The Oakland Pride Parade and party just declared itself finished, but a new leadership organization immediately sprang up in its place, and the long and the short of it is that Oakland Pride will now be Sunday, August 16.

You know that San Francisco always holds its giant SF Pride Weekend festivities at the end of the Pride Month of June, but you may have noticed that other Bay Area municipalities do their own Pride Weekends at different points in the summer. Down in San Jose, for instance, Silicon Valley Pride is generally at the end of August. And over in the East Bay, Oakland Pride has traditionally been the weekend of the Labor Day holiday.

But the Bay Area Reporter has the news that Oakland Pride is moving its date to mid-August, specifically Sunday, August 16, 2026 for this year. This is all part of a larger Oakland Pride leadership replacement, and looking at the public statement from the new Oakland Pride leadership team, boy does it sound like something crazy went down behind the scenes.

“When I took over as president of the pride board, there were major issues that I had to handle including problems with the Department of Justice (DOJ), vendors who had not been paid for years, and poor financial record keeping. It was a mess,” Oakland Pride board president George Smith III said in a statement posted this past Thursday. “Although we were able to resolve those issues, years of improper use of credit cards badly damaged Oakland Pride's ability to access any lines of credit, making it difficult to produce Pride."

Obviously there is some juicy gossip with whatever all happened there! Regardless, Oakland Pride will now be managed and operated by the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, and no longer by the previous Oakland Pride board.

And the new Oakland Pride may be, well, a work in progress. Notably, its website is no longer functioning as of the Tuesday morning press time of this article. So it appears there are some kinks being worked out here.

But either way, Oakland Pride now appears to be reborn healthier, and that’s probably a great thing.

So your new summer 2026 Pride schedule would be SF Pride from June 27–28, Silicon Valley Pride from August 29-30, Berkeley Pride on August 30, and as mentioned, Oakland Pride on August 16 (currently no functioning website).  

Related: Oakland Pride Draws an Estimated 50,000 People to Downtown Oakland Parade and Celebration [SFist]

Image: Oakland Pride via Facebook

The news wasn’t all bad coming out of Oakland this weekend, as the 14th annual Oakland Pride brought a parade, concerts, dance pavilions, and tens of thousands of people to show Oakland being “Rooted in Pride.”

While San Francisco holds its giant annual SF Pride Weekend festivities at the end of the Pride Month of June, other Bay Area locales do their own Pride Weekends at different points in the summer. Down in San Jose, Silicon Valley Pride is generally the last weekend of August. And over in the East Bay, Oakland Pride was this past weekend, in the part of downtown Oakland between Uptown and Lake Merritt.

KPIX estimated 50,000 people would attend, and KGO’s pictures from Oakland Pride indicate they did indeed draw that many to the street party whose theme was “Rooted in Pride.”

You can watch the Oakland Pride 2024 parade above as it was broadcast on KGO. The Chronicle notes the parade lasted an hour (far more efficient than the SF Pride Parade!). But like  SF Pride, the parade’s first contingent was Dykes on Bikes. The Chronicle adds they were “followed by about 80 contingents, including community organizations, school groups, marching bands, political clubs, city leaders, drag queens and everyday folks, many parading their pets.”

For the city of Oakland, this was a welcome antidote to the chaotic sideshows and fatal shootings that marred the weekend. And unsurprisingly, there were plenty of politicians showing up at Oakland Pride hoping to capitalize on the good vibes.

"In a period where there is so much acrimony, this celebration is bringing together diverse communities,” Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife told KGO. “This is something Oakland needs, and it's beautiful.”

Main Stage acts featured Chicago-based rapper Da Brat, hip-hop artists the Conscious Daughters, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. There was also a Latin Stage with Mexican vocalist Wendy Guevara and Puerto Rican drag queen Jessica Wild, plus a Community Stage with the more family-friendly stuff.

This was the 14th annual Oakland Pride, as the Oakland version was established in 2010.  

Related: Reminder: Oakland Pride Is This Weekend, With Deborah Cox and Block Parties Starting Friday Night [SFist]

Image: @kpnorcal via Twitter

The fashion of Mr. David Couture and the fashion icon Juanita MORE! will hold a free fundraiser for LYRIC this Friday at SF’s Saks Fifth Avenue, as Juanita has now raised a staggering $1 million for local charities over the last 30 years.

