Pride: Why We Celebrate
Here in San Francisco, summer’s arrival is not heralded by warm sunny weather but by colorful rainbow flags. Every year on June 1, the flags adorn light posts up and down the length of Market Street where they fly through the month. Why? In a word, Pride. Not the kind that goeth before a fall, but the kind that denotes our city’s annual celebration of love, of life, of surviving against the odds. This year marks San Francisco’s 37th annual Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride Celebration.
Various June events culminated on the weekend of June 23-24 in a grand celebration and parade up Market Street. There was food and music and dancing in and around the plaza at Civic Center all weekend. Swing dancers twirled their partners, community educators talked about safer sex, artists showed their creative wares, and activists circulated petitions as rainbow balloons bobbed overhead.
Sunday’s parade, led by the mighty Women’s Motorcycle Contingent (“Dykes on Bikes”), included everything from church and school groups to city officials to go-go dancers to grandmothers. Volunteers from a local food bank clung to the edges of a GIANT rainbow flag as people tossed change into the flag from the sidelines—a unique fundraising tool. Elaborate and colorful floats blasted music, moving the feet of marchers and spectators alike. People of all shapes and sizes marched for pride, for love, for solidarity, for change, for fun, and for a day when all people will have the freedom to safely and meaningfully express their sexual and gender identities.
For the thousands who visit San Francisco to join the Pride celebration, it can be an eye-opening experience in many ways. LGBT visitors can experience respite from the stigma and condemnation they may face in their home communities, and a valuable reminder that they are not alone. All visitors are generally impressed by how wide-ranging the array of LGBT folks and their allies truly is. For those of us who live in San Francisco, Pride weekend is a reminder of our city’s uniqueness and beauty as a place where all sorts of people can find a place not only to belong, but to celebrate.
Here in San Francisco, summer’s arrival is not heralded by warm sunny weather but by colorful rainbow flags. Every year on June 1, the flags adorn light posts up and down the length of Market Street where they fly through the month. Why? In a word, Pride. Not the kind that goeth before a fall, but the kind that denotes our city’s annual celebration of love, of life, of surviving against the odds. This year marks San Francisco’s 37th annual Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride Celebration.
Various June events culminated on the weekend of June 23-24 in a grand celebration and parade up Market Street. There was food and music and dancing in and around the plaza at Civic Center all weekend. Swing dancers twirled their partners, community educators talked about safer sex, artists showed their creative wares, and activists circulated petitions as rainbow balloons bobbed overhead.
Sunday’s parade, led by the mighty Women’s Motorcycle Contingent (“Dykes on Bikes”), included everything from church and school groups to city officials to go-go dancers to grandmothers. Volunteers from a local food bank clung to the edges of a GIANT rainbow flag as people tossed change into the flag from the sidelines—a unique fundraising tool. Elaborate and colorful floats blasted music, moving the feet of marchers and spectators alike. People of all shapes and sizes marched for pride, for love, for solidarity, for change, for fun, and for a day when all people will have the freedom to safely and meaningfully express their sexual and gender identities.
For the thousands who visit San Francisco to join the Pride celebration, it can be an eye-opening experience in many ways. LGBT visitors can experience respite from the stigma and condemnation they may face in their home communities, and a valuable reminder that they are not alone. All visitors are generally impressed by how wide-ranging the array of LGBT folks and their allies truly is. For those of us who live in San Francisco, Pride weekend is a reminder of our city’s uniqueness and beauty as a place where all sorts of people can find a place not only to belong, but to celebrate.
