>> all right. it is pride month in san francisco. good morning, mayor. >> here we go.

[applause.] >> welcome to san francisco. everybody is welcome. happy tried everybody. ever happy pride everyone. >> thank you for joining us to quick off pride month 2019. my name is clair farley, senior adviser for mayor breed and director of the office of transinitiatives. i am so honored to be the mistress of ceremonies. there will be cocktails later. i know it is early. you know, i think that today we ask to really honor those whose

stories often don't make the headlines, those brave folks in the community who do the work every day. we are excited to honor those folks today. i hope you join us in celebrating them. pride started as a riot. knowing the history can only give us hope and remind us of our strength and power for change. even when the federal administration attempts to strip away our rights, we know that san francisco will fight back. in san francisco we will never give up from the streets to city hall. from harvey milk to the trans women of color. today our community has achieved so much. we have made incredible strides thanks to the generations every assistance before us. this work would not be possible

with all of you and without our allies and leadership here in city hall who have joined us on the front lines for lbgt equality. it is my honor to welcome our mayor, mayor london breed. [cheers and applause.] >> mayor breed: thank you to everyontoeveryone who is joinin. no one celebrated pride like the city and county of san francisco. celebrate we must to make sure that our voices are heard and the federal government knows that no matter who you are and who you love, we will not be erased, not in america, not in san francisco, not today. i want to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of the leadership we have in san francisco, people who are making

a difference. thank you so much to our state senator scott weiner for being here, who you will hear from shortly. as well as our treasure who is with us today. your fierce supervisor rafael mandelman. community college board member alex randolph. and supervisor safai and another member of the community college board, tom. and thank you supervisor matt haney for joining us as well. i want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the first lbgt fire chief jeanine nicholson. and thank you supervisor walton

for being here as well. and our police department, our chief is here, bill scott. i am so excited. have you guys seen the new flag, new vehicles of the san francisco police department? amazing. thank you, chief so much. there is a freedom band that you will be the official band of the city and county of san francisco, lgbt freed domband. you will hear from them shortly. no one celebrates pride like san francisco. thank you for joining us to raise the flag in our city. i know there are challenges throughout the bay area of raising this flag. in san francisco it is not a question. it is an important part of what makes our city so special. i want to thank all of you every year for coming for the flag raising. i want to acknowledge the man

behind making the celebration great, commissioner tom horn, thank you so much for your amazing support for this event. i want to say a special acknowledgment and for the parade which i cannot wait to participate in. it is a lot of hard work. we all have fun and a good time. i know that you and the committee work hard to make sure it looks effortless. thank you so much for being here today. [applause.] along with celebrating pride this month, it also is a time to reflect on our lgbt community's long history of activism and resilience from the aids which

ravaged our city to the war against the transcommunity that is playing out throughout this country. since san francisco's first pride parade in 1970, we have overcome so many challenges thanks to the courage of the amazing community leaders who stood up. today san francisco is a beacon of hope for the lbgt community. this year's pride parade theme generations every assistance, just as generations have resisted before we in san francisco will continue to resist. despite the federal government's continued attacks on the lbgt community we will not back down until we achieve full equality. we will stand with our transgender people who continue to bravely serve our country,

and in san francisco our businesses, hour healthcare services, our work force and housing will always be open to all. in san francisco, we are expanding gender identity options on all city forms and applications that ask for demographic information, and we are including education on our lgbt identities for city employees as part of harassment prevention and implicit bias training. last week i was proud to announce a new $3 million investment in our budget for transand lbg in san francisco. it includes $2 million for flexible housing to keep our transcommunity housed. we know that transgender people

are 18 times more likely to not be able to have housing and to be homeless in san francisco. we are going to make the investment to support the lbgt youth by providing them with housing, employment and case management services. i want to thank all members of the board of supervisors and others who advocate for this much needed investment. [applause.] we will be funding training and internship programs for transjob seekers and community members exiting the criminal justice system. we are committed to continuing to backfill the federal h.i.v. as getting to zero in the effort that state senator scott weiner fought for and now supervisor mandelman continues to fight for on the board now. this will help with efforts like the win senator wiener is doing

