Bay Area/ San Francisco/ Arts & Culture
Published on July 03, 2013
SF Pride Round Up: Crime Down Despite Ugly Festival Incident Plus Dyke March, Pink Sat. & Parade PixHUGE Bradley Manning Contingent
1500 strong Bradley Manning pride contingent. Photo: Jeff Paterson:Bradley Manning Support Network
1500 strong Bradley Manning pride contingent. Photo: Jeff Paterson:Bradley Manning Support Network
2013 SF Pride Week End is in the history books denoting impressive society changes thanks to the US Supreme Court dismantling Prop 8 and the pulling the fangs out of DOMA. This was one of the largest and most well attended Prides and the Castro saw hundreds of thousands of visitors from Wednesdays Day of Decision celebration right through till the end of Sunday's LGBT Pride Parade and Festival. Crime and problems were down in general aside from a few incidents and an ugly random double shooting Sunday as the event ended of two festival vendors leaving both men wounded and bound for General Hospital and the shooter still on the loose. Following Friday's successful and well attended Trans March from Dolores Park the Dyke March also packed them in on Saturday with massive crowds, hundreds of Dykes on Bikes and everyone feeling reveling in the joy permeating the air. Even though temps topped 85 degrees celebrants didn't slow down. This March's 2013 DYKEMITTEE did an excellent job organizing, getting entertainment and keeping the event on time. This group of women volunteers accomplished a whole lot with a next to nothing, shoestring budget. Pink Saturday followed directly after starting at 5PM and greeted the Dyke March when they joined up in the Castro around 7PM. The crowd swelled and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence estimated by the end of day approximately 150,000 people had passed through the gates into the Castro to celebrate the annual event. Things were in general pretty peaceful at Pink Saturday. A double assault was reported at Church and Market between two couples as the night ended and a very drunk individual tried to drive their car up into the Duboce/Church MUNI tunnel. Other than that SFPD and Castro Community on Patrol deemed it a tame event by all accounts. Sunday's parade started on time despite all the controversy surrounding its pick/un-pick of embattled Wikileaker PFC Bradley Manning as Hon. Grand Marshall. Over 1.5 million celebrated Pride this year many getting married at City Hall during the festival and parade. The second largest contingent at the parade was composed of Bradley Manning supporters who numbered nearly 1500 strong. Only Google had more participants with nearly 2000 marchers. The two-day Pride Festival at Civic Center was crammed to the breaking point the entire week-end. As things wound down on Sunday an unknown gunman shot randomly into the crowd near Larkin and Grove wounding two male vendors identified only by their first names of Erik and Trevor. Both were transported to SF General where both were treated for non-life threatening gunshot wounds. One of the men was kept over night as he suffered a broken femur as a result of being shot. Pride Committee was criticized as neither President Lisa Williams or CEO Earl Plante made an appearance or placed a phone call to the two injured men despite other key Pride figures going to the hospital to visit like Audrey Joseph from the Entertainment Commission who ran Pride's main stage. Pride did issue a statement sharing their concern and support for the victims and calling for people to step forward with any info on the shooter. Swirl Radio, LGBT  entertainment and news programing radio, has started a fund to help both men recover and off-set time lost from work due to the shooting. Any amount you can spare will help as both have a long road to recovery.