Very few individual San Franciscans’ names are more synonymous with SF Pride than that of local drag legend and former Empress of San Francisco, Juanita MORE!. The famed Juanita MORE! Pride Party is now celebrating its 20th year, and this year will be on Sunday, June 30 at 620 Jones. She also co-founded the People's March and Rally, a social justice alternative to the highly commodified Pride Parade, though this year's fifth annual People's March and Rally has been moved to the Sunday before the parade (June 23).

What has gotten less attention is that Juanita MORE! has now raised more than $1 million for local charities over the last 30 years. And she’ll add a few more dollars to that total at this Friday’s Saks Fifth Avenue and Juanita MORE! Celebrate Pride Month event from 5-7 pm at Saks Fifth Avenue (384 Post Street).

Admission is free, and there will be a fashion exhibit by Mr. David Couture. There’s also a "Beauty Contest" to win a Saks Beauty gift bag, a hosted bar by Beaux, and “lite bites” by chef Cory Armenta of MOREfood. The event is a benefit for the LGBTQQ+ youth nonprofit LYRIC.

“I know my name is all over this event with Saks Fifth Avenue, but I am thrilled to see Mr. David's fashion celebrated,” Juanita MORE! tells SFist. “For the last 31 years, Mr. David has made everything I've worn. And while making my dresses, he was making a dress for someone else. Mr. David and I spend much of each day creatively scheming new ideas and trends and executing these crazy concepts into our lives. His creativity is unlimited, and many breathtaking pieces will be on display.”

LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center) is Juanita’s Pride party beneficiary this year, and she’ll also be doing a benefit for them the following Saturday, June 8, at People’s Barbershop. This is the same LYRIC that’s been targeted by multiple bomb threats in the current environment of harassment of trans youth. Saks Fifth Avenue will be donating 10% of sales up to $2,500 at the event to LYRIC.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by People's Barber (@peoplesbarbershop)

“I have an immense amount of respect for our queer elders and a responsibility to empower our queer youth,” MORE! tells us. “Our community has thrived because of the brave generations before us; those legends planted the seeds of love, compassion, strength, and resilience. My duty as a community leader is to keep those planted seeds alive. I want to keep building our future by supporting our queer youth in their quest to carry on the legacy of our queer elders.”

Juanita has plenty more up her powerblouse for Pride Month, including a Tuesday, June 18th collaboration with the restaurant Merkado for their unique 'Stories from Home' dinner gatherings.

“I'll also join Peaches Christ and Sister Roma for Pride Day with the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Saturday, June 15th,” she adds. “The drag brunch includes complimentary food and beverages, performances, and partial proceeds from each special event ticket to benefit local organizations within the LGBTQIA+ community.”

And as you know, the 20th anniversary Juanita MORE! Pride Party is the Sunday of Pride Weekend.

“Of course, you must celebrate the 20th year of my annual Pride Party,” Juanita tells SFist. “Each year, I have taken great pleasure in seeking out some of our community's most impactful organizations as beneficiaries. The community has helped raise over $1 million for local charities by supporting events I have organized over the past three decades. I cannot thank everyone enough for all your contributions over those years.”

Saks Fifth Avenue and Juanita MORE! Celebrate Pride Month is Friday, June 7 from 5-7 pm at Saks Fifth Avenue (384 Post Street). Admission is free

Related: New Exhibit Shows Off the Three-Decade Living Legacy of SF Drag Star Juanita MORE! — and Her Collection of Hats [SFist]

Image: Juanita More via Facebook

You may not have ever seen the New York Philharmonic or the Metropolitan Opera, but you can see some of their musicians perform live, as the brand new International Pride Orchestra debuts Thursday with an all-star cast of all LGBTQ+ musicians in an event hosted by Peaches Christ.

In an arts and entertainment segment airing today on KGO news, Albuquerque-based professional symphonic tuba player Sean Kennedy makes an interesting observation about the classical music scene. "In this profession, you would think that there's a lot more queer people, a lot more queer representation within orchestras, but there really isn't,"  he told the station. (And the movie Tár may not have helped?)

But that queer representation will be loud and proud on Thursday night at the SF Conservatory of Music’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, as the KGO segment in question is about the 78-member, all LGBTQ+ International Pride Orchestra, whose musicians hail from other esteemed organizations like the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera.  

While these are accomplished classical musicians, they had not even rehearsed together until Monday. But you can hear bits in the segment above showing that it’s certainly starting to gel. "We have four days to put this all together," International Pride Orchestra founder and director  Michael Roest told KGO. "It is a rigorous, intensive schedule."

