About This Project
When the Stonewall Inn, a licensed gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, was raided by police in 1969, riots ensued, marking a turning point for the modern gay liberation movement. These events were commemorated the following year by a march that drew national attention and ushered in a new tradition of annual Pride marches all over the country. San Diego’s first Pride event was held in 1974 by a community group that had established a Center for Social Services in San Diego’s Golden Hill neighborhood. The event included an informal march to the city’s cultural epicenter, Balboa Park, and back. The following year, a permitted march of around 400 people marked the beginning of an annual Pride parade that has taken place every year, without fail, in the beautiful city of San Diego. This site documents and celebrates an annual tradition that now, more than ever, must be shared. OUT on the Left Coast seeks to communicate what it means and how it feels to not conform to mainstream society’s prescribed notions of sexuality and gender identity, and use these experiences to build a greater understanding of how California has come to be distinguished by its unique reputation for diversity and inclusion.
Project Personnel
Anna Culbertson, Co-Director, Website Editor, Assistant Head of Special Collections, SDSU
Lisa Lamont, Co-Director, Digital Projects Librarian, SDSU
Lynn Hawkes, Grant Administration and PR, Special Projects & External Affairs Officer, SDSU
Angela Risi, Website Text and Research, SDSU
Arel Lucas, Metadata Specialist, SDSU
Jen LaBarbera, Advisor and Research Liaison, Head Archivist, Lambda Archives of San Diego
Humanities Advisors: Dr. Walter Penrose, History, SDSU; Dr. Mathew Kuefler, History, SDSU; Pamela Jackson, Popular Culture Librarian, SDSU
The team also wishes to thank the following individuals, whose contributions and support have been invaluable: Maureen Steiner, Charles Kaminski, Joel Steward, Walter Meyer, Ken Selnick, Nicole Verdes, Alexis Herbias, Keven Jeffery, Jessica Savalla, Christopher Lujan, Kim Ruff, Fernando Peña, Kayla Ohira, Kelly Young, Armando Banuelos, Shannon Doherty, Stephanie Pech, and Cur’Shauna Wyatt.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.
A Note About the Site
We’ve put our best efforts into an accurate telling of the story of San Diego Pride based on archival research and the oral histories of early participants. Yet, it is always possible we have misrepresented events as they actually occurred or the identity of individuals, including gender identity. We welcome concerns or corrections at: digital@mail.sdsu.edu
If you’re browsing Lambda photographs in our Digital Library, you may also comment via the red “FEEDBACK” button under each image.
Have San Diego Pride images that would help tell the story? Please consider donating your memorabilia to Lambda Archives and we’ll work out the rest. We’d love to add them to our digital library!