San Francisco gay pride march celebrates 40th year
Organisers kicked off San Francisco's 40th annual gay pride weekend with a celebration last night in front of City Hall.
Thousands of people crowded into Civic Centre Plaza, where vendors sold barbecue and burritos, and DJs spun tunes on a large stage. Advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community shared booths alongside corporate sponsors.
"It's part political, it's part a party," said Darryl Groom, 55, explaining the elements that brought him and his partner, Tobey Tam, 41, to San Francisco from Cape Coral, Florida.
The event continues today with a parade and concerts by groups including The Backstreet Boys.
San Francisco's gay pride festivities have come a long way since the first parade in 1970, as has the GLBT movement, organisers and historians say.
The first pride parade had about 150 to 200 people, said Gerard Koskovich of the GLBT Historical Society.
"Barely anybody noticed," he said. "I've seen pictures of it."
The following year there wasn't even a march, he said, just a gathering in Golden Gate Park.
Today, the march attracts tens of thousands of people, and a growing number of those are not lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, Koskovich said.
"That homophobia that says: 'Eek, I'm not going to hang out with these people,' has turned into, 'Boy, these people throw a great party'."
San Francisco Pride executive director Amy Andre said the fight for equal rights has also come a long way since the first pride celebration. At the time, gay sex was a crime in California.
This year, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to deliver a pre-recorded address after the parade Andre said Pelosi will be the highest ranking federal official ever to address a pride event.
This year's theme, '40 and Fabulous', is partly intended to celebrate the movement's progress, Andre said.
"But we're also reflecting on the fact that we still have a long way to come for equal rights," she added.