Peaches Christ will be hosting, with opera singer Breanna Sinclairé as a featured soloist. According to a Conservatory of Music press release, the program beings with the world  premiere of the commission "Loud" by composer Jimmy López Bellido, and also features familiar works like Bernstein’s "Somewhere" from West Side Story, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36.

Proceeds will go to the SF-based LYRIC Center, described as “one of the first and largest LGBTQQ youth centers in the United States.”

"Being able to help those kids in some way is actually really important to me," the tuba player Kennedy told KGO.

While Thursday night’s performance is a one-night-only engagement for Pride Weekend, KGO reports that the International Pride Orchestra hopes to stage additional concerts in other cities.

International Pride Orchestra Concert is Thursday, June 22 at 7:30pm at the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall,  50 Oak Street (at Franklin Street). $25, tickets here

Related: SF Symphony To Play Live Score Of 'Call Me By Your Name' For Special Screening [SFist]

Image: SF Conservatory of Music

The queer activist collective Gay Shame is at it again, this time with a Pride Month installation at Valencia Street’s ATA that delivers satirical mockeries of Mayor Breed, and Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Matt Dorsey.

It’s Pride Month, so it should not be surprising that we’re hearing again from the local chapter of Gay Shame, the radical queer activist collective whose whole purpose is to be the antithesis of Pride festivities that are increasingly corporate, capitalized, and homogenous. While Gay Shame started in New York City in the late 1990s, the Gay Shame movement soon got itself a San Francisco chapter, which gained prominence ten or so years back for their vitriolic anti-tech, anti-gentrification flyers and “Queers Hate Techies” stencil campaign.

We had not heard much from Gay Shame since their 2021 art installation depicting the beheading of a fnnch honey bear. That was seen in the windows of the Valencia Street’s Artists’ Television Access (ATA), and a Monday social media post tipped us off that the Gay Shame gang was up to their old tricks with a new installation in the same window.

Gay Shame’s Instagram account does seem to take credit for the act, and the installation has apparently been there for weeks. “This June GAY SHAME is celebrating the grand opening of the LGBT-PIC Cop Cultural District,” says the post dated June 8. “London Breed was joined at tonight’s ceremony by two of her Gay Best Fascist (GBF) to celebrate Stonewall, the first pro-police riot.”

There were not paper artist’s statements as there were for the fnnch installation, though the words “Gay Shame” and “Queers Hate Cops”do appear in stencil work at the bottom of the installation.

Let’s unpack what we see going on here. A cardboard cutout of Mayor Breed is cutting a rainbow ribbon, while next to her, a cutout of openly gay SF Supervisor Rafael Mandelman dons a police hat and holds an SFPD flyer.

A cutout of gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey holds a “Party N Police” sign, a likely reference to his time as a police department public relations guy. And I suppose there is hay to be made that Dorsey is calling for harsher crackdowns on drug dealers and users, when he and his own dealers avoided such consequences when Dorsey struggled with substance abuse.  

There are several references to the “LGBT-PIC Cop Cultural District,” a fictional construct mocking the police.

Another segment in paintings behind the display showing the phrase “Assigned Cop At Birth,” a take on the acronym for “All Cops Are Bastards.”

And we will tip our hat to this clever reference to the art gallery owner who water-sprayed a homeless woman, also see in the painting in the rear of the display.

This is all likely a response to last year’s London Breed boycott of the Pride Parade over the decision to ban uniformed officers. That decision was reversed in a compromise, and Breed got COVID and couldn't participate in the parade anyway. But this particular display indicates that the wounds from that controversy may not yet have fully healed, among some at least.

Related: Beheaded Honey Bear On Guillotine Depicted In Valencia Street Window Display [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist

It’s believed that it will be the first major American sports game with both teams wearing LGBTQ+ Pride logos, when both the Dodgers and the Giants will sport Pride-ified logos on their hats and uniforms for their June 11 Pride Night game.

Your San Francisco Giants were trailblazing LGBTQ allies back in 1994 when they were the first major U.S. sports team to hold Until There’s A Cure Day. And back during that Candlestick Park era, even the innocuous red ribbon to promote HIV/AIDS awareness was kind of a controversial third rail. Former Giants PR director Bob Rose writes the Giants “knew that many of their season ticket holders might feel uncomfortable if Until There’s A Cure Day was perceived as merely a ‘Gay Day.’

