By Pat Sherman
SDUN Assistant Editor
The parade begins at Normal Street, proceeds west to Sixth Avenue, and then south to Upas Street in Balboa Park, culminating in a two-day festival at Marston Point.
This year’s parade grand marshals are actress Cloris Leachman, whose credits include the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Dancing with the Stars,” and activist Stuart Milk, nephew of slain LGBT civil rights leader Harvey Milk.
“I think it’s amazing that we’ll be able to create the kind of event we’re going to create this year,” Pride Co-chair Judi Schaim said. “To think that Cloris Leachman called us to see if she could be in the parade is just awesome.”
Event organizers expect the festival to draw 45,000 attendees. The festivities are San Diego’s largest annual civic event, bringing visitors from around the world to America’s Finest City.
“I think it’s an opportunity for everyone to come together, accept everyone’s differences and to just have a good time,” Pride event coordinator Jennifer Turner-Minotti said. “I think that’s the bottom line. We need to respect each other’s differences.”
According to estimates from Mayor Jerry Sanders’ office, the economic impact of the event is more than $21 million. Last year’s parade drew an estimated 150,000 people, more than the annual Comic-Con International, which had an attendance of about 126,000 last year (that event will begin on the coattails of Pride, July 22-25, at the San Diego Convention Center).
Comic-Con fans can get their geek on early this year when Devo—the band who proclaimed they’re “Through Being Cool”—headlines the Pride festival’s Cox Communications main stage Sunday, July 18, at 7:15 p.m.
Turner-Minotti said the organization had originally sought to procure former Rancho Peñasquitos resident and “American Idol” contestant Adam Lambert to perform Sunday evening.
“We reached out to Adam Lambert and started the negotiation process with him and unfortunately it didn’t work out,” Turner-Minotti said. “We had to just go down the list and find entertainers that would attract the various ages that attend the festival.
“Devo is definitely making a comeback,” she said. “They’ve played some really great festivals [such as] Coachella and Lollapalooza. Someone just kind of threw their name out there. We reached out to their agency and, luckily, we got a bite back.”
Grammy Award-winning rapper and hip-hop singer “Eve” Jihan Jeffers will offer a taste of her forthcoming CD, “Lip Lock,” when she headlines the festival, July 17 at 8:15 p.m.
Turner-Minotti said Pride approached Eve’s management company about booking another entertainer, and they suggested Eve, whom they also represent.
“It just seemed to work out that she could come to town,” she said.
The process of reviewing entertainment applications began in December.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” Turner-Minotti said. “We received over 150 applications and electronic press kits. We listen to every single CD that we receive. We went onto people’s MySpace pages just trying to find the best entertainment locally, regionally and nationally.”
Though Lambert won’t be performing, another former “American Idol” contestant, Blake Lewis, will grace the main stage July 18 at 6:10 p.m., prior to Devo.
Turner-Minotti said Pride spent a little more money on festival entertainment this year than it did last.
“We really wanted to focus on providing quality entertainment,” she said. “Last year the headliners weren’t as well known across the board.”
More than 80 performers are scheduled to play on four festival stages during the weekend, most of whom volunteer their talents to the nonprofit organization or appear for a small sum.
“There are some local and regional entertainers that we will pay a very nominal fee or we may support them by offering hotel accommodations,” Turner-Minotti said. “This year we received an airfare barter through Orbitz [for] some of our regional entertainers.”
The Spirit of Stonewall Rally will be revived this year, Friday, July 16, 6 p.m. at Marston Point.
The rally, intended to draw attention to Pride’s activist and political roots, had been abandoned in previous years due to a lack of interest and low attendance, organizers said.
“The energy behind it had been lost in the last four or five years,” Schaim said. “It seemed like it was a token rally.”
The keynote speaker for this year’s rally is Robin McGehee, co-director of the LGBT rights group GetEQUAL. The firebrand organization is taking the gay community’s fight for equal rights back to the streets, often through acts of civil disobedience. Its members are known for shouting down President Barack Obama for his slow response to repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. McGehee, Lt. Dan Choi and others were arrested earlier this year outside the White House during a protest of the policy. In a story appearing in the Advocate magazine, openly gay congressman Barney Frank described the group’s tactics as “tacky” and “immature.”
However, Schaim said alternative voices such as McGehee’s are just what the rally and movement need to reinvigorate itself.
“Will everyone agree with her perspective? No, but you need that fire to really get us going,” she said. “We wanted somebody who’s a dynamic speaker… . I think every year we need to have that before we party and celebrate our accomplishments, to know about the struggle and the work that still needs to be done.”
This year’s Pride parade will include 150 contingents, from politicians and colorful entertainers to marching bands, businesses and community organizations.
Despite the turmoil that dogged Pride earlier this year, including the removal of its executive director and replacement of its board of directors, Pride’s leadership says the organization has been working double duty to make sure it is prepared for this year’s event.
“The staff has been tremendous,” Schaim said. “Without them this wouldn’t happen. They have stepped up and they are just incredible.”
The organization also is working to prevent gaps in the parade, which occurred last year, causing the event to run overtime.
“Last year people talked about how there were three different parades,” Turner-Minotti said. “This year we are going to line the contingents up like ants and we’re going to march them out. The bottom line is we needed to educate the contingents a little bit better.”
