“Girl, you know Pride’s a week early this year, don‘t you?”

That was my shocked response to a friend recently when he called to tell me he wouldn’t be making his annual southern migration for San Diego Pride.

I mean, this queen hasn‘t missed a San Diego Pride in more than a decade.

But, thankfully, it was all just a scheduling mix up. My friend, “Miss Jackie Daniels” à la San Francisco, hadn’t a clue San Diego Pride weekend is on July 21-22 – a week earlier than usual.

Yes, that’s right. Pride’s a week earlier than usual this year. Spread the word.

While I’ll be entertaining my annual houseguest Pride weekend after all, the scare got me thinking: If Miss Daniels is in the dark, just how many of my gay brothers and sisters don’t know about the schedule change either?

Anxiously, I remembered how a Gay & Lesbian Times staffer had gasped, “What? Pride’s a week earlier this year?” when I sent him the monthly editorial calendar. Then, there was that call I’d received from a local boy amazed to find that Pride is not falling on its regularly scheduled weekend.

“I am über involved in the men’s community,” he said. “If I didn’t know about the change, what about the average Joe Blow?”

While I doubt there will be a shortage of Joe Blows in attendance, remembering these incidents raised my anxiety to panic. I mean, what if all the hot boys show up on the wrong weekend? What if the Zoo Party doesn’t sell out this year? What if the L.A. trade doesn’t make it down?

Breathing into a bag, I finally remembered: I am the editor of the GLT. I can write an editorial! (In fact, I have to write an editorial anyway and, since I don’t have a better idea this week, I can help get the word out!)

So, for those of you who don’t already know, here’s the skinny: Pride is a week earlier this year!

Here’s why: Comic-Con, the annual celebration of everything comics, fell on the last weekend of July this year, and having two colossal events that same weekend just isn’t practical. Comic-Con sucks up approximately 80 percent of San Diego’s hotel capacity, driving up prices, increasing traffic and taxing city resources.

Since Comic-Con will probably fall on the last week in July every year now, it means all of us will have to readjust our lunar calendar. After all, for many of us Pride is the only thing that keeps us going the other 51 weeks out of the year.

The Pride office has been doing everything but knocking on doors to get the word out, including ad campaigns, circulating postcards, notifying host hotels – you name it. Let’s give them a hand and help spread the word.

So mark your calendars and start those squats and lunges. I mean, who wants to be caught a week behind on, well, the behind before Pride?