A few weeks ago, I wrote about how all of us at San Diego LGBT Pride are committed to adding new features and attractions to the annual Pride celebration. Achieving this goal is necessary to keep the Pride experience fresh for folks who’ve been attending the parade and festival for years. Successful festivals in the past have allowed San Diego Pride to give over $1 million back to the community since 1996. New features and attractions at our Pride events are key to our efforts to achieve attendance goals so that 2006 will be another successful year.

This week, I’d like to tell you about one of the new ideas we are implementing at the Pride festival. When the sun sets on the festival grounds on Saturday, July 29, we will be converting the Great Lawn Stage into San Diego’s premier LGBT movie theater – Cinema in the Park. In an effort to incorporate more artistic and cultural elements into Pride, we will show two award-winning films recounting stories of the LGBT experience.

The first film, Jim in Bold, looks at the difficulties of being a gay or lesbian teen in America today. Recounting the life of Jim Wheeler, the movie explores the way that institutionalized homophobia has permeated our public school systems and society in general.

Wheeler was a young gay student at Cedar Crest High School in Lebanon, Penn. Harassed and victimized by his classmates, Wheeler withdrew deeper into depression until he committed suicide. The film documents the warning signs that were found in Wheeler’s writings, paintings, pleas to friends and threats to his family.

But Jim in Bold also offers a hopeful message about the resilience of gay youth. The film shows the activities of Young Gay America founders Benjie Nycum and Mike Glatze. The Young Gay America project features a Web site where teens can come out anonymously in a supportive environment. Nycum and Glatze are also shown traveling the country interviewing gay teens. One of their stops is Wheeler’s hometown of Lebanon.

The second film, Gay Pioneers, is a terrific documentary about the first public demonstrations in the fight for LGBT rights. On the Fourth of July in 1965, a small group of 40 protestors assembled outside of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. They carried signs advocating the emancipation of LGBT America and denouncing homophobia. It was an important moment in the battle for our civil rights.

Similar demonstrations, each one larger than the last, were held annually in Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C. After the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the LGBT rights movement received a huge jolt of energy, and momentum picked up considerably. The 1970 congregation of gays and lesbians in New York’s Central Park attracted thousands of participants. This led to the first Pride parade, an annual tradition that would be emulated in cities all over the world.

Created by PBS’ noted documentarian Glenn Holsten, Gay Pioneers tracks the evolution of the movement we will be celebrating at San Diego’s Pride festivities in July. The story is told via archival footage from those early demonstrations, FBI investigative files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with LGBT pioneers. The film is an excellent testament to those who paved the way to a better future for all of us.

Both films were produced by Equality Forum, a national and international LGBT civil rights organization based in Philadelphia.

The movies are intended to be an entertaining and educational alternative to some of the other activities that will take place concurrently at the two-day Pride festival.

Both films are free with admission into the festival. What better way to cap off a day of watching the parade and visiting all of the informative booths at the festival than by relaxing on the grass with some popcorn and a couple of LGBT flicks?

Whether you choose to watch the film offerings, listen to the great bands performing on the other stages, enjoy some refreshments with friends in the beer gardens or party the night away at one of the festival T-dances, you are destined to have a good time at the festival.