San Diego Pride announced Thursday that the board and staff decided to cancel all in-person Pride events scheduled for July. The annual San Diego Pride Parade is the largest single-day civic event in the region and is among the largest Prides in the United States, typically attracting over 250,000 people. In addition to the parade, the LGBT community gathered for other events, including She Fest, the Pride Rally, a festival and the Pride 5k.

“This pandemic has impacted all of us. We have had to change how we live our lives and Pride is no different,” said Sue Hartman, Board Co-Chair. “This was not an easy decision, but everyone’s health and safety are paramount. Rest assured, our community will find ways to celebrate Pride together again.”

For decades San Diego Pride has brought hundreds of thousands of people together to celebrate, mourn, and protest while raising millions of dollars to support the LGBTQ community locally, nationally, and globally. The commitment of San Diego Pride’s board, staff, volunteers, and community partners is to continue that legacy of work in ways that are virtual and safe until we can be together again. These additional adaptations to programming will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months.

“We recognize how deeply meaningful Pride is to our community. Pride brings us together in times of protest and times of celebration. Pride helps connect us to community and our found family. Pride gives us access to life-saving direct services and provides grant funding to our local and global LGBTQ community,” said Fernando Z. López, Executive Director. “In San Diego, we are privileged to have a Pride organization that does that meaningful education, organizing, advocacy, and philanthropic work all year long, not just one weekend a year. Our programs have continued on in virtual space and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

“Pride is not canceled. In-person mass gatherings are canceled. Nothing can strip away our pride. Nothing can deny us the pride our community has built inside ourselves, our community, or the broader world. We will still find ways to raise our Pride flags, celebrate the vibrancy of our community, and bring to light the issues that our movement still faces,” López added.

Many elected officials weighed in on the decision, including San Diego’s cohort of LGBT politicians. While many described the decision as difficult, they said they fully supported San Diego Pride for putting the health and safety of the LGBT community first.

San Diego Pride already announced plans to take part in InterPride, a 24-hour virtual event for the global community happening on June 27.