Yet “Gay Day” would indeed become a thing, initially for a very wrong reason. In the year 2000, security guards for our rival Los Angeles Dodgers kicked two women out of Dodger Stadium for kissing. The backlash forced the embarrassed franchise to make amends with a "Gay and Lesbian Night at Dodger Stadium" a month later (though it was sponsored and hosted by GLAAD, not the Dodgers). The Chicago Cubs were the first team to put their name and logo on it with “Out at Wrigley” in 2001. The Giants held their first “LGBT Night” in 2002, which still continues on as Pride Night or Pride Day, depending on whether it's a day or night game.

The Giants became the first team to actually incorporate the Pride rainbow colors into their logo for Pride Day just last year. And the two NL West rivals are making LGBTQ+ sports history again this year, as the Bay Area News Group reports both the Giants and the Dodgers will both be wearing Progress Pride Flag-colored logos for their Pride Day matchup on June 11.

Oh shit, did I just embed a Dodgers ball cap? I did, and as a palate cleanser, here’s Honey Mahogany singing the National Anthem at the 2021 Pride Day game.

You’ll notice the logo is the Progress Pride rainbow that also incorporates Black, Brown, and Trans Pride colors. The Dodgers otherwise have their own Pride Day home game on June 3 against the New York Mets, and will wear the colors that day too.

As a bonus, the news group adds that anyone with tickets that night  “will also get socks with the 11 colors of the Progress Pride flag and a Giants logo.”

You can cynically sneer that this is just a ploy to sell tickets and additional hats and merchandise, and you would to some degree be correct. But it’s also a quiet milestone  that pretty much every team in baseball now does a Pride event during June. The only remaining holdout is the Texas Rangers, and as the Dallas Morning News reported last year, “The Rangers are the only team that doesn’t have a pride game promotion of any kind. There’s no indication that they’re planning to have one in the near future, either.”

Related: SF Giants to Be First MLB Team to Display Pride Rainbow Colors on Uniforms [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 05: First Base Coach Antoan Richardson #00 of the San Francisco Giants looks on while wearing a jersey with patches saying "Black Lives Matter" and the Giants logo dressed with rainbow colors that symbolize the LGBTQ community on San Francisco Pride Day against the Chicago Cubs in the bottom of the first inning at Oracle Park on June 05, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Mark your calendar for the final weekend in June, as SF Pride says the whole Pride Weekend-long lineup is back on for an in-person celebration June 25-26, 2022.

Everyone who loves a parade is stoked that the Lunar New Year Festival and Parade is returning this Saturday in Chinatown. And technically, the return-of-parade rubicon was already crossed previously in the COVID-19 era, when the Italian Heritage Parade returned to North Beach last October. But big, big news from KGO, who has the scoop that SF Pride will be returning as an in-person event in 2022.

"We do plan on taking up as much space as possible on Market Street in San Francisco on the last weekend of June and we are so excited to see you all again," SF Pride board president Carolyn Wysinger told KGO.

The Chronicle adds a statement from an SF Pride newsletter that says “We know that our communities are concerned about the spread of the omicron variant,” and “We also know that people are mourning the passing of LGBTQ+ icons like Betty White and Andre Leon Talley, losses that hit us harder than usual after two years of nonstop loss, false starts and disappointments.”

Sure enough, a visit to SFPride.org confirms that “San Francisco LGBTQ+ Pride Returns In-Person! Saturday & Sunday June 25-26, 2022.” The site is currently taking submissions for Parade Contingents, Exhibitor Registration, Entertainment Submissions, and public vote for Community Grand Marshals.

We do notice they say Saturday and Sunday, June 25-26, 2022, which does not mention Friday. Presumably there will be a Civic Center exhibitor setup that begins on Saturday, per usual, and the Dyke March is likely on. But this does not acknowledge the Trans March typically held on Friday — though the Trans March has never been directly affiliated with SF Pride, and is more of its own thing.

And they did do a Trans March in 2021 (it was more of a resource fair), so lest we get nailed with another horrible COVID-19 variant, it’s fair to assume that Trans March will also happen. And there were some in-person events for SF Prodie 2021, plus a small march and rally on Polk Street. But the big boas will be back on for SF Pride 2022, or at least we hope, as SF Pride is planning with the hopes that it gets better with the pandemic.  

Related: SoMa LGBTQ Mainstays Oasis and The Eagle Reopen For Pride; Oasis Unveils New Party Slate [SFist]

Image: @BIGJOSHAYBXTCH via Twitter

60 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for men wearing women's clothing in public to be arrested. Nevertheless: A group of drag queens prancing along Columbus Avenue in San Francisco — circa 1968 — carried on living their most authentic (and fabulously camp) lives.

