San Diego, CA
On its 50th anniversary, San Diego Pride is looking back and ahead
Nobody knows for sure what day it happened, how long it lasted and how many people took part. But sometime in 1974 — most likely around the fifth anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City in late June — a group of gay men and lesbians marched down the sidewalks of downtown San Diego to call for gay rights.
Fifty years later, San Diego Pride has grown into one of the largest LGBTQ celebrations in America. Over the years, the annual protest marches and political rallies of the 1970s and ’80s transitioned into celebratory Pride parades and jubilant and inclusive outdoor festivals.
Today, more than 250,000 people, including thousands who travel here from all over the United States, attend San Diego’s Pride festivities, which this year culminate next weekend with the San Diego Pride Parade in Hillcrest and the San Diego Pride Festival in Balboa Park.
For those who haven’t studied the history of the Pride movement in America, San Diego Pride events today seem like merely a festive celebration of self-identity. But for those who have lived the experience, Pride is also about freedom, equality and the ongoing fight to experience life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without government and religious intervention.
For this article we spoke to the leader and archivist for Lambda Archives of San Diego, which since 1987 has collected, preserved and shared the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in San Diego and Imperial counties and Northern Baja California. We also heard from two longtime San Diegans who shared their Pride memories with us for this story.
First we hear from Lambda Archives Managing Director Nicole Verdes and Archivist Dana Wiegand, who talked about the 50-year history of Pride in San Diego. Their comments have been slightly edited for clarity.
Q: Fifty years ago, San Diego was now as a small Navy town. How did it compare to other U.S. cities in its treatment of LGBTQ people in the 1970s?
Dana Wiegand: San Diego was equally as conservative, especially as a Navy town. The (people) faced the same struggles as in any other city in America. We do see that a lot of these communities formed in cities that served as ports for the military. Also, a lot of the change-making activists who were in the military would travel to other community hotspots and speak to the activists there for inspiration on how to build that community in San Diego.
Q: Before Stonewall and the first Pride marches, what was public life line for members of the LGBTQ community in San Diego?
Nicole Verdes: Prior to the first Pride marches, lives were lived in fear and secrecy. Bars and clubs were among the safe spaces to celebrate and be with lovers, but those safe spaces were often subjected to frequent police raids. If they were dancing or sitting too close together, they were targeted. Raids resulted in arrests and public exposure. There were significant consequences for their jobs and families.
Also there have been strict cross-dressing ordinances prohibiting dressing against gender norms, like butch lesbians who dressed more masculine. In San Diego, that ordinance was municipal code 56.19. It became law in 1966. You couldn’t appear in a public place in apparel customarily worn by the opposite sex. It wasn’t repealed until 1997. The cross-dressing ban in National City didn’t get repealed until 2020. A local activist and member of the LGBT community, Coyote Moon, found out by accident the law was still on the books and she stepped up to work with elected officials.
Q: The first city-approved and widely-covered San Diego Pride march took place in 1975. But the first, informal march happened in 1974. What can you tell me about it?
Wiegand: The actual participants in the first march in 1974 is hard to pin down. There were only a few periodicals at the time and they were organized by ad hoc committees. But we know that the first permitted march in 1975 had 400 people.
Even before San Diego had their permitted Pride marches, we had Gay-Ins. Nobody could get a permit. There were too many barriers and the people in charge weren’t allowed to let gay people march in the streets. In 1971, ’72 and ’73, they’d gather for community picnics. Before 1975, when the police chief wrote a permit, the community couldn’t march in the streets so they had to march on the sidewalks. Getting a permit to get a Pride march was a complicated process into the 1980s.
Q: What kind of public response did early Pride marchers encounter in San Diego and how has it changed over the years?
Verdes: In the earlier marches, some people wore paper bags over their heads to protect their identity.
They’d have opposition people showing up to antagonize them verbally. In 1994, a previous mayor of San Diego organized a group of protestors called The Normal People. They wanted to march (in the Pride parade) in political opposition to the homosexual agenda. Former Mayor Hedgecock said their exclusion (from the parade) violated the city’s Human Dignity Ordinance.
In 1999, the theme for Pride was “celebrate the past and create the future.” A tear gas bomb was thrown into the crowd at 10th and University aimed at the Family Matters contingent. It was chaos.
