Hundreds of thousands come out to SF Pride Parade
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At 10:25 Sunday morning, Dykes on Bikes captain Kate Brown kicked over the engine on her Honda Magna motorcycle and Sara Gordon started to shake and tremble as she stood on the corner with her son, Malik, 17.
“Oh, there they go, it’s so exciting,” said Gordon, who had driven down from Chico on Saturday night and left her hotel early to be in front at the corner of Beale and Market streets in San Francisco, where 200 motorcycles, representing riders from as far as Sydney, warm their engines before riding off at the vanguard of the city’s Pride Parade, an annual celebration of the LGBTQ community that drew hundreds of thousands of spectators Sunday.
“I want to be the lady on the back, holding the flag,” yelled Gordon, who would have looked good doing it, dressed as she was in a frilly jacket layered in the rainbow colors of the Pride flag.
The theme of this year’s parade, which had more than 200 contingents and was expected to last at least three hours, was “Looking Back and Moving Forward,” and it came during an era of increasing tensions nationwide.
Brontë Wittpenn/The Chronicle
More than 500 bills nationwide seek to restrict LGBTQ rights, with book bannings and physical and verbal attacks reported across the country. Attending Pride was itself an act of resistance this year, organizers said, and many parade participants and spectators emphasized activism as the event returned to its angry roots.
Extra law enforcement was assigned to the parade, and Pride organizers said the Civic Center celebration would have private security and metal detectors.
The weather was cloudy, cool and breezy, and parade-goers showed much less skin than in previous years.
Before the parade, the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ+ Democratic Club held its 26th annual Pride Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero featuring more than 600 community leaders and elected officials, including House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Adam Schiff of Burbank and Katie Porter of Irvine, state Sen. Scott Wiener, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender lawmaker who has been prevented from speaking on the chamber floor.
Schiff rode with the Pelosi contingent in the parade.
“I’m thrilled to be here when LGBTQ rights are under assault across the country,” said Schiff, who wore a white shirt to offset Pelosi’s lavender. He said he has watched the parade from the audience but never from the back seat of a convertible traveling up Market Street.
Adam Pardee/Special to The Chronicle
“I’m delighted and proud to be riding with the greatest House speaker of all time,” said Schiff, who has declared his candidacy for retiring U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat, with the endorsement of the person sitting next to him. Asked whether that ought to be worth some votes, he replied with understatement: “I hope so.”
The 53-year-old parade, which returned in 2022 after a two-year pandemic pause, is one of the largest free celebrations in the country but is struggling financially. Donations and corporate sponsorships make up the bulk of its budget, but private contributions have fallen and inflation has taken its toll.
Pride volunteers requested donations for the first time this year, carrying devices along the route that allowed spectators to contribute with a tap of their phones or credit cards.
There was a can-do spirit along the way. With money tight, the San Francisco Opera made its parade entry the old-fashioned way. It got a truck from the set shop, built side panels on it, and turned it into an old-timey Rose Parade float by spelling out “Opera,” a project that took 32 hours of work at the War Memorial Opera House.
“We are the opera,” said Michael Bragg, director of digital content. “We know how to make s—.”
Brontë Wittpenn/The Chronicle
Attendee Mark Roh went into his garage and got out a box of beads that he had been collecting from every Pride Parade going back to 1976. Then he walked through the crowd redistributing his collection.
“These do not need to be in a box. They need to be seen,” said Roh, who wore a straw boater and red-rimmed sunglasses over a green shirt and layer upon layer of strands that he had decided to hang onto.
“This parade allows so many people who are closeted to come out and be themselves,” he said, “and maybe start a new life.”
One person who exemplified that freedom, if just for a day, was David Quigley, who is 60 but was sucking on a pacifier while dressed in a diaper that had rabbits on it. Some might have mistook it for a Halloween costume, but Quigley understood the difference.
“Halloween is about what you want to be,” he said. “Pride is about who you are.”
Brontë Wittpenn/The Chronicle
One group definitely being who it is was Cub Scout Pack 88, out in force in blue shirts and gold scarves. Scout Milo Serwer-Karayan, 9, was accompanied by his mother, Laura Serwer, in a Scout leader’s shirt.
Milo said his duty was to “walk along and wave.” His mother saw a higher purpose. “We’re here to let people know scouting is inclusive,” she said.
Since 1976, Dykes on Bikes has led the parade, in colors of their custom patch on a black leather vest. All the way up Market Street, the people lining the route could hear the parade coming long before they could see it.
“It’s important for us to be out and queer and visible and show courage,” said Kate Brown, president of Dykes on Bikes’ board. “That’s what we do.”
Adam Pardee/Special to The Chronicle
The parade culminated a weekend of events that began with Friday’s Trans March from Dolores Park to the Tenderloin and continued with Saturday’s Pride celebration at Civic Center in the afternoon and Dyke March through the Mission and Castro neighborhoods in the evening.
Other events in the lead-up to the parade included the Frameline film festival from mid-June through Saturday, the installation of the Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks last weekend, and a Castro family block party on Saturday.
San Francisco Pride has sparked similar events up and down the state. But for the first-timers, there is nothing anywhere that compares with the size and spectacle of the original.
“This is bigger than the one in Chico,” said spectator Gordon. “Oh yes.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
