SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — Normally the vibrant display of LGBTQ pride would draw roughly a million people to line the streets of San Francisco, but the pandemic has forced organizers to cancel in-person celebrations.
“It is very strange, yeah. Usually we would be in Civic Center loading in the stages and closing the streets right now,” Fred Lopez said.
Instead on it’s 50th anniversary, SF Pride is going virtual.
With two days of content on two concurrent streams on SFPride.org, for a total of 26 hours of programming — including appearances by celebrity Grand Marshal W Kamau Bell, headliners Big Freedia and queen of disco Thelma Houston, as well as a conversation between SF Pride’s board president and the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I do think it’s a great testament to the resilience of our community that prides like San Francisco have really come together to figure out ways in order to offer that sense of connection and visibility that probably celebrations often in person,” Lopez said.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman says the city is encouraging people to celebrate Pride from home. What they don’t want to see are big crowds of people flocking to the Castro to celebrate.
“This is not the weekend for an outdoor party,” Mandelman said. “The city is not gonna support that and people shouldn’t want it for everyone say this is the community that’s dealt with the aids epidemic and we learn how to keep each other safe and we need to do it again.”
Not all Pride traditions will be strictly online.
This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the unfurling of the pink triangle on Twin Peaks. On Saturday night at 9 p.m., it will be lit up with 2,700 pink LED nodes. The triangle will stay illuminated through the weekend and into July during the international aids conference which is also being held virtually this year.
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