San Diego Pride weekend kicked off Friday with two big events in the heart of Hillcrest: a ceremony honoring community leaders and a block party leading a full schedule of celebration.
The Spirit of Stonewall Rally is an event to commemorate the beginnings of the LGBTQ+ equality movement, which many trace back to the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. Friday’s rally was meant to honor those origins and the leaders of the movement in San Diego today.
“The equality movement is one of those movements where many of the founders and the architects of the movement are still with us today,” Joslyn Hatfield with San Diego Pride said. “We're really lucky to have that in our community, and I think that that's a really great bridge between the past and the future.”
San Diego Pride:
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
The rally honors advocates and allies — both individuals and organizations — for their leadership and activism in the movement, organizers said.
“This is a time for our community to come together and really re-center itself around our purpose and why we still do the work that we do to fight for equality,” Hatfield said.
Also happening Friday was the Hillcrest Pride Block Party, with vendors, musical performances and a dance party.
“All we want is to see everybody happy and having a great time,” Luigi Vera said. He’s among the Hillcrest business owners who are always thrilled to see the celebration, which is now in its 50th year.
“I'm so happy and so proud of what will be achieved in this community,” Vega said. “We're expecting a lot of people for our 50th anniversary. It will be so much fun.”
Hatfield said the sense of shared joy in community is why she does what she does.
“There’s always a moment at a Pride festival where the event kind of gets up on its feet and you look around and people are just really enjoying themselves and connecting, and it’s just kind of like that beautiful moment of like, ‘OK, this is why we do this,’” Hatfield said.
“People are enjoying this, people are connecting, people are having a great time, and that’s like the most fulfilling thing for me,” she continued. “This space is necessary. People need this space, and we’re happy to create it."
Saturday’s Pride Parade is San Diego’s largest annual gathering, with more than 200,000 people from across Southern California and beyond expected to join the weekend’s festivities.
Hatfield said events like these are so important for the LGBTQ+ community because celebration is a sign of strength.
“We do face challenges, but we are still here. We are still smiling, we are still dancing and we are still celebrating. And we will continue to do so until the work is done,” she said.