You have people who show up on the sidelines who are Fundamentalists carrying signs like “Fags burn in hell.” That still happens today. You have more organized targeted incidents. San Diego Pride takes very seriously the safety of the people marching in the parade. The antagonistic aspects of it never goes away.
Q: Can you tell me about Lambda Archives and its work?
Verdes: Initially Lambda was started by Jess Jessop, who was a nurse medic in the Vietnam War. He organized the Gay Liberation Front at SDSU and was very active in the 1980s when he pivoted toward AIDS and the lack of government response.
He took the initiative to collect materials to preserve our history. A lot of people who had AIDS, their families would clean out their houses and throw away all of their personal effects. So he jumped into circumvent that and he collected photos, protest signs and other items.
We were entirely volunteer-led until we got our nonprofit status in 1987. We’ve grown to three full-time employees and two part-time employees.
Dana is digitizing the collection. We have year-round youth programs and oral history and scholarship programs that donate funding to queer students at community colleges and trade schools. We have also grown with an intentional focus on our collection of information on queer and trans communities of color.
Weigand: We have collections made up of thousands and thousands of documents, photos, textiles, books, memorabilia and ephemera, which are items not meant to be saved like buttons, pins and flyers. They’re objects our community views as part of our collective history. I want to develop more widely accessible digital archives.
Verdes: Our mission is to collect and preserve and share the LGBTQ heritage for San Diego and Imperial Valley. But the work we do here extends beyond that.
A couple of years ago, we were contacted by a playwright in Britain who learned about the Blood Sisters (a group of women from San Diego’s Democratic Party caucus who organized blood drives for AIDS patients, since gay men were banned from giving blood). We connected her with the original force behind the Blood Sisters.
Our collecting scope is local, but the work we do here can expand to places you wouldn’t think of.
Pride memories from two San Diegans
We asked U-T readers to share their memories of what Pride means to them. Here are two of the mini-essays that were submitted.
Dana Harwood, Mission Hills
When I reflect on “What Pride Means to Me” I always think about my mom’s incredible love and support.
I came out to my mom, Bobbi Harwood, over 30 years ago and although at first she was shocked, confused and worried, she soon found PFLAG (support group for friends and family of the LGBTQ community). She began attending meetings and talking to people who helped her learn about the diverse and incredible LGBTQ community in San Diego.
The following year, my mom marched in her first San Diego Pride parade with PFLAG, carrying a colorful sign she made that proudly stated “I LOVE MY LESBIAN DAUGHTER”. She later served as the president of the San Diego chapter of PFLAG and in 2006 she was named Pride Friend of the Year and was honored during the parade and festival.
My mom and I marched in the San Diego Pride Parade for over 25 years. The day of the Pride parade became her favorite day of the year. Although my mom hasn’t marched in the parade for a few years now, her love for me and her support of the LGBTQ community is as strong as ever.
Patric Stillman, Hillcrest
Pride, for me, is a profound celebration of identity, resilience and community.
Coming out is a deeply personal journey, marked by moments of self-discovery and courage. It’s a process that, while intensely individual, is also immensely communal. This duality highlights the core of Pride: the embrace of one’s true self and the collective strength found in a supportive community.
Over time, my understanding of Pride has evolved. Initially, it was about asserting my identity in the face of societal expectations. Today, it has grown into a broader vision of acceptance and equality. The positive impact of love has been transformative, fostering greater empathy and understanding. In the face of hate, bigotry and ignorance, our community stands as a beacon of hope and solidarity. It is within this community that we find the strength to persist and the love to thrive.
As Americans, we are endowed with the right to pursue happiness — a right that is fundamental and should be universally respected. Pride embodies this pursuit, advocating for the recognition and respect of our happiness, our love and our identities. It is a reminder that our quest for happiness is valid and that it deserves to be valued by everyone.
Thought the years, Pride has always been about joy and celebration. There is something profoundly political in our ability to dance with those awe love, to celebrate our lives openly and without fear. Dancing together, we embody the spirit of what we call LGBTQ+ Pride — defiant, joyous and unapologetically ourselves.