Arrests were made in San Franciso against men cross-dressing while out and about the town up until 1974 — a group of ten being detained in the Tenderloin as late as May of 1974. Two months later, the San Francisco law that made cross-dressing illegal was rescinded.

But fourteen years before the piece of pre-WWI legislation was enacted, drag queens were filmed proudly dancing at what's believed to be SF's The Village Club venue.

Unearthed by KQED, the footage shows socialites and drag queens of the era (many of which with hair spun like carnival cotton candy) completely vibing on the dance floor, taking pictures with event attendees, and having their flouncy throws undulate through the air at this late-60's costume ball. LGBTQI+ culture at the time came alive when the sun dipped below the horizon — affording queer people the chance to fully express themselves among peers and help mitigate unwanted run-ins with police.

To see the discovered 70-second clip in its entirety, play the YouTube video below.

Related: SF Pride Won't Have a Parade In 2021, But There Will Be Some In-Person Events

This Is Giving Me Life Today: Drag Queens and Musical Theater Artists Performing From Their Living Rooms

7 San Francisco Drag Queens Reveal Their Favorite Looks of 2019

Photo: Screenshot courtesy of YouTube via KQED Arts

For Saturday's home game against the Chicago Cubs at Oracle Park, the San Francisco Giants will sport LGBTQ Pride colors on their uniforms for the first time — and becoming the first team in Major League Baseball ever to recognize Pride Month in this way.

The June 5 uniforms will include a rainbow Progress Pride patch on the right sleeves, and the team's caps that day will have the SF logo embroidered in Progress Pride colors — not just the rainbow, but including the black, brown, and Trans Pride colors as well.

"We are extremely proud to stand with the LGBTQ+ community as we kick off one of the best annual celebrations in San Francisco by paying honor to the countless achievements and contributions of all those who identify as LGBTQ+ and are allies of the LGBTQ+ community,” said Giants CEO Larry Baer in a statement released by the team on Tuesday.

The team's statement notes that the 11 colors of the Progress Pride Flag "signify inclusion and progression" as well as LGBTQ pride.

Not surprisingly, the move has attracted plenty of hate on the Giants' social media accounts, including on Facebook — with one angry white man exclaiming in a comment, "I'm done with the MLB!" But the post has attracted plenty of support as well.

Saturday's game at Oracle is for "Pride Day" at the park, and proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to SF Pride. There will also be SF Pride t-shirts for sale, as the Mercury News reports.

Also at Saturday's game, the Giants will be honoring former SF Supervisor and California State Assemblymember Tom Ammiano. Ammiano was the first openly gay teacher in San Francisco, and he recently made national headlines when an appeal to his Catholic high school in New Jersey resulted in them sending him a varsity letter that he was denied when he was a student athlete on the track team — ostensibly because he was outwardly effeminate.

Next weekend, Oracle Park is hosting two Pride Movie Nights, as part of this year's Frameline film festival. And in honor of that and this weekend's game, the palm trees in Willie Mays Plaza have been wrapped in rainbow colors and lights as well.

Top image via SF Giants

Tuesday night's ceremonial lighting of the newly electrified pink triangle on Twin Peaks was — sort of predictably — inundated by Karla the Fog. But it was attended by activists and dignitaries alike, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and everyone shivered their way through the speeches and watched the LEDs pop on.

Behold: It was a windy, chilly, fog-filled evening as the ceremony began around 8 p.m., with Mayor London Breed, state Senator Scott Wiener, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and the Great Pelosi on hand. One of the Dykes on Bikes rolled up with the pink torch in hand, symbolically handing it off to trigger the lighting of the triangle itself. (It's the second year that the triangle has been done with LED nodes, thanks to Illuminate SF, but the first year they did the full procession with the torch all the way from Oakland.)

The San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Band was there too, with singer Leanne Borghesi doing her renditions of "San Francisco," "If My Friends Could See Me Now," and other tunes, but the weather had a way of making things look sort of funereal, despite the upbeat festivity.

Referring to Hitler's use of the pink triangle as a mark of otherness and a death sentence for homosexuals in Nazi Germany, which was later coopted by the LGBTQ civil rights movement, Mayor London Breed said, "The history is that of negativity, but the hope that it inspires is standing out here in the freezing cold today. Nothing is stopping us from lighting up the pink triangle in San Francisco tonight."

