SAN DIEGO — The San Diego LGBT Pride Board, the Save SD Pride Town Hall Forum, the LGBT Community Pride Committee and former San Diego LGBT Pride Executive Director Stephen Whitburn have announced that they have reached an agreement that has cleared the way for the community to come together in support of the 2017 San Diego Pride events.
The move follows San Diego Pride’s recent addition of new board members and candidates, and it’s reinstatement of a community advisory council to be chaired by City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez and GSDBA CEO Barbra Blake and the updating of meeting minutes posted on its Web site.
Community leader Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, the lead organizer/negotiator for the Save SD Pride Town Hall Forum has arranged for LGBT Community Pride to cancel its own reservation of space in Balboa Park next July in favor of supporting the annual San Diego Pride Festival.
“The election has changed the stakes for our community,” Rodriguez-Kennedy told LGBT Weekly. “As we celebrate the holidays with our loved ones and look forward to 2017 one thing is certain: Our community needs unity now more than ever. A compromise has been reached between competing Pride organizations and with this agreement we will have the certainty that our community needs in regards to it’s pride celebration will be met. San Diego Pride is more transparent, accountable and communicative now than when this conflict began and that is a positive outcome. Some might say it’s a Christmas miracle.”
Pride Board Co Chair Bianca Burt said, “Together, as a community, we are excited to continue our efforts to expand our advocacy, education and community organizing. We plan to lead by example and believe that this will strengthen the organization and our community as a whole.”
Former executive director Stephen Whitburn has expressed his full confidence in the Pride staff and its preparations for next summer’s celebration, standing by what he told LGBT Weekly earlier in the month, “San Diego Pride will produce the festival as usual next year,” said Whitburn.”I hired a great staff that is still there, and they’ll do a great job as always. I’m looking forward to wherever my career takes me next.”
The San Diego Pride events are expected to take place the last weekend of July 2017.
