It also helped to keep its finances in good shape, they said. That year-round focus enables the organization to run 35 different events throughout the year. "We're sort of interesting in that our pride organization is year-round and is also an arts and advocacy organization," said San Diego Pride Executive Director Fernando Lopez Jr. They did hold a smaller Pride march last July. In San Diego, organizers managed to keep events going throughout the year even if the pandemic forced them to cancel their bigger, annual parade in 2020. With the LA Pride parade moving back to Los Angeles, West Hollywood will hold its inaugural Pride festival June 3-5, with activities centered in and around West Hollywood Park, 647 N. Considering feedback gathered since the pandemic began, we are committed to creating experiences and access to our entire community, including many of those who have been most underserved and underrepresented." "As a mission-driven and community-centered nonprofit organization, recognizes that LGBTQ+ experiences of Los Angeles are broader than just one neighborhood. "LA Pride is thrilled to come together this year to commemorate the historic anniversary at the parade's first and original location," stated Gerald Garth, vice president of programs and initiatives for Christopher Street West Association Inc., in a news release. After years of marching through West Hollywood, the parade is returning to Hollywood itself, the site of the original route. After a two-year absence which, like San Francisco, meant not being able to mark its 50th anniversary, the parade is coming back in a new, old location. Its start time and date isn't finalized, as MORE! is in the process of securing permits, but MORE! expects the People's March to take place the same day as its larger counterpart, as it has the past two years.įarther south, there are big changes in store for Los Angeles Pride, scheduled for Sunday, June 12. Inn - a former SF Pride grand marshal and board member - organized the alternative event. Unable to hold her usual Pride Day fundraiser party, as she had for the previous 16 years, MORE! and activist Alex U. With a stronger focus on local arts and performers, and a notably smaller budget, the People's March arose during the first year of the pandemic. Following the Pride parade's original route, the People's March will begin on Polk Street, "led by Brown and Black and people of color," MORE! said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. Succeeding him is interim Executive Director Suzanne Ford, the first transgender person in the leadership role.įor those looking for something a little more activist-focused, DJ and drag star Juanita MORE!, who just stepped down from her reign as Empress 56, is helping organize the third People's March that is expected to take place the same Sunday. Former executive director Fred Lopez who, because of the pandemic, never got to oversee an in-parade in his two-year tenure, stepped down February 17. This year's celebration, themed "Love Will Keep Us Together," comes after significant changes in leadership at SF Pride.
San Francisco celebrants will hit the street - Market Street, that is - the last Sunday in June as part of its traditional two-day 52nd San Francisco Pride festival. Organizers are optimistic but, understandably, cautious. As COVID-19 seems, once again, to be slipping into the background, numerous LGBTQ communities around the country are making plans to finally throw the in-person Pride parades they've had to put on hold for the past two years. San Francisco is expected to have not one but two parades Sunday, June 26, as the Pride event returns after a two-year hiatus and will be joined by the third People's March.Īnd it's not just San Francisco.