Stillman’s The Studio Door art gallery is presenting its 7th “PROUD+” exhibition through Aug. 3 at 3865 Fourth Ave., San Diego. thestudiodoor.com
San Diego Pride Parade & Festival
Parade: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Begins at the Hillcrest Pride Flag at 1500 University Ave. and travels west on University, south on Sixth Avenue, left on Balboa Drive and ends at Laurel Street.
Festival: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and July 21 in Balboa Park at Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street. Tickets are $38 for a two-day pass. Order online at sdpride.org/event/san-diego-pride-festival
For a full schedule of Pride events, visit https://sdpride.org/events/
Originally Published:
San Diego County opened its eighth crisis stabilization unit in El Cajon on Monday, providing the same short-term resource for East County residents that has helped relieve pressure on hospital emergency departments in communities to the north and south.
The newest facility replaces a former county assessor’s satellite office at South Magnolia and West Douglas avenues, near the city’s community center and library.
The El Cajon $28 million crisis unit has 12 recliners and a freshly renovated space for private consultation, accommodating residents in need of immediate mental health services for up to 24 hours.
Pioneered in a handful of local hospitals, the county began opening stand-alone crisis units in Vista and Oceanside in 2021 and 2022. The pair of locations were a direct response to Tri-City Medical Center closing its behavioral health unit and crisis center in 2018, citing the need for prohibitively expensive repairs and difficulties with staffing.
Another unit attached in Chula Vista, attached to Bayview Hospital, a behavioral health facility, opened in 2023 with an additional unit attached to the emergency department at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center in March.
Nadia Privara-Brahms, the county’s behavioral health director, said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday morning that the heavy investment in crisis centers has drastically reduced mental health care visits to local emergency departments. County data for the 2024-25 budget year estimates that 11,000 adults treated at crisis stabilization units were diverted from inpatient care and 14%, approximately 1,800, were connected to inpatient care.
“Countywide, we have seen that this model of care is working,” Privara-Brahms said. “Across the CSUs locally, we saw 85% of admissions diverted from inpatient care.”
County Supervisor Joel Anderson, whose district includes most of East County, kept the pressure on for a center to the east capable of delivering the same kind of results.
“Right now, many of these folks end up in our emergency rooms, and they’re getting great service at the highest cost,” Anderson said.
Emergency departments, he added, can only do so much to focus on providing mental health care when they must also treat the full range of other medical needs from heart attacks and strokes to broken bones and chronic disease.
“Here, we’re laser-focused on that mental health, and we’ll be able to turn people around, stabilize them, and send them home,” Anderson said.
A key innovation with stand-alone crisis units has been the ability of law enforcement officers and crisis response team members to deliver residents picked up on 5150 holds for evaluation, skipping emergency departments when a patient needs mental health care, but not other services. A 5150 hold occurs when a first responder suspects that a person may be a danger to themselves or others or gravely disabled.
Because all emergency departments must operate on a triage basis, continuously moving the most-critical cases to the front of the line regardless of how long those with less-immediate medical problems have been waiting, 5150 holds are notorious for their ability to take first responders off their beats for hours per incident.
The county’s data tracking system indicates that drop-offs at crisis units take 20 to 25 minutes, contributing significantly to getting law enforcement officers and crisis team members back in service much more quickly than was previously the case.
When we think of May, we think of Mother’s Day, blooming flowers, sunny skies, and lots of fun, seasonal events in the city. This month, locals can dine on the creations of James Beard Award-Winning Chefs at Rancho Bernardo Inn, or take advantage of berry season at the annual Vista Strawberry Festival. Theatre lovers can enjoy a showing of Kim’s Convenience at The Old Globe, while the San Diego Natural History Museum invites art enthusiasts to view its latest marine-themed exhibit. Grab your tickets and crack open that planner. Here are all the best things to do in San Diego this month:
Concerts & Festivals | Theater & Art Exhibits | More Fun Things to Do
Concerts & Festivals in San Diego This Month
29
Louisiana legend Juvenile, enhances by the live instrumentation of The 400 Degreez Band, will perform career hits and his newest album, Boiling Point, at House of Blues San Diego.
Theater & Art Exhibits in San Diego This Month
5/5–6/1
Turning the spotlight on contemporary LGBTQ artists, the inaugural ArtSpectrum 2026 will showcase both the grand and intimate scale of contemporary painters, photographers, and mixed media artists at Village Arts Outreach in Balboa Park.
