Thousands of people congregated in celebration of the nation’s largest transgender pride event in San Francisco on Friday and to prepare for weekend-long festivities for the 44th annual LGBT Pride Parade.
The 11th annual “Trans March” reportedly kicked off at Dolores Park before thousands made their way to Turk and Taylor Streets — the location of the famed Compton’s Cafeteria, where the nation’s first LGBT riots took place in 1966, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The riots were followed by the well-known 1969 Stonewall Riots for gay rights, which took place in New York City.
One of San Francisco’s best-known transgender performers, Vicki Marlane, had her memory honored with the naming of a street after her, which city officials unveiled on Friday. The street, which mirrors the late entertainer’s name (the activist and actress died of an AIDS-related illness in 2011) is called “Vicki Mar Lane” and is located on the 100 block of Turk Street, according to CBS in San Francisco.
Marlane is reportedly the first transgender person and fourth LGBT individual to have a street named after her in San Francisco.
The volunteer-driven event touted the theme of “Marching for Equality: Our Time Is Now.”One 68-year-old transgender woman who attended the march (and has been living with AIDS for 27 years) spoke with pride as she said, “When you’re different, you’re an activist because you’ve survived this long,” the Chronicle notes.
On Saturday afternoon, the 44th annual San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade revved up its engines with the theme “Color Our World With Pride,” according to KTVU.
The two-day celebration will reportedly go into Sunday at 6 pm and has tech companies such as Facebook and Google showing their support. NBC Bay Area noted that Facebook had decked out their Menlo Park headquarters in rainbow decor ahead of Sunday’s parade in San Francisco.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.