Mostly absent - for the day at least - were many of the somber events of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) history, the battle against AIDS, the brutal murder of young Matthew Shepard, the wrath of conservative Christians. Veteran broadcast journalist Belva Davis and her husband Bill Moore, both 80, have watched the annual pride day events mature over the decades, and agreed this year felt like no other. Clevenger, who has worked the parade for the past four years, described this year’s celebration of the gay marriage ruling as “significantly larger and definitely more celebratory.” “Enjoy your new human right,” parade safety monitor Norman Clevenger, of Half Moon Bay, told the expansive, 8,000-member “Apple Pride” contingent. Sandy Leung, a Pacific Gas & Electric executive assistant, and her 13-year-old daughter Kaely Trinh dressed in rainbow tutus and passed out branded posters for the utility stating “Powerful Pride.” Storefronts along the Market Street parade route visually serenaded the giddy crowd with affectionate messages like “Happy Pride San Francisco, from your friends at Saks Fifth Avenue.” Sutter Health issued T-shirts that read “Showing Your Pride.”
Event sponsors included the old school - McDonald’s, Macy’s, and Bud Light - and the startup and tech variety, providing numerous banners and T-shirts boasting the corporate logos of Yelp, Netflix and Apple. Families, children and lots of openly gay young adults and teens bounced through, celebrating in get ups including tutus, feathered boas and fluorescent glitter.Ĭorporations have helped mainstream the movement, and they were impossible to ignore at this year’s historic march. There appeared to be fewer outlandish and naked revelers, as gay rights have gained more public stature and legitimacy. Longtime Pride event participants described this year’s rainbow gathering as decidedly more mainstream, and significantly more upbeat than in years past. That once-dark sentiment was understood by the upwards of 750,000 people who paraded down Market Street and mobbed the Civic Center Plaza all day Sunday. “After dealing with all the bigotry and all the hatred all these years, I never felt validated.” “For the first time in my life, I felt like I was normal and I’ve never felt that,” Mazar said.
Nicole Mazar, a Department of Homeland Security employee who lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains, said she now “walks 10 feet tall.” Mazar, 59, cried all day Friday after the 5-4 ruling that means California’s equal marriage law is now matched by all 50 states.īut this weekend, she emerged to celebrate. The once-in-a-lifetime significance of this march, on this day, in this city, swelled the crowds and the hearts united in a chant of “Love Wins!” Supreme Court ruling that brought along a jubilance most could have never imagined. The crowd at the 45th annual SF Pride Celebration and Parade was notably young, confident and still a bit stunned about Friday’s momentous U.S. SAN FRANCISCO - On the steps of the same city hall where California’s first openly gay politician was once gunned down, an estimated million-strong gathering rocked to red-robed gospel singers belting out “Oh Happy Day” in the now legendary birthplace of the LGBT marriage movement, celebrating the miraculous march of history.