12–24
The only ordinary element of the San Diego International Fringe Festival is the constant thrill of the extraordinary. Discover a plethora of innovative performances at venues from Pacific Beach to Baja.
5/15–6/14
A Korean-Canadian family balances tradition and assimilation from their Toronto storefront in Ins Choi’s comforting satire Kim’s Convenience, making its local premier at The Old Globe.
5/22–2/2027
Ocean debris will receive a new beginning at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Using repurposed pollution, Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea depicts creatively sculpted marine life.
More Fun Things to Do in San Diego This Month
4/30–5/3
Enjoy fine dining at its finest from a lineup of gastronomic titans during 54 Hours with James Beard Award-Winning Chefs. Savor elegant meals, masterclasses, tastings, and more at Rancho Bernardo Inn.
2
Unlimited bites, regional craft beers, and animal observations are on the menu for San Diego Zoo Food, Wine & Brew (with live music), a culinary evening in support of the San Diego Wildlife Alliance.
7
Spend An Evening with David Sedaris, humorist, essayist, and best-selling author. Never afraid to point the pen at himself, Sedaris will share old favorites and works in progress in the classic satirical style he’s known for at Jacobs Music Center.
15–17
Say cheese! And toast to the Cheese & Libation Expo. Explore three days of all-you-can eat and drink fare at BRICK, along with boutique shopping and bountiful pairings.
PARTNER CONTENT
10 Years In, Puffer and Malarkey Are Just Getting Started
Elevating an Icon: Inside the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Clu…
16
Stroll the private grounds of several luxurious homes, accompanied by live music, tabletop designs, and outdoor artistry, during the Secret Garden Tour, La Jolla Historical Society‘s flora and fauna fundraiser.
24
Vista recalls its days as a strawberry-producing superpower through its free Strawberry Festival. Wear your berry best fit, watch film screenings, and enter contests for shortcake, pie, and sundae indulging.
San Diego, CA
City considering cutting funding to resource center for those experiencing homelessness
Last week Mayor Todd Gloria released the budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal budget. Protected homeless services is among his top priorities mentioned in the proposal. However, some of the reductions he’s proposing could impact thousands of San Diegans experiencing homelessness.
Located on 17th and K Street, the Neil Good Day Center offers an array of services to nearly seven thousand people experiencing homelessness. The services include giving them a place to shower and do laundry, and connecting them to a case manager, among others.
“These are critical services that are helping people off the streets, but really better their lives and their health and their employment situation as well,” Deacon Vargas with Father Joe’s Villages said.
Deacon Jim Vargas heads Father Joe’s Villages, which runs the center. He said through their prevention and diversion strategies, they’ve managed to keep nearly one thousand individuals from falling into homelessness.
“So by helping them pay rent, or helping them with their utilities, or helping them to reunite with family,” Vargas said.
Right now, the city allocates at least $850,000 per year to the Neil Good Day Center, according to Vargas.
But the future and funding for these services are in limbo because of Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget cuts.
“The impact to those whom we’ve been serving the Daily Center would be very severe,” Deacon Vargas said.
In a statement to NBC 7, Mayor Todd Gloria said in part, “We must find more efficient and cost-effective ways to address this crisis and prioritize funding for programs that provide shelter beds and maximize resources to programs that place people into permanent housing.”
Since it’s still at a proposal stage, Deacon Vargas said it’s unclear how the city will decide to move forward.
However, Deacon Vargas said services would be significantly reduced because they would be forced to operate solely on a budget of about half a million dollars they receive from philanthropy.
“The hours would be cut. Some days would be cut. We would have showers that might be impacted because they’re given seven days a week and we’d close two days a week, then the showers would be five days a week, the case management,” Deacon Vargas said.
Deacon Vargas is certain of one thing.
He would like to continue offering services at the Day Center, even if the city goes through with the funding cuts.
“As we work with individuals at the Day Center and at Father Joe’s Villages, the community becomes healthier as a result of it,” Deacon Vargas said.
The budget also recommends additional cuts to homeless services, but does not give specifics as to where those cuts would be.
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