San Diego Pride

Dear Pride Family, This year, San Diego Pride has been utilizing our weekly newsletter to “pass the mic” - often within our own Pride volunteer and staff teams and at times, to valued community partners. This week, we’re passing the mic to our friends at T-Spot, G.E.M, and Lambda Archives of San Diego, who are making history now. We’re looking forward to celebrating this upcoming month and supporting them in their plans for this work in 2025; we hope you join us! ------------------------ The T-Spot and G.E.M, in collaboration with Lambda Archives of San Diego, proudly declare August as Trans Pride/History Month. While the San Diego City Council has recently acknowledged this month, we have been preparing for this celebration and announcement since the start of the year. Why August? August is a month steeped in historical significance for the trans community. It marks the anniversary of the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riot, a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ history often overshadowed by the Stonewall riots. This event in San Francisco was a catalyst for broader LGBTQ+ activism and significantly impacted the treatment and perception of trans individuals in society. Recognizing August as Trans Pride/History Month allows us to highlight the resilience and contributions of our community throughout history. Other Significant Events in August Several key events occur in August that further underscore its importance: - Transgender Flag Day: Celebrated on August 19th, this day honors the history and significance of the Transgender Pride Flag, created by Monica Helms on this day in 1999. - Marsha P. Johnson’s Birthday: August 24th marks the birthday of Marsha P. Johnson, an iconic figure in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and a prominent participant in the Stonewall riots. Our Journey Since February, The T-Spot, G.E.M, and Lambda Archives of San Diego have been working on an initiative to declare August as Trans Pride/History Month. This initiative aims to honor the pivotal role the trans community plays in the fight for social justice and equality. Together, we honor our past, celebrate our present, and look forward to a future of equality and acceptance. All members of the community, allies, and supporters are invited to join in making Trans Pride/History Month 2025 unforgettable. For more information, visit www.tspotsandiego.org or contact us at [email protected]. Stay tuned to T-Spot, G.E.M, and/or Lambda Archives of San Diego for updates and details on how you can participate and support. In solidarity, The T-Spot Team Full newsletter >> mailchi.mp/sdpride/3324

Dear Pride Family, THANK YOU! In a year marked by transitions, thousands of you showed up to celebrate queer joy and be in community together. Pride is a celebration and a protest at the same time. We have much more work to do in the coming months and years, and our joy is resistance. THANK YOU for showing up for each other! Thank you for helping San Diego Pride celebrate our 50th Anniversary! As we remember the LGBTQIA+ community members who came before us, we can re-imagine what our own future could and should look like. History is alive, and we shape it every day through our collective action and individual choices. So we ask you again, how will you choose to make history?  San Diego Pride week may be over, but we will carry the spirit of the Stonewall and Compton cafeteria protests with us, because Pride does not end in June OR July, and we demand to be part of the narrative. Every voice matters, and every step forward is a victory. As we reflect on our beautiful Pride week together, let us recommit ourselves to the origins of Pride. Let us celebrate with Pride, Let us vote with Pride, Let us live with Pride. With Pride, Jen LaBarbera (they/them) & Sarafina Scapicchio (she/her) Interim Co-Executive Directors P.S. If you enjoyed our celebration and love our year-round education and advocacy work, please consider becoming a sustaining donor to San Diego Pride.

Dear Pride Family, In 1974, members of San Diego Pride’s founding leadership applied for a permit to march in the street. The application was denied, destroyed, and those organizers were told “You will be getting NO permit.” Our community persisted as 200 people decided to march whether or not they were allowed.  As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of that first march in San Diego, we look to honor our past victories, and recommit ourselves to the work ahead. We do this with the understanding that this work has been entrusted to us by the visionaries who have come before. We honor our future by ensuring opportunities for future generations to blaze their own trails and make their own history. Our theme this year is “Making History Now” not just because of this milestone event. It is an invitation to be a part of the movement. History is not just what happened in the past, it is happening right before our eyes.  We invite you to reconnect with our collective Queer history. Learn from the past and bring those stories into the present.  We have been making history, because we have always been here. And we always will be.  Happy Pride, San Diego! We can’t wait to see you this weekend. With Pride, Jen LaBarbera (they/them) & Sarafina Scapicchio (she/her) Interim Co-Executive Directors Full newsletter >> mailchi.mp/sdpride/3124

