San Diego Pride

San Diego Pride, also known as San Diego LGBT Pride, is a nonprofit organization which sponsors an annual three-day celebration in San Diego, California every July, focusing on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The event features the Pride Parade on a Saturday, preceded by a block party in the Hillcrest neighborhood the night before, and followed by a two-day Pride Festival on Saturday and Sunday in Balboa Park. Pride Weekend is believed to be the largest civic event in the city of San Diego. The parade has more than 200 floats and entries and is viewed by a crowd of nearly 200,000 people.

The mission of San Diego LGBT Pride is "fostering pride in and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities locally, nationally, and globally."

The vision of San Diego LGBT Pride is "a world free of prejudice and bias."

In the 1970s, gay men in San Diego founded a Center for Social Services in a house at 2250 B Street. The Center became a social and political focus for the gay community. In June 1974 the Center hosted a gay pride event which included a yard sale and potluck dinner at the Center as well as an informal parade to Balboa Park and back. Marchers had to walk on the sidewalk since they had no city parade permit. In 1975 the community was able to secure permits for a rally and a 400-person march. The parade has been held every year since, despite organizational and financial problems, which were finally solved in 1989 with the formation of a permanent Pride organization with professional management.

In 1991 the event was moved from June to July. In 1993 the parade was moved to its current route from Hillcrest along University Avenue and 6th Avenue to Balboa Park. San Diego Pride was incorporated in 1994.

In 1994 former mayor and current talk-show host Roger Hedgecock organized a group of protesters calling themselves "The Normal People". They applied to march in the Pride parade “in political disagreement to the homosexual agenda.” When rejected by the organizers of the parade, Hedgecock filed a lawsuit, arguing that their exclusion violated San Diego's "Human Dignity Ordinance." The Superior Court rejected their claim, arguing that their right to march was not protected under the ordinance, since the parade was a private event and the "Normal People" message was intended to interfere with the event.

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