San Diego Pride parade celebrates 50th year this summer: How it all began

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- From unpermitted marches to "Gay-Ins," the road to the very first San Diego Pride parade was paved by LGBTQ+ activists with a vision of solidarity and acceptance.

This summer's event will mark the 50th anniversary of the first "Gay Pride Day” and permitted parade in the city, which occurred in 1975. That's according to San Diego Pride Executive Director, Fernando Lopez.

"In my office hangs a copy of the oldest known San Diego Pride budget. We had a deficit of one dollar. Ninety percent of our income came from button sales. The year was 1975, the first year to have a permitted Pride parade, but not the first year of Pride in San Diego," Lopez stated.

He pointed to the pioneers of the pride movement, praising their successes in the community despite the many struggles faced. From legal oppression to disrupting societal norms, the LGBTQ+ community banded together over the years to create San Diego Pride.

Stonewall rebellion

In 1970, students at San Diego State University -- then called San Diego State College -- founded the San Diego Chapter of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). This came shortly after the Stonewall Uprising, a series of events between police and LGBTQ+ protesters which stretched over six days in June of 1969.

The Stonewall riots came in response to a police raid on a gay bar -- called The Stonewall Inn -- in New York City's Lower Manhattan. Patrons of the bar, along with LGBTQ+ activists and unhoused individuals, fought back against police. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the Gay Liberation Movement.

"Surprisingly, in a world before email, the internet and text messaging, word traveled fast and within months local students at San Diego State College began to organize to make the GLF one of the on-campus clubs," the San Diego Pride organization explained.

The local GLF held early protests and “Gay-Ins” in solidarity with the national movement. The first "Gay-In" was held in Presidio Park with about 100 people in attendance, some of which held signs with slogans such as “I’m gay and that’s okay.” Those events continued for the next several years.

Conferences and marches begin

According to Lopez, regional LGBTQ+ activists and organizers saw the opportunity to do something more than a day in the park. In 1972, the local GLF joined forces with over 20 other emerging LGBTQ+ organizations in Southern California to produce the San Diego Southwestern Gay Conference.

This initiative was used as a time to coordinate and strategize. With this came the Gay Information Center hotline in 1973, which grew into San Diego's LGBTQ+ Community Center. Lopez said a Stonewall anniversary yard sale and potluck was held in 1973 to raise funds for the growing center. 

"There were conflicting accounts of an impromptu unpermitted march on the sidewalk that followed the potluck that some credit as the first San Diego Pride, but I find it important to honor that our movement did not yet have shared language to call these events 'Pride,'" Lopez explained.

The following year, he said there were possibly two other unpermitted marches in San Diego, along with the conferences and continued "Gay-Ins." Then in 1975, the first “Gay Pride Day” and march was officially held.

Later in 1994, the San Diego Pride organization became its own nonprofit. That year also marked the beginning of the parade route and festival location that most people are familiar with today. The roughly 1.5 mile route stretches from the Hillcrest Pride Flag at University Avenue and Normal Street to Balboa Drive, ending at Quince Drive.

"Our organization and movement weren’t built by one person, one group, one nonprofit, or one leader," said Lopez. "We have been manifested through the intentional will and labor of countless people across generations."

2024 Pride Festival and Parade

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ+ Pride march and festival in San Diego, event organizers announced this year's event theme is “Making History Now.” The festival will be held July 20-21, with the parade slated for that Saturday.

The festival, held annually at Balboa Park, will include over 300 musical acts on four stages, featuring emerging local and international LGBTQ+ artists. On Thursday, the headliners for the Pride festival were announced, with big names like Todrick Hall, Rico Nasty and Sheila E.

Tickets to the event are on sale now. According to San Diego Pride, proceeds will benefit their year-round programs and events, including their Pride Community Grants program that has distributed over $3.5 million to LGBTQ+ serving organizations locally, nationally and globally since 1994.

"Today, San Diego Pride is the most philanthropic Pride organization in the world, with robust year-round education and advocacy programs predominantly led by community volunteers and supported by our volunteer board of directors and paid staff," said Lopez.

This year's event is sure to be one for the history books. See you there, San Diego.