LGBTQ politicos have a number of offerings to take advantage of in San Francisco this Pride Month. The events run the gamut from conversations with out lawmakers and community leaders to celebrating those working for immigrant rights.
Monday, June 9, the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission, in partnership with the city’s Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs, will hold its annual Immigrant Leadership Awards ceremony in the North Light Court at San Francisco City Hall. It comes amid Republican President Donald Trump’s calls for a wider crackdown on illegal immigration and a significant increase in the deportation of non-U.S. citizens, with city leaders outraged at the detention of more than a dozen people, including children, reportedly by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after showing up to the agency's San Francisco field office for scheduled check ins.
“These attacks on constitutional rights only underscore the critical need for more funding for immigrant legal and support services in the city’s budget, which the mayor has not increased to address the growing need,” stated queer District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder. “I encourage the mayor and Budget Committee to increase funding for our immigrant communities to meet the moment and guarantee ALL San Franciscans their constitutional rights to due process.”
The San Francisco Rapid Response Network, a 24-hour community-led hotline that connects individuals who have interactions with immigration enforcement with immediate legal support, had raised alarms about the ICE action with community and civic leaders. It is among the eight honorees being awarded Monday at the ceremony, which begins at 5:30 p.m.
Other award winners are Jethro Patalinghug, a Filipino artist and filmmaker who as drag persona Virginia Please creates educational TikToks https://www.tiktok.com/@virginia_please dedicated to advancing queer rights and social justice, and Valeria Suárez, a queer migrant from Lima, Peru who helps other youth get leadership and professional work experience through the DreamSF Fellowship program.
Also being honored is Juanita MORE!, the drag icon of over three decades who uses her platform to fundraise for charities, such as her annual party on Pride Sunday that this year will benefit the Transgender Law Center. She also helped create The People's March & Rally in 2020 to show solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community when that year’s Pride parade was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.
Fellow drag artist Alex U. Inn co-founded the event with MORE!, and they will once again be leading it this month on June 22 in the Polk Gulch neighborhood where the original Gay Freedom Day march was held back in the 1970s. Taking place the Sunday prior to this year’s Pride parade, the rally begins at 11 a.m. at the corner of Polk and Washington streets followed by the march down Polk Street to the Civic Center in front of City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. From 12:30 to 4 p.m. will be a celebration of culture and community with DJs, performers, and artists’ booths.
This Thursday, June 12, statewide LGBTQ rights organization Equality California is presenting a discussion between gay Assemblymember Corey A. Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Perris), the first out gay Black man elected to the California Legislature, and Otis Taylor Jr., managing editor at KQED, San Francisco’s public broadcast station. It takes place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Manny’s, the gay-owned cafe and event space at 3092 16th Street in San Francisco’s Mission district.
EQCA board member Bevan Dufty, a gay former San Francisco supervisor, stressed to the Bay Area Reporter that the event is not a fundraiser and is free for people to attend. EQCA is selling tickets online, however, for those who want to secure a seat at either $15.45 for one person or $30.90 to also cover a free ticket for someone else at .
Also that evening the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is focused on defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation, is hosting the next in its series of “EFFecting Change” livestream panel discussions that will explore how emerging laws and platform policies affect the digital privacy and free expression rights of the LGBT+ community, and how this echoes the experience of marginalized people across the world. Joining EFF staff on the panel will be Chosen Family Law Center Senior Legal Director Andy Izenson, and Woodhull Freedom Foundation Chief Operations Officer Mandy Salley.
Called “Pride in Digital Freedom,” the talk will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday. To RSVP for it, click here.
SF Democrats mark Pride
As the B.A.R.’s Political Notebook column first reported in March, the San Francisco Democratic Party is heading to the Castro for its Pride Month meeting. The local party’s oversight body is set to meet June 25 at the LGBT Community Center.
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the center located at 1800 Market Street. The meeting agenda will be posted 10 days prior.
The DCCC members are also hosting two social events in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district leading up to the formal meeting. From 2 to 4 p.m. this Saturday, June 14, will be a family-friendly “Politics in the Playground” social event https://www.mobilize.us/cadems/event/791928/ next to Mission Dolores Park’s Helen Diller Playground, located close to the public greenspace’s entrance at 20th and Dolores streets.
Meant to foster civic conversation among the attendees, the event is billed as an outdoor gathering for “neighbors, activists, and everyday citizens to come together in one of SF’s most iconic parks to talk about the issues that matter most – local, state, and national.” Local party chair Nancy Tung is expected to attend along with District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar and DCCC member Joshua Arce.
Sunday, June 22, will bring “A Community Coffee Hour” with DCCC fourth vice chair Emma Hare, who is bisexual and a legislative aide to Melgar, and and gay DCCC members attorney Michael Nguyen and Joe Sangirardi, EQCA’s development director. It will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. at bakery Thorough Bread located at 248 Church Street just off Market Street.
The following Sunday, June 29, will be the San Francisco Pride parade and annual pre-event breakfast fundraiser held by the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club. Among the featured speakers are two prominent transgender leaders, Congressmember Sarah McBride (D-Delaware) and B.A.R. Transmissions columnist Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the co-founder of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance observed in November.
“I'll be one of the featured speakers at the Alice Pride Breakfast this year in San Francisco. I might be giving them an earful,” quipped Smith in revealing the news via her Facebook page.
The event kicks off at 8 a.m. at the Hyatt Embarcadero’s ballroom, located at 5 Embarcadero Center and mere steps away from the start of the parade. Tickets begin at $150 for individuals – $75 for seniors and students – and can be bought online.
UPDATED 6/10/25 with new details for the DCCC's coffee hour event.
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