Abortion ruling shadows Pride
Standing at Mission and Spear streets in San Francisco, BrandElsa Pereira was preparing to complete a daunting physical achievement: Walking the roughly 11/2 miles for Sunday's Pride parade down the city's main downtown thoroughfare. All while wearing stilts.
“It takes a lot of balance, a little bit of core strength and a lot of prayer,” a smiling Pereira said.
Sunday's 52nd annual Pride parade — the first in three years to be held in person after the pandemic — brought out tens of thousands of jubilant onlookers carrying rainbow flags and cheering along parade attendees that included politicians, nonprofit organizations, marching bands, dance troupes, tech company employees and law enforcement officers. All types of vehicles traveled down the parade route, from the ordinary convertible to one truck with flames shooting out its front.
The gathering also fell on the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court's vote to legalize gay marriage. But the celebration was also dampened by Friday's news that the court had overturned Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 decision, a move that some worry will be used as precedent to reverse past court cases that have granted rights to the LGBTQ community.
In his concurring opinion striking down Roe, Justice Clarence Thomas said landmark decisions such as Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage, as well as Lawrence v. Texas, which legalized same-sex sexual activities and voided sodomy laws, should be reconsidered. None of the other five conservative justices who voted to overturn Roe signed onto Thomas' opinion.
The court's move remained top of mind for parade attendee Jodi Hicks, who heads California's 108 Planned Parenthood clinics.
“Friday's decision was obviously devastating,” Hicks said. “We know that we're all in this fight together. (Justice) Thomas said the quiet part out loud — that they're not done.”
Just two days after the court's decision, abortion was already banned in nine states and 12 more were expected to prohibit or severely restrict the procedure. Pride parades around the country coincided with continued protests against the Roe decision.
Hicks was part of a parade caravan that included state Sen. Scott Wiener, a gay man and longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community.
Wearing a rainbow shirt underneath a zip-up sweater, Wiener said in an interview that storm clouds are on the horizon. In addition to the Roe decision having “massive implications” for the LGBTQ community, Wiener said he's also witnessing growing hatred directed toward him and others. Attacks have even been felt at the local level. Earlier this month, a Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library was interrupted by members of an extremist group who shouted transphobic and homophobic slurs.
“We're living in a very scary time,” he said in an interview. “Pride is an opportunity for us to reconnect and to recommit to the fight.”
San Francisco, known as one of the world's most LGBTQ-friendly cities, started celebrating Pride back in 1970.