Standing at the corner of Mission and Spear streets in San Francisco, BrandElsa Pereira was preparing to complete a daunting physical achievement: Walking the roughly one and a half miles for Sunday’s Pride parade down the city’s main downtown thoroughfare. All while wearing stilts.
“It takes a lot of balance, a little bit of core strength and a lot of prayer,” a smiling Pereira said.
Sunday’s 52nd annual Pride parade — the first in three years to be held in-person because of the pandemic — brought out tens of thousands of jubilant onlookers carrying rainbow flags and cheering along parade attendees that included politicians, nonprofit organizations, marching bands, dance troupes, tech company employees and law enforcement officers. All types of vehicles traveled down the parade route, from the ordinary convertible to one truck with flames shooting out its front.
The gathering also fell on the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s vote to legalize gay marriage. But the celebration was also dampened by Friday’s news that the court had overturned Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 decision, a move that some worry will be used as precedent to reverse past court cases that have granted rights to the LGBTQ community.
In his concurring opinion striking down Roe, Justice Clarence Thomas said landmark decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage, as well as Lawrence v. Texas, which legalized same-sex sexual activities and voided sodomy laws, should be reconsidered. None of the other five conservative justices who voted to overturn Roe signed onto Thomas’ opinion.
The court’s move remained top of mind for parade attendee Jodi Hicks, who heads California’s 108 Planned Parenthood clinics.
“Friday’s decision was obviously devastating,” Hicks said. “We know that we’re all in this fight together. (Justice) Thomas said the quiet part out loud — that they’re not done.”
Just two days after the court’s decision, abortion was already banned in nine states and another 12 were expected to prohibit or severely restrict the procedure. Pride parades around the country coincided with continued protests against the Roe decision.
Hicks was part of a parade caravan that included local politicians like state Sen. Scott Wiener, a gay man himself and longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community.
Wearing a rainbow shirt underneath a zip-up sweater, Wiener said in an interview that storm clouds are on the horizon. In addition to the Roe decision having “massive implications” for the LGBTQ community, Wiener said he’s also witnessing growing hatred directed toward him and others. Attacks have even been felt at the local level. Earlier this month, a Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library was interrupted by members of an extremist group who shouted transphobic and homophobic slurs.
“We’re living in a very scary time,” he said in an interview. “Pride is an opportunity for us to reconnect and to recommit to the fight.”
On Sunday, the Roe decision was causing shockwaves even beyond the country’s borders. Alice Joyeux, a French citizen visiting San Francisco for the Pride event, said she “can’t believe” the Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion.
“What bothers me is that President (Biden) can’t do anything about it,” Joyeux said. Her own president, Emmanuel Macron, has criticized the court’s move against Roe.
San Francisco, known as one of the world’s most LGBTQ-friendly cities, started celebrating Pride back in 1970. The original event was to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a series of protests in New York City after a gay club was raided by police in Greenwich Village. Since then, the gathering has grown to a multi-day celebration that takes up dozens of city blocks in the city’s Financial District that includes not only a parade but also nearby musical performances and speeches.
This year, controversy ensued after Pride parade organizers requested that the city’s police officers not wear uniforms to the event, citing mistrust between the LGBTQ community and law enforcement that has grown in recent years. But a compromise was reached early this month, with some officers wearing uniforms and others not.
Kathryn Winters, a 13-year transgender SFPD officer and treasurer for the police department’s Officers Pride Alliance, said it was important for law enforcement to be at Sunday’s gathering.
“We all have to stand united as one community,” said Winters, who helped broker the deal with Pride organizers. “There are officers in other parts of this country who cannot come out. Who cannot serve openly. Or have been fired for it. And so we march in uniform for them so that one day all LGBTQ officers can serve openly and proudly.”
For others, the parade represented a time to just have fun.
“I really believe that it is important not only to always be fighting, but also we need to celebrate,” said Brielle, a parade volunteer who chose to share only her first name. A member of the queer-friendly motorcycle group Homoto, Brielle sat on green motorcycle. As a parade staff member told her to start up her engine and begin to drive down Market Street, she had one more thing to say.
“We’ve made a lot of progress. We need to remember that.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com