2 parades to greet SF pridegoers
ebar.comIt's been three years since San Francisco last celebrated Pride with its usual extravagance — COVID, like any unwanted guest, saw to that — but now, the fête is back this weekend under the theme "Love Will Keep Us Together" and people, hundreds of thousands of them, are ready to party.
In person. If the big, hourslong parade with its thousands of participants and floats, music, and celebrities isn't your thing, however, there's an alternative parade, the People's March-Unite to Fight, with a decidedly more activist focus and organized by drag impresario Juanita MORE!
and activist Alex U. Inn. That event will follow the route of the original Pride parade back in 1970, when 30 folks marched down Polk Street, then the heart of LGBTQ San Francisco before the Castro rose to prominence.Both parades are Sunday, June 26.Leaders of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee are excited about the return of the SF Pride parade, the first in-person march since 2019."After two years, the return to an in-person celebration for San Francisco Pride will be an uplifting showcase of some of the best LGBTQ+ luminaries, leaders, and community groups the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer," Suzanne Ford, San Francisco Pride interim executive director, stated in a press release. "This will be a historic moment in our fight for inclusion, acceptance, and equality for all LGBTQ+ people, as we come together in solidarity to celebrate the progress that has been made, while responding with love, activism, and radical inclusion against discriminatory laws that are being enacted across the country at an alarming rate."Recent Bay Area incidents involving alleged Proud Boys members hijacking a drag queen storytime event at the San Lorenzo.
