Recently, members of the African American community rightly contacted the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee to voice concern that there were few people of color and no African Americans on the public ballot for individual grand marshal. Regretfully, these are the results despite the committee using the traditional procedures and policies to solicit and guide public input and nominee selection, which has, in the past, resulted in a very diverse slate of community grand marshals.
The Pride board takes these concerns seriously, and has come up with short- and long-term solutions, and will work closely with members of the Black Rap Committee and other community stakeholders to address and examine this situation thoroughly.
Every year the Pride Committee follows a process that ensures the diversity of its final grand marshals for the event. However, this comes after the public voting has begun and at the end of the grand marshal selection process that spans a five-month period from January 1 through June 8.
Unfortunately, this procedure will not affect the initial slate of nominees that was featured in the Bay Area Reporter on March 1. To be fair to those nominees on the current ballot, under the organization category there are two groups that predominantly serve the African American community, the Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County and the National Black Justice Coalition. In addition, while the Pride Committee has received community concern that there is no transgender representation among the individual nominees, there are in fact four individuals who identify as transgender on the slate. [People can read the Bay Area Reporter's article about the nominees at http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=1598.]
In the short-term, the community can still affect the diversity of the final slate of the 2007 grand marshals because there are still six more grand marshals to be selected, in addition to the grand marshals the general public is voting for currently. One will be chosen by the general Pride membership, and one by the Electoral College (comprised of past grand marshals). The board will select the Lifetime Achievement grand marshal and three additional grand marshals.
In order to make longer-term change, the Pride committee looks forward to working with community stakeholders to review the current grand marshal nominating and selection procedure and develop outreach methods that do a better job of reaching communities of color to inform them of the grand marshal process. These input and strategy sessions began on March 14 at the Soul of Pride Village planning committee meeting.
The important community concerns recently raised and the resulting dialogue is an example of how community feedback evolves for this event and how the organization works to reflect the community, serve the community, be of the community, and honor the community. Our sincere hope is that this community dialogue will not only aid the Pride committee in serving the community more inclusively, but will also encourage members of communities of color to have deeper involvement at all levels of the event. The community has shaped and built this organization and this event over the past 37 years. Members of the community can continue to shape this event and this organization by becoming a Pride member, community partner, volunteer, committee chair, board member, main stage performer, host, speaker, or emcee.
Accordingly, we encourage community members to get involved at all levels of the organization by phoning (415) 864-0831, e-mailing at mailto:[email protected], or by visiting our offices located in the LGBT Community Center at 1800 Market Street.
We also invite interested members of the public to attend the Pride Committee's annual Rap Session taking place Saturday, March 17, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Women's Building in San Francisco. Additional details and directions are located on the Pride Web site at http://www.sfpride.org.
Lindsey Jones is executive director of the SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee; Mikayla Connell is the board president. The other board members also had input in the writing of this piece.