Every time we have a Pride celebration other than San Diego LGBT Pride, someone always starts asking, “Why do we need so many Prides? Why can’t we just have one big Pride for everyone?”

It’s a valid question, and typically the answer is that events such as Ebony Pride, Latin Pride and the Dyke March and Festival are opportunities for groups that are often overlooked in the larger GLBT community to come together to celebrate their unique cultural identity, share resources and expose visitors to a different culture. It’s a laudable goal, and it makes sense.

And yet, is that what we’re actually accomplishing, or are we splintering any sense of unity and power by holding so many Prides? There’s no escaping the fact that having so many Prides to choose from means that almost no one sponsors or gets involved with all of them – or even more than one or two – leaving the smaller Prides scrambling for funding and participants. Making an event of any size happen can be an exhausting, time-consuming task, and all too often the smaller Prides are pulled together on a shoestring budget by a small group of dedicated, overworked people who may not even have the benefit of prior experience to make the many details a little easier to handle. Vendors lose money and don’t want to participate the next year, while organizers get burnt out. And to top it all off, frankly it’s embarrassing when you throw a party and no one (or hardly anyone, at any rate) bothers to show up.

And while we’re on the subject of attendance, how many times have you heard someone say, “Why bother going? None of my friends will be there.” There are too many people out there who don’t attend “their Pride” because they don’t feel it represents them accurately, they think it’s too separatist, they’re “Prided out” or they’ve decided it’s just too small to bother with.

This year Latin Pride attracted about 2,000 people, the Dyke March and Festival a few hundred, and Ebony Pride, by some accounts, only a hundred or so. San Diego LGBT Pride pulled in 150,000, many of them from out-of-town. Even if you figure that African-Americans made up only one percent of that crowd and Latinos 38 percent, that still means 1,500 African-Americans and 57,000 Latinos – a great deal more than showed up for Latino Pride or Ebony Pride. And what happened at the Dyke March and Festival? Women make up 54 percent of the population – even if only five percent of those are LBT, surely there are more than a few hundred in all of San Diego. Something about these events is not convincing their target audiences.

Imagine the possibilities if 150,000 people showed up for every Pride, whether or not it reflected their own cultural background. Wasn’t that supposed to be the point in the first place — everyone coming together to celebrate our diversity and learn about and enjoy the richness and interest of our differences? The point is not simply to hold a Pride festival and pat yourself on the back for pulling it off; the point is to have as many people as possible take part in it.

We could do it, and it wouldn’t be that difficult. We could continue to hold every Pride celebration we do currently, and even add more, while still drawing huge crowds. All it would take is holding all of them at the same time and in the same place. It would be the best of both worlds – every group represented in the way they choose, while still being exposed to a far larger audience.

This is not to suggest that San Diego Pride should take over. Each Pride could still remain a separate entity – each maintaining their independence and responsibility for their own designated area at the festival. Put Ebony Pride in one area, Latin Pride in another and Dyke Pride in another. Have the Dyke March from Hillcrest to the park on the second day of the festival. Whatever. The point is that everyone has their own “safe space” while remaining available to the wider community. Surely everyone could work together, benefiting from the collective experience of the others as well as the far greater financial clout of a cooperative. After all, if each Pride group can’t learn to get along with the others, they’re not likely to make much progress in the wider community.

No one should lose their cultural identity simply because they’ve learned to cooperate with others for the greater good. If they do, they have bigger problems to worry about.

No matter how you feel about the current state of politics in California, get thee to the polls and vote. Your vote is your own, of course, but since we like to make these things (if nothing else) as easy for you as possible, here’s some voting guidance:

Recall Gov. Gray Davis?: NO

Cruz Bustamante?: YES

Prop. 54?: NO

Prop. 53?: NO