First to all of our visitors, welcome to San Diego for our 37th annual LGBT Pride parade and festival. San Diego Pride is a time to celebrate the diversity of the LGBT community, as well as honor everything that is San Diego.
As you enjoy what San Diego has to offer; fabulous weather, beautiful beaches and a walkable LGBT community, remember that Pride is more than just a great big street party and festival. Of course, it is still a great big street party and festival.
San Diego Pride has evolved over the years. The initial incarnation was a protest to let people know that the LGBT community existed and refused to live in the shadows any longer. Pride was all about the political statement and much less about the party. It was largely about civil rights and the celebration was to commemorate the community showing itself to the broader populace in a public way.
Those early years were shepherded by LGBT pioneers who were willing to face harassment, ridicule and even jail time, for asserting their equal rights. There were also those who wanted to be counted but remained closeted; they marched in the first San Diego Pride protest with paper bags over their heads.
Pride is the opposite of shame. While those who marched in 1974 with bags over their heads wanted to be counted, they were also shamed by a society who made them fearful to show their faces. Due to fear of reprisals by the broader community, it was a time when LGBT bars and restaurants had no signs identifying the establishment and blacked out windows. This is a far cry from today’s Urban Mo’s, one of our city’s LGBT restaurant and bar institutions.
In the ’80s and early ’90s, Pride became more political and less of a celebration because so much of it was tied to the AIDS crisis. Gay men were dying at alarming rates and it was difficult to show one’s pride when a best friend or boyfriend was lying sick in a hospital bed. Pride was somewhat somber.
Time marched on and the true celebratory nature of Pride returned. However, during the mid ‘90s, there was less of a political feel to Pride parades. Whether it was everyone was exhausted from the AIDS fight or deflated from the losses during the Clinton administration (DADT, DOMA), it seemed everyone was just ready to party and say, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.”
It was during this period that the true political junkies in the community were sowing the seeds of marriage equality in Hawaii. These seeds would grow into the modern marriage equality movement which has been a mainstay at Prides for the last ten years.
The community seems to have reached the delicate balance between political statement and a good old fashioned street party. So whether you are getting your dance on at one of the myriad of Pride parties, or participating in a political meeting, planning session or protest, just be thankful about how far we have come. Please stop and pay respect to your LGBT elders who made it possible for you to wear a pink boa, leather chaps or wedding dress to Pride this year.
Go celebrate. Walk hand in hand with your partner, show off your gym perfect body, protest marriage inequality, honor those who have died from AIDS, get to know the bisexual and transgender communities, be a lipstick or butch lesbian; no matter what you do, be sure to make your community proud.
STAMPP CORBIN, Publisher
San Diego LGBT Weekly