Pelosi touted the Equality Act, which was introduced and passed by House Democrats. And she expressed solidarity between the LGBTQ community and House Democrats, saying that they very much lived by the ethos of "We will not be silenced."

"We remember those who have been victims, we work for those who still can be victimized by all of this, we take pride and we will end the discriminatory legislation that we see rearing its head in certain parts of our own country," Pelosi said in her remarks.

The triangle will remain lit up at night on the hillside overlooking the Castro for all of Pride Month this year — typically in its last 25 years it would only appear for Pride Weekend itself. Hopefully that means there will be some clearer nights in which to enjoy its glow and the dynamic LED light show, sans Karla.

As KPIX reports, also on Tuesday night, the palm trees outside Oracle Park got relit with rainbow lights ahead of the two Pride Movie Nights happening there next week.

Previously: Pride Month Kicks Off With Pink Torch Procession From Oakland, Pink Triangle Lighting On Twin Peaks

Photo: Shane Krpata/Twitter

The latest ‘complaining white woman’ brouhaha comes from Livermore, where a farmers' market crackdown on Pride flags has led to the director’s resignation and a suspension of the event.

I’m not a big farmers' market person (unless there are baby goats involved), so I’m just now learning that farmers' markets are often not managed locally, but by larger regional “farmers' market associations.” I learned this because of the latest ‘Karen’ confrontation viral video, shot during an incident at the Livermore Farmers' Market on Sunday, June 7, wherein a gay cookie booth proprietor was handing out mini Pride flags for free. This simple act drew the berating wrath and a demand to quit it from the market’s operator, the California Farmers' Markets Association (in video seen below) and also drew unwanted headlines like the Bay Area Reporter story "Bay Area farmers' market operator bans Pride flags."

That’s not a good headline to have during the Pride Months of June, and now KRON4 reports that the woman in the video, California Farmers' Markets Association executive director Gail Hayden, has resigned amidst the uproar. That did not end the blowback, as KPIX adds that the city of Livermore has broken off their relationship with the California Farmers' Markets Association and that “operation of the Livermore Farmers’ Market has been suspended” until a new management entity is brought in.

Livermore Pride captured the entire incident in the video above, given the very bad timing (for Gail Hayden, at least) that the executive director of Livermore Pride happened to be standing right there.

“This is Disneyland, so you can't talk to us this way,” executive director Hayden complains to Dan Good Cookies owner Dan Floyd. “Nobody else has flags, that should have been a clue. I don’t care what the flags are for. That has nothing to do with anything.”

“You need to go read the rules, and read the section about cooperating with market management,”  she continues to bitch. “The fact that you haven’t read the 30 pages [of rules] is disturbing to me. Read the rules.” (Per KRON4, those rules only prohibit “petition and flyer distribution”).

The obligatory Change.org petition popped in response, and the city Livermore dumped the California Farmers' Markets Association the day after the video gained traction in local media reports. The association has also issued an apology on its website.

As for the jilted bakery Dan Good Cookies, KGO reports they are “overwhelmed by community support.” Owner Dan Floyd wrote on his website that “I have brought on help to deal with the influx of orders, and even that won't be enough because I can only produce so many cookies in a given amount of time with my current equipment.”

According to the Bay Area Reporter, the California Farmers' Markets Association runs three farmers' markets here in SF — though the website listing them has been disabled. But according to the Wayback Machine, these would be the one at the Crocker Galleria downtown, and two at Fort Mason. (Breathe that sigh of relief, Castro, Ferry Building, Noe Valley, and Divisadero Farmers Market shoppers.)

As mentioned above, the California Farmers' Markets Association executive director is now out of a job. Tough cookies, lady, but running a chain of farmers markets, well, it’s actually not exactly Disneyland.

Related: Most Farmers' Markets to Remain Open as Essential Services During Lockdown Period [SFist]

Image: Livermore Prode via Facebook

Following a week of vague messaging that gained some negative momentum in the press, SF Pride officially announced Tuesday that the 2020 parade and celebration in late June is canceled and will not be postponed to the fall, due to pandemic concerns.

A source close to the deliberations told SFist last week that part of the delay and debate stemmed from forces within City Hall who were pushing for a postponement, in order to avoid the loss of hotel tax revenue to the city that a cancellation would represent. But it seems that gaming out such a postponement — which the organizers of Coachella and BottleRock are doing, crossing their fingers that large gatherings will be permissible and advisable by October — was not deemed wise or financially feasible in the case of Pride.