Dear Pride Family, As we hurtle towards Pride week in San Diego, packed with events, meet-ups, mixers, protests and the gathering of friends, we are reminded of the true function and power of coming together in community, Pride, and queer joy.  In just a couple of months, Pride season will have passed and election season will be upon us. As we’ve seen in past years, the election will bring up heated conversations about our community members - targeting our gender expression, identity, and sexuality - which  will reverberate through our TVs, our social media channels, at the water cooler, in public restrooms, and even on the playground. It will be then that the queer joy we’ve experienced during Pride, the friends and lovers we’ve connected with, the memories we’ve made with each other, and the social organizations we’ve become engaged with will be the most deeply needed. Queer joy and liberation are connected. We can’t keep fighting for liberation without the buoy of queer joy and the community that sustains us. We intentionally begin Pride Week in San Diego with She Fest - a FREE, volunteer-led program organized by 2SLGBTQIA+ women, non-binary people, and people who find community with these identities. While the premise of the event is simple, this is critical community-building work that creates - through the process of its planning - an invaluable social support system for individuals in our community who are too often kept out of leadership. The skills the all-volunteer committee learns, the friendships they make with each other, the queer joy the event brings to the larger community, are all critical outcomes. These will pay dividends to our community when the Pride flags are tucked away and the negativity of the upcoming election cycle places LGBTQIA+ people in its crosshairs.  On a personal note for Jen, She Fest is the only LGBTQIA+ community event where they have never been misgendered. For Sarafina, it is the only community event where she was not treated as “ not queer enough” as a femme lesbian. These acknowledgments of the complexity of identities can be so powerful for people to experience. The great exhale you feel when you are in a space where you are understood and dare we say known. We invite EVERYONE to join us at She Fest on Saturday - bring your dog (with booties for that hot asphalt!) for the return of the doggie fashion show, get connected to local LGBTQIA+ organizations, enjoy some phenomenal entertainment, and engage with all the activities that our brilliant She Fest committee has put together. Or help She Fest reach their goal of $10,000 in donations for their 10th anniversary!  We’ve got a long week of Pride events coming at ya, and we’re so excited to start this week with you in Hillcrest!  In Solidarity, Jen LaBarbera (they/them) & Sarafina Scapicchio (she/her) Interim Co-Executive Directors Full newsletter >> mailchi.mp/sdpride/3024

🌈 We are proud to announce Options For All as San Diego Pride's Accessibility Partner! 🎉✨ With their support, we're ensuring Pride events are inclusive for everyone. Join us in celebrating diversity and accessibility at San Diego Pride! 🏳️🌈 #OptionsForAll

Dear Pride Family, There’s so much happening during Pride Week, so we've put together 50 things to know before you go! We’re combining celebration and liberation while we honor the folks who are Making History Now. There’s truly something for everyone! Check out the full Top 50 list on our website. See you at Pride! With Pride, Jen LaBarbera (they/them) & Sarafina Scapicchio (she/her) Interim Co-Executive Directors Full newsletter >> https://loom.ly/qrjE6Lg

Dear Pride Family, As Pride organizers, it’s our job to create that celebration every year, and that celebration is vital. We need these spaces of joy, these spaces to be so unapologetically ourselves, in order to shore ourselves up for what feels like a constant battle. And that unbridled queer and trans joy and unabashed embrace of our identities is itself its own form of resistance. And: Pride commemorates the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, when our community members fought back against state-sanctioned police brutality and sparked what is now the global Pride movement. Pride is a celebration, yes, and it is also protest – the purpose of this celebration is liberation. We’ve seen a dramatic increase in anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and policy across the country, including here in San Diego, over the past few years. We have made progress that deserves to be celebrated, yes, and we still have a lot of work to do to achieve full pride, equality, and respect for all LGBTQIA+ people locally, nationally, and globally, and that work requires intentional reconnection to our roots as a movement for social justice and to our roots in throwing the first brick (*or penny, or punch, or shot glass - the stories vary!) at Stonewall 55 years ago. During San Diego Pride, we come together to reconnect to those roots at the Spirit of Stonewall Rally, where we get to honor the folks in our midst that are doing the work and come together to take action.  This year’s Keynote Speaker is Kierra Johnson (they/she), Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force. I am lucky enough to have known Kierra since 2012, when we first met in reproductive justice organizing spaces. They are an absolutely brilliant leader who is able to beautifully combine passion with compassion and strategy with radically imaginative vision.  Chairwoman Erica Pinto of the Jamul Indian Village will offer an acknowledgment of the unceded Indigenous territories on which we celebrate. The Rally’s featured speakers include two folks who also happen to be members of groups receiving Spirit of Stonewall Awards this year. Ady Huertas (she/her) is a librarian (lesbrarian) at San Diego Public Library, will remind us what is at stake when LGBTQIA+ books are banned and challenged. Hon. Christine Kehoe (she/her), San Diego County’s first out LGBTQIA+ elected official and part of San Diego Pride’s Founding Leadership, will give remarks about the history (and future!) of San Diego’s LGBTQIA+ movement.  Our Pride celebrations began as a protest. Pride is still a protest, and our work is not yet done. I hope you will join us as we rally together in action, in celebration of the progress we’ve made, in support of those who are making history now, in working toward liberation, and in radically imaginative vision for what we can build together.  In Solidarity, Jen LaBarbera (they/them) Interim Co-Executive Director Full newsletter >> mailchi.mp/sdpride/2824

