The large crowd attending the 30th anniversary Spirit of Stonewall rally held Friday, July 30, at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park was treated to a series of drag performances commemorating the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and today in addition to the annual awards ceremony, guest speakers and city and state proclamations.

Assemblymember Christine Kehoe, Mayor Dick Murphy, Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins’ Chief of Staff Jeff Gattas and Rep. Susan Davis’ District Director Todd Gloria, were present to issue proclamations and commend San Diego LGBT Pride for its 30th anniversary. City Commissioner Julia Legaspi, the first transgender ever appointed to San Diego public office, also attended, as did members of the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Board.

“What great strides we have made in 30 years; from barely being able to appear in public, we are now debating marriage equality from California to Massachusetts,” Kehoe said. “And yet what a long way we have to go – when justice for our people will no longer be a political football, but a respected principal of our nation. … We all can and we all must make our vote count this year. From our presidential election to our state and local elections, our civil rights are on the line. … We have to have a place at the table.”

In a nod to the generation of GLBT activists that preceded her, keynote speaker Nadine Smith, executive director for Equality Florida, said that the current political climate was something that was not even on the radar screen when Stonewall began 35 years ago.

“I love the fact that this is about the decades and decades and decades of work that have made San Diego Pride what it is and this movement since Stonewall 35 years ago what it is,” she said. “... I want to honor those people who did this work before I was born, before I knew who I was, not out of respect, but because they made this world safer for me to live in, and they did it when there was no guarantee that their efforts would accumulate to something tangible like we are looking at today.”

For example, Smith said she could not imagine, on a visceral, emotional level, what it would be like to be out in school. “When we talk about youth leadership, usually it’s talking about the future leaders and how isn’t it great that young people are doing this work,” she said. “It’s great that young people are doing this work, not because they are the future but because their expectations are so much higher than what I can even imagine. … It’s a wonderful thing, because the bar keeps getting raised.”

Smith noted that the current political climate allows for the GLBT community to advocate for progressive elected officials and simultaneously openly criticize them for supporting anything less than full marriage equality, but also warned that anti-GLBT legislation such as Florida’s anti-gay adoption laws demonize the GLBT community, propagating violence.

“How much easier is it to inflict violence on me if the government of my state says that I’m a threat to children,” she said, adding that unprecedented progress and backlash hang in the balance, and this election will be looked back on as the fight of a lifetime.

“For years and years, all we wanted was to be left alone,” Smith concluded. “That was enough. What is shifting is, that’s no longer the standard – to simply be left alone – we are requiring more. … But I want to know, when is that next moment [beyond Stonewall], when we will all claim we were there? … Let’s make this [Election Day] the next date that we celebrate the way we celebrate Stonewall.”

This year’s Pride grand marshal, Nicole Murray-Ramirez, gave an inspired speech that touched on the San Diego GLBT community’s progress since the first, unofficial Pride march in 1974, through the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the election of the San Diego’s first openly gay politicians, to the national battle against the Federal Marriage Amendment and for marriage equality.

“I come from a time over 30 years ago when both political parties rejected us and candidates ran from us,” Murray-Ramirez said. “We now live in a time that we have a growing Log Cabin Republican club and our GLBT San Diego Democratic Club is the biggest in the county and the newly elected chairman of the Democratic Party of San Diego County is an openly gay man, and his name is Jess Durfee. … America, we are a powerful constituency with pride, votes, volunteerism and values, and we are never, ever going back into the closets.”

Murray-Ramirez said the GLBT community is responsible in their fight for equality to build bridges between ethnicities, and acknowledged the work of Stepping Stone and the Alano Club, saying the GLBT community needs to stop sweeping drug and alcohol problems under the rug.

Accompanying Murray-Ramirez at the rally was his mother, who rode with him in the Pride parade the following morning, and his brother.

“America is at a crossroads; not since the civil war has this country been so divided,” Murray-Ramirez said. “… The most important day of your life is no longer your birthday, it is Election Day.”

The Center was presented with the one-time only Pearl of Pride award for excellence in community service. There to accept the award were The Center’s Executive Director Delores Jacobs, Director of Development Shawn Ingram and Board Chair Robert Gleason.

“As John Edwards spoke, he told us all ‘hope is on the way,’” Jacobs said in reference to the Democratic National Convention that concluded that evening. “As we spoke this week with the youth at the Hillcrest Youth Center and around the community and tried to explain what happened in Boston and what that was all about, they had a message that they wanted me to deliver tonight: They would ask that our community, on November 2, speed up hope.”

Al Best and Eduardo Moncada received the Lifetime Achievement Award for their civil rights work with issues like HIV/AIDS awareness, medical marijuana, immigration and inclusion. Pat Washington, president of the San Diego chapter of NOW, and Marci Bair, president of Family Matters, received Champion of Pride awards – Washington for her political activism and Bair for her dedication to GLBT parenting issues. Longtime civil rights activist Gracia Molina de Pick received the Friend of Pride award, as did Linda Bridges Pennington for her work to refurbish the Azalea Park neighborhood. Community Service awards went to Kevin Tilden for his work on numerous campaigns for GLBT politicians, and Amanda Watson for transgender activism.