Pride celebration ’special’
The 38th annual LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade appeared to go smoothly, and Pride Executive Director Lindsey Jones called it "a special year."
"It was just electric with the marriage decision," Jones said, referring to the state Supreme Court's May 15 decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry in California. "I think we all just reconnected to the roots of our movement, and why we celebrate once a year."
Jones said attendance seemed significantly higher this year.
"We think it was at minimum a million [people] between the celebration and parade," she estimated.
San Francisco police no longer provide crowd estimates for events. The parade stretched along several blocks of Market Street, where people were up to nine deep in some places; the festival in Civic Center Plaza was packed by early afternoon.
Rajani Gudlavalleti, 23, who was watching the parade Sunday, said she'd been coming to Pride for five years, and said the crowd size seemed "about the same as always." However, Gudlavalleti said, the crowd seemed more diverse, especially in terms of age and race.
Pride officials are hoping to distribute about $180,000 to beneficiary groups in its community partners program.
Jones said the total budget for Pride this year was about $1.5 million, including approximately $100,000 in equipment grants for community-run stages, as well as the $180,000 for the community groups.
Another aspect of the weekend that apparently went well was safety.
Sergeant Wilfred Williams, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said there was one arrest for being drunk and disorderly in public and one arrest for theft Saturday in Civic Center.
Around the time of the parade Sunday, Williams said, there were three arrests for being drunk and disorderly in public, two arrests for permit violations and one arrest for battery.
Sunday at the post-parade party in the Castro, he said, there were five arrests for being drunk and disorderly in public and one arrest related to a stolen vehicle.
SFPD Sergeant Neville Gittens said there were 10 arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct during the Pink Saturday party.
Gittens said that at about 2:30 a.m. Monday there was a large fight at 18th and Castro between two groups of about 20 people. He said one group was yelling "Oakland" and the other was yelling "Richmond." Gittens said as police responded everybody dispersed, and there were no injuries or arrests.
According to Supervisor Bevan Dufty, though, the annual Saturday night event went well. "I can't say enough to thank the Sisters," he said, referring to event organizers the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Dufty said he got a couple messages about people urinating on doorsteps, but "for an event of this magnitude, I think things went really well."