The decision was made "with heavy hearts," says SF Pride Executive Director Fred Lopez, in a statement. "Since the coronavirus first emerged, we have held out hope that the situation would shift and we would be able to gather later this year," Lopez says. "Well before the first shelter-in-place order, our team began to balance our excitement for Pride 50 and evaluate possible alternatives."

Lopez adds that they were listening to many voices through this process. "Our staff has been in frequent talks with our board, our production team, our partners at many departments of City Hall, officials at other Pride organizations worldwide — and most of all, our LGBTQ communities. We have heard from people who urged us to cancel, and from those who implored us not to."

But, he says that, ultimately, talking about a postponement made little logistical or fiscal sense. "In some ways the decision to cancel does in fact protect the future of Pride," Lopez tells 48 Hills. "The uncertainty of any type of postponement presented financial challenges. An event of this size moving to fall before being absolutely sure it take place then would have been too much of a risk for everyone involved."

"No one wants to celebrate with the entire community more than I do," said Mayor London Breed in a statement. "However, we are in an unprecedented public health emergency with an uncertain future, and we must do everything we can to protect our entire community and put public health first."

The decision now will have the trickle-down effect of further depressing revenues for all the party promoters, vendors, bars, restaurants, and hotels that depend on LGBTW Pride Week for a mid-year boost. And this was a big one for San Francisco and New York — late June 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the first "gay liberation"-slash-Pride events that happened in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Stonewall.

Pride 50, in essence, is getting moved to Pride 51. But organizers say they will now shift their energies to making virtual celebrations happen to honor the landmark anniversary.

As the Bay Area Reporter reports, a group of party promoters and business leaders penned an open letter to SF Pride pushing for a postponement to October or November

In a statement Tuesday, state Senator Scott Wiener said, "I have no doubt that SF Pride will put together a terrific slate of virtual events for this year’s celebration. Pride is my favorite part of every year, and though it’s disappointing that we can’t be together in person, we will find creative ways to uplift and celebrate the LGBTQ community."

Carolyn Wysinger, president of the SF Pride Board of Directors, said to the Examiner that protecting the health of the community has to be put before any celebration. And she promised, "Flags will still fly in June, if I have to get up there and put them there myself." She added that Pride 2021 will "be even grander now that we are celebrating two Prides."

Meanwhile, New York City Pride also hangs in the balance and will likely also be canceled, but organizers have not made an official announcement there yet — likely for similar reasons and a legion of stakeholders, as there were in SF.

Related: SF Mayor Says Normal Pride Celebration May Not Be Possible

Photo: Matt Biddulph via Flickr

Four people were arrested for bringing guns to Pride this year, according to SFPD, and one with priors was just sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison.

SF Pride is not an open-carry event, nor is any public event in any incorporated town in California. So bringing a handgun to Pride is illegal, yet a small handful of people are arrested for trying every year. One such armed man is on his way to jail, as the East Bay Times reports that 22-year-old Evonta Bailey brought a loaded semi-automatic to this year’s Pride and was just sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. The mitigating factor here is that Bailey was already out on bail for a previous gun charge, and had recently missed his court date on that one.

According to the original police report published July 2, at about 3:30 p.m. on Pride Saturday, Bailey entered the Civic Center party area when SFPD "recognized [the] subject from prior police contacts." They ran a records check and found an outstanding felony warrant for the previous charges, tried to arrest him and he attempted to flee, at which point "the officers and suspect fell to the ground." (Sounds more like they tackled him.) His waistband was packing a loaded 12-round semi-automatic plus eight additional rounds, and he was arrested.

“At worst, this indicates that Mr. Bailey believed that there was a realistic possibility he would have to use the gun that day,” U.S. Attorney Lina Peng said in a court filing. “At best, this indicates that Mr. Bailey has associated himself with individuals or activity for which he believed a loaded gun was required for protection.”

Here is the gun in question, a Taurus G2C 9mm pistol. It retails online for a shockingly cheap $200-$250.

Bailey’s attorney said that he was a previous victim of gun violence, and was just hoping to defend himself. “Before he had hit his teenage years, [Bailey] was already ‘dodging bullets’ and other kids regularly assaulted him in his neighborhood,” assistant federal public defender Angela Chuang said in her own filing. “By the time he reached adulthood, he had cycled through numerous different group homes after he was removed from his mother’s custody at the age of nine or 10. In the last few years alone, Mr. Bailey lost two of his best friends to incidents of gun violence.”

