City leaders honor 50 years of LGBTQ+ Pride in San Diego, kick off celebrations
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — While the global LGBTQ+ Pride Month festivities came to a close with the beginning of July, San Diego’s celebrations are just getting started.
On Monday, city leaders kicked off the event’s 50th year with a proclamation declaring July as San Diego Pride Month while honoring a group of LGBTQ+ members who have made outstanding contributions to the community and the region at large.
“Welcome to the city of San Diego’s official LGBTQ Pride kickoff event,” Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who served as San Diego Pride’s executive director for several years before being elected to office, emphatically declared during his remarks on Monday.
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According to San Diego Pride, this year’s “golden jubilee” marks the anniversary of the first-ever “Gay Pride Day” in the city and permitted marches in support for LGBTQ+ rights in the city of San Diego, spurred by efforts by activists’ efforts in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.
An homage to this landmark year, the theme for the upcoming Pride festival and parade, which will be held from July 20 to 21 at Balboa Park, is “Making History Now.”
Tickets to the event are on sale now. According to San Diego Pride, proceeds will benefit their year-round programs and events, including their robust Pride Community Grants program that has distributed over $3.5 million to LGBTQ+ serving organizations since 1994.
Aside from declaring the official start to San Diego’s Pride Month, city leaders also acknowledged this year’s group of Pride honorees, who will be recognized during the festivities for their outstanding contributions to the local LGBTQ+ community and wider region.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by many city officials,” said Eric de la Torre, a patient advocate at the AIDs Healthcare Foundation and this year’s “Mr. Pride.” He added that it was extra special to be receiving the acknowledgement from the city’s first openly LGBTQ+ mayor, Todd Gloria.
“I think it’s amazing that so many people who were here in this room really paved the way for all of us to continue being able to express and live our true authentic selves,” he continued.
As they remarked on this year’s Pride honorees during the event, the speakers at Monday’s event also touched what the decades-long history of Pride in San Diego illustrates about the fight for LGBTQ+ rights moving forward.
“The fight is not over,” de la Torre said. “We still have to continue to fight for our rights and make sure that other generations coming after us also have the freedom to be able to express ourselves and be their true authentic selves.”
FOX 5’s Amber Coakley contributed to this report.
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