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Neighborhood Gears Up for Pride’s 40th
By J. Dean Woodbury
Pride is turning 40 and has never looked so good.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. The theme is “Forty and Fabulous” and the event will be held over the weekend of June 26 and 27. With over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, and more than a dozen community-run stages and venues, the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade is the largest gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation. The two-day celebration is free and culminates in a parade down Market Street on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. from Beale Street to Eighth Street.
According to Mikayla Connell, president of the SF Pride Board of Directors, this year is going to be a little different from previous years’ celebrations. Traditionally, the events have been held anywhere from one to two days, but the committee is thinking big and trying to spread out activities over anywhere from a couple weeks to holding year-round events.
Additionally, Connell says that this year’s celebrations will be “emphasizing a nice retrospective on where we have come from, who our heroes are. In fact, some of our promotional literature shows Harvey Milk riding in the first parade, as a nod to the state’s first annual Harvey Milk Day.”
Pride commemorates the rebellion of LGBT patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City’s Greenwich Village in response to a routine police raid on June 27, 1969. The following year, a “Gay-In” that took place on June 27, 1970 was the early progenitor of the current Pride celebration. Since 1972, the event has been held every year.
Every year there are both Community and Celebrity Grand Marshalls who ride in the parade. This year will see a host of Marshalls from the past 40 years, including Alice Walker (“The Color Purple”) and the Backstreet Boys. The Pink Brick, an annual award given to someone who has in some way defamed the LGBT community, will be awarded to Sen. Roy Ashburn, whose anti-gay voting track record caught up to him this past year when he was caught with a male escort after having left a Sacramento gay bar. There will be jumbotrons, booths, food, and famous faces, including one undisclosed musician and politician may make an appearance.
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