The judge was unmoved, and Bailey got the 18 months plus three years of supervised release after he’s out.

Guns at Pride are no joke. There were shooting incidents in 2013, 2014, and 2015, with injuries in each case. The LBGTQ community remains on edge after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, and many still remember the Castro Halloween mass shooting in 2009. As San Francisco’s gay cultural events become iconic annual traditions, they’ve been drawing different, younger, and larger crowds with a much higher risk factor. In the Halloween incident a decade ago, the shooting was reportedly not prompted by hate, but just by some sort of beef between different factions of armed teens, but bystanders were nonetheless injured.

Related: SF Pride Reaches Secret Settlement With Man Shot During 2013 Celebration [SFist]

Image: Matt Biddulph via Flickr

It's time again for the Bay Area's much smaller, much more recently inaugurated LGBTQ Pride celebration, Oakland Pride. On Sunday, for only the eighth time ever, Oakland celebrates its LGBTQ people with a big downtown festival — and for only the fourth year in a row, there's a parade (the first was in 2014). And unlike SF Pride's traditional late June date, the weather in September is almost always guaranteed to be warm over there, so that's nice.

Performers this year include Frenchie Davis (who's performed at Oakland Pride before), neo-disco rising star Alex Newell, and headliner Andra Day, whose song "Rise Up" you have no doubt heard a remix of in the last six months, somewhere.

As in previous years, the parade route is very brief — it kicks off at 10:30 a.m. at 14th and Broadway and just goes six blocks down to 20th and Broadway. The entrance to the festival grounds is at the end, at 20th and Broadway, and the festival stages are across a few blocks of Franklin Street.

There's a $10 general admission charge, and if you want to spring for the "VIP Experience," that costs $75 to $125 and comes with two complimentary cocktails, free parking, a private cash bar, and special main stage seating.

Also, as usual, you should also check out the parties happening at LGBT spots like the White Horse Inn and the nearby Port Bar, both before and after the official festivities start and end.

Below, your handy maps, and videos from Day and Newell.

Map via Oakland Pride.

With 250 contingents marching, Sunday’s San Francisco Pride parade was the largest ever in the event’s history. But even with this year’s resistance-themed political overtones, the parade and Civic Center afterparty went off peacefully and without major incidents, drawing an estimated crowd of more than a million people downtown.

“San Francisco is home to some of the brightest, most talented, most active, activists and outspoken political leaders. That’s going to be the sentiment of San Francisco Pride this year,” SF Pride board president Michelle Meow told CBS 5.

“What we’re trying to communicate to this administration is that we’re here,” she said. “We’re here. We’re LGBTQ. We’re Muslim. We’re black. We’re immigrant. We are American. We’re not going anywhere.”

The weekend-long Pride festivities — and their widespread side-effects — were not entirely without incident, as Mission Local notes a few Sunday night skirmishes in Dolores Park. Most notably, a 28-year-old man was stabbed, and an unauthorized party in the park almost escalated into mob violence before roughly two dozen police arrived to disperse the crowd.

“The only thing that seemed to stop the whole scenario was when a tall, wiry and really stoned gay guy named Cameron near my group began twerking and the whole mob of people ran at him and began to dance around him,” an eyewitness told Mission Local. “Sounds silly, but he probably saved someone’s life with a twerk! People started dancing, but there was still a lot of negativity in the air. People started dispersing and the dancing probably staved off anymore fights until the police surrounded the place.”

Mission Local also reports one visitor from Ireland was struck on the head with a bottle at roughly 9 p.m. Sunday night in Dolores Park. She was attended to by the SF Fire Department, and was not hospitalized. And as is pretty much the case on any warm weekend, Dolores Park was left littered with gargantuan amounts of trash.

Saturday’s Dyke March was also complicated by a minor fire on a fire escape at Castro and 18th that afternoon, which was brought under control within 30 minutes. “There was a first-alarm fire in the Castro district,” The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management’s Francis Zamora told CBS 5, describing it as minor but potentially very complicated because of all the vehicle and foot traffic in the neighborhood.

The police and fire departments, SFMTA, and the Department of Public Works all approached the weekend as if it were a nonstop emergency, in order to be prepared if a real disaster occurred during Pride. “These activations for large-scale city events give us the muscle memory to be able to know who to talk to and know what their capabilities are in the event we have something larger-scale that’s going on,” Zamora said.

Related: Dykes On Bikes Rings In 41 Years Of Pride