įrom 1972 until 2019, the event was held each year. The following afternoon, a "Christopher Street Liberation Day Gay-In" brought some 200 people to Golden Gate Park the gathering was raided by officers from the San Francisco Police Department on Hondas and on horseback, with seven people taken into custody at Park Station, then released without charges. The first events resembling the modern San Francisco Pride parade and celebration were held on the last weekend of June 1970: Organized by the San Francisco Gay Liberation Front, a "Gay Liberation March" saw 20 to 30 people walk from Aquatic Park to Civic Center on Polk Street on Saturday, June 27. Pioneering LGBT activist Harvey Milk took this image on Gay Freedom Day in 1976. They are recruited and trained by the Parade leadership, by way of a contingent monitor training video posted on YouTube. Contingent monitors, members of the various contingents who maintain cohesion and safety in a their contingent.These volunteers are typically doctors, nurses, or other trained emergency response staff. Medical volunteers, who provide first aid and medical assistance to participants.Hospitality, a team of volunteers led annually by Davace Chin and Michael Fullam and charged with feeding the other volunteers, keeps hundreds coming back year after year.Created in 1982, the Safety Committee philosophy and training has served as the model for many other LGBT events both local and international.
Safety monitors, crews of volunteers who help maintain order on the parade route and in the festival, particularly with respect to crowd control, and participant actions that might be harmful to themselves or others.Several veteran contractors are employed to take on specific roles for the event.Īlso involved in the running of the festival and parade are hundreds of volunteers. The event is funded by a combination of community fundraising both by the pride committee and on their behalf, corporate sponsorships, San Francisco city grants, and donations collected from the participants at the festival. According to their web site, their mission is "to educate the World, commemorate our heritage, celebrate our culture, and liberate our people." The festival is run by a non-profit organization, the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee. The independently organized Trans March is held on the Friday before the parade while the Dyke March and Trans March events are held on the Friday and Saturday nights preceding the march and rally in The Castro. There have been proposals to move it to different dates, for instance to July 4 in 2004.
The festival is traditionally held in the last full weekend in June. On the Sunday of the parade, an area of the festival called Leather Alley features fetish and BDSM oriented booths and demonstrations. It is a collection of booths, dance stages, and vendors around the Civic Center area near San Francisco City Hall. It is common for them to decorate a flatbed truck or float, along with loud dance music, or create a colorful contingent that carries a visual message out to the bystanders.Ī two-day (Saturday and Sunday) festival has grown up around the Sunday morning parade.