Dear Pride Family, In navigating the complexities of celebrating Juneteenth within a world still entangled in the remnants of its past, and amidst the hollow promises of progress adorned with the veneer of inclusivity, I, at the crossroads of my queerness, transness, and blackness, find myself all too familiar with this internal conflict. It's a struggle often veiled behind smiles and humor, serving as armor against the pervasive anti-blackness and censorship in white-dominated spaces. How, then, can I carve out a space that honors the legacy of my ancestors while embracing my full self? For me, the answer lies in the solidarity and camaraderie found within communities that share a commitment to liberation. Juneteenth embodies the resilience of spirit, a testament to our refusal to be bound by the chains of oppression. It's a day marked not just by historical significance but by the ongoing journey of liberation that reverberates through generations. Let us use this time not only for reflection on the pains, struggles, and traumas of the past but also as a celebration of the resilience, joy, and lightness we've preserved and cultivated. Juneteenth serves as a beacon of hope, a reminder that our collective efforts continue to shape history and propel us towards a future where freedom and justice reign supreme. In this spirit, stand in hope and solidarity with our colleagues at San Diego Black Pride. With Pride, Shane James (they/them/theirs) Programs Coordinator - San Diego Black Pride celebrates and honors our marginalized communities daily. We relegate our uniqueness to centering our Unity in Color, Joy, and Black Excellence. Pride and Juneteenth celebrations not only honor our marginalized communities' resistance while underscoring a troubling truth about how we show up in society: Historically the United States perpetuates the ongoing exacerbation of racism, transphobia, and queerphobia in the United States. For most of us, Juneteenth was an annual block party that folks couldn't wait to happen. Aunties, uncles, papas, and grandmas would cook their favorite food to share with the entire block. We set up the "good" BBQ grill, usually the big ole' barrel grill. The kids frolicked and played games, and the grown folks had a competitive game of "Bid Wiz. Juneteenth means freedom, love, unity, validation, and more. It also commemorates General Order No. 3. June 19, 1865—the day all people living in the United States, including the formerly enslaved, were officially granted freedom. We have come a long way but still have so much more to do, especially for our Black queer siblings and families. SDBP thanks the community for embracing us. We forgive and love those who still do not fully accept us. We are still here; we are not going anywhere, period. For SDBP, Juneteenth validates our history, freedom, choices, and love of self. With gratitude and appreciation, Your San Diego Black Pride Full newsletter >> mailchi.mp/sdpride/2724

Jen LaBarbera, Interim Co-Executive Director of San Diego Pride, joined Main St. Living to discuss San Diego Pride events and the impact they'll have on the community. See the full interview below at https://lnkd.in/gbQpPF_u

A BIG congratulations to the San Diego Pride Board Members and Staff who were honored last night at the @sdbusinessjournal LGBTQ+ Leaders of Influence ceremony in association with @sdebalgbtqchamber ! We're feeling lucky to have these leaders in our organization. Happy Pride Month 🌈 Melissa Malone-Montgomery ,Rebecca Lee, Ed.D , Brian Zotti , Oleene Perera , Andrew Picard , Jen LaBarbera , Sarafina Scapicchio, MSW, CNP