ways denied to us nearly every of other day. One month from today I hope you will march with us as your authentic self in front of the nearly quarter million people who all attend to lay down their difference and celebrate diversity, as together we Persist with Pride.
March On.
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.
