San Diego Pride

2011 San Diego Pride Festival

The 2011 San Diego Pride Festival , held July 16 at 11am, will sustain as one of the largest gay pride celebrations on the West Coast. Attracting all ages, the festival is a chance for our community to show that San Diego is in fact, a tolerant community, filled with love and support for all.

For two hours of undivided, total fabulous glory, the Pride Festival parade begins at University Avenue and Normal Street, then proceeds west to 6th Avenue, ending on Balboa Drive and Upas Street. To participate in the parade, you need to be part of a non-profit social organization, government, for-profit, national, or motorcycle club and register online.

This year’s theme, Pride Around the World, celebrates with a colorful and enormous display of fantastic festivities, featuring concert performers, four stages, three dance floors and hundreds upon hundreds of booths. While the event celebrates the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, all are welcome to join in the fun.

Around multiple stages of entertainment, the festival includes more than 80 musicians, bands, comedy and dance performers, 300 performing vendor booths, an art exhibit, cultural presentations, and irresistible food. Don’t forget about the Farmer’s market, beer gardens, wine grotto, cool zone, leather realm, Children’s Garden, and much much more. It’s a celebration with something for everyone, highlighting all the goodness our city has to offer. The San Diego Pride Celebration Committee is a year-round organization engages in activities that extend well beyond planning for the annual Pride celebration. The fiercely blunt, comedian Margaret Cho will bring her non-conformist brand of comedy to Pride’s main festival stage on July 16 in Balboa Park.

You can also be a part of the rally, scheduled to include Keynote Speaker Marianne Williamson, and Grand Marshal Daniel Hernandez Jr. On Saturday, Grand Marshal Meredith Baxter will moderate all events. Other fun entertainment to include Toby Love , Salt N Pepa , and Frenchie Davis.

Event, parties and rallies take place throughout the days spanning the event, but the main attraction is Saturday’s gay Pride Parade, where 100,000 people line the streets of Hillcrest and Balboa Park to see the spectacle of stars. With musicians, bands, comedy and dance performers, stages will be packed to the brim as one of the largest spectacles in San Diego. One day tickets are $15, while a two-day pass is only $25. Learn more about 2011 San Diego Pride on DiscoverSD.com .

Active duty military to join Pride parade | LGBT Weekly

For the first time in San Diego Pride’s history, and believed to be in the history of Pride anywhere, a contingent of active duty service members and veterans are planning to march in this year’s San Diego Pride parade, July 16, 11 a.m. in the heart of Hillcrest.

“It has always disturbed me that enlisted military don’t march in a Pride parade,” said veteran Navy Operations Specialist Sean Sala, who is organizing the San Diego group.

“We are excited to support our troops, and we commend the brave service members taking part in the parade, regardless of their sexual orientation,” said Dwayne Crenshaw, executive director of San Diego Pride. “This is believed to be the first active duty military contingent marching in a Pride parade anywhere in the country.”

After Pride announced the military group’s participation, and after a television report on 10 News, interest has been spreading rapidly not only in San Diego, but across the country. Sala has changed his first estimate of 200 participants to almost 300 participants, which could make it the largest entry in this year’s parade.

“As a general rule, we tend to tell contingents not to have more than 100 people,” said San Diego Pride Parade Coordinator Ben Orgovan, adding, “that’s more so that nothing becomes monotonous and keeps the crowd interested. (I don’t have that) worry with the military contingent; I think that will be quite a crowd pleaser.”

“I am getting so many e-mails from service members and having conversations with veterans who tell me that they never expected to see this in a Pride parade in their lifetime, and they think this is pretty amazing,” he said. “It’s a huge reference that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has caused so much pain and such a stereotype, and it’s finally time that America is moving on. It’s a sign that the social norm in America is moving toward more acceptance of the LGBT community.”

To join the group, log on to Facebook.com and search for “Military Float for San Diego Pride 2011!”

With Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military – Sala said the parade contingent is following all appropriate protocols. The marchers, for example, will not be wearing uniforms, but T-shirts representing their respective branch. Not everyone marching is part of the LGBT community, too; at least a quarter of those who have signed up to participate are straight allies, according to Sala.

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