These volunteers are typically doctors, nurses, or other trained emergency response staff. Medical volunteers, who provide first aid and medical assistance to participants.Hospitality, a team of volunteers led annually by Davace Chin and Michael Fullam and charged with feeding the other volunteers, keeps hundreds coming back year after year.Created in 1982, the Safety Committee philosophy and training has served as the model for many other LGBT events both local and international. Safety monitors, crews of volunteers who help maintain order on the parade route and in the festival, particularly with respect to crowd control, and participant actions that might be harmful to themselves or others.Several veteran contractors are employed to take on specific roles for the event.Īlso involved in the running of the festival and parade are hundreds of volunteers. The event is funded by a combination of community fundraising both by the pride committee and on their behalf, corporate sponsorships, San Francisco city grants, and donations collected from the participants at the festival. According to their web site, their mission is "to educate the World, commemorate our heritage, celebrate our culture, and liberate our people." The festival is run by a non-profit organization, the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee. The independently organized Trans March is held on the Friday before the parade while the Dyke March and Trans March events are held on the Friday and Saturday nights preceding the march and rally in The Castro. There have been proposals to move it to different dates, for instance to July 4 in 2004.
The festival is traditionally held in the last full weekend in June. On the Sunday of the parade, an area of the festival called Leather Alley features fetish and BDSM oriented booths and demonstrations. It is a collection of booths, dance stages, and vendors around the Civic Center area near San Francisco City Hall. It is common for them to decorate a flatbed truck or float, along with loud dance music, or create a colorful contingent that carries a visual message out to the bystanders.Ī two-day (Saturday and Sunday) festival has grown up around the Sunday morning parade.
These are typically the (straight) parents or family members of LGBT people, sometimes marching together with their LGBT relatives. Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), is usually one of the largest contingents, featuring several hundred people.PFLAG contingent at San Francisco Pride 2004