to increase access for everyone in california. thank you, senator wiener. [applause.] together we can make sure that no one is left behind, and this city doesn't just celebrate our lbgt community, we make investments and put deeds behind those words which is why we are the best city in the world, and what is so amazing so many of you play such a critical role in that success. i want to take this opportunity before i acknowledge the work of two incredible individuals here today. i can't move on with this program without acknowledging donna sachet for being here today. [applause.] she and charlotte shuttl shultze

only two that dress better than me. thank you for all you do to make us look and feel good. i forgot you were there. vicky, thank you so much. [applause.] so i have two awards to give. first of all, i want to ask george to come up to accept this on behalf of sf pride. as i said, i know that it looks like it is easy, but it is not easy because we know the stress in getting permits anchorednating with city departments and getting everyone to follow the rules and stay where they are to stay and not lag behind in the parades, festivities, events, programs,

the fund-raising. i didn't mention the fact they have to fundraise to pay for these incredible activities that make san francisco look good to the rest of the world. thousands of people come from all over to celebrate pride in san francisco. june is a fun and energetic and incredible month for us. because of sf pride and this committee, the work they do means so much to our city. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i would like to declare which day am i declaring? [laughing.] today june 3rd as sf pride day in the city and county of san francisco. thank you so much. [cheers and applause.] i have one more special award.

i also get the honor of presenting the annual teddy worthington award to a legendary film maker and writer. this award recognizes individuals who have contributed a longstanding large body of work in the lbgt community. sharcheryl is a central part ofe queer new way of young film makers. watermelon woman has won critical acclaim. her project was one of the top must see film innist films. today she is continuing the body of work with award-winning sear rears. -- series. she will give me the ending.

it is amazing. it is my honor to also declare today as cheryl d un yee day for your amazing contribution and the work you have done to not only advocate for the lgbt community but the work you have done to shine a light on people of color who are often times disenfranchised to tell our stories and how we should be represented in film. it is beautiful to watch and see and those people love you out there just as much as we do. cheryl, come on up. [cheers and applause.]

first of all, congratulations to all of the grand marshalls for this year's pride parade. can you all please stand or wave your hand so we can see you. thank you. and last but not least, cheryl, do you want to say a few words? say "hello" to the folks. >> hi everyone i am proud to be the grand marshall awarded with the award. i have been working for so long to bring the margins to the center. i have been working really long to make what is invisible visible. in this day of independent media

and television and the browning and blacking of images, i am making the invisible and visible invincible and thank you. >> thank you so much. with that, i will turn it back over, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the city, enjoy pride month in the city. let's have an amazing time. make sure you don't forget to go to our restaurants and spend all of your money, too. thank you so much. >> thank you, mayor breed. now it is my honor to introduce you to someone who has done so much work in san francisco and now leading the way across california. our state senator scott weiner. [cheers and applause.] >> thank you, and i want to thank the mayor for being an

extraordinary ally to our community. thank you, mayor breed, for everything you do. this city is in amazing hands under your leadership. thank you. this is my 23rd san francisco pride. my 29th overall pride since i came out as a gay man a long, long time ago. time flies. i am optimistic for our community in many ways. this community that been through so much in terms of the hate crimes and the worst of the hiv aids crisis and housing crisis and all of the other weighs in which our community that struggled over the years in san francisco and elsewhere. we are so resilient and the community comes back and comes back and gets stronger and stronger. i am so proud to be part of our lbgt community, particularly in san francisco.

that doesn't mean we don't center challenges. i think pride is the right time of the year for us to recommit to celebrate and recommit to the fight. of course, we know what this guy is doing in washington, d.c. in the white house to undermine and harm our community including our children, attacking children. it is something that it is hard to fathom that you have a president of the united states who would attack lbgt children. apart from what he is doing and we are fighting back hard to make sure california goes in the other direction, we have our own challenges here as an lbgt community in san francisco and california. we are continuing to criminalize the lbgt community. we are continuing to see obscene rates of homelessness in our community, particularly our

youth and 40% of homeless youth are lgbt. we continue to not be supportive enough of our transgender community in terms of what our transkids have to experience in terms of what trans-people experience in the criminal justice system or in the lack of employment or access to healthcare right here in california. we are not doing enough to support our lbgt seniors. too many are going to the closet when they enter long-term care. we have challenges. the good thing is in san francisco we are leading the way in confronting those challenges, whether it is the great work in the jails to treat lbgt inmates with the dignity they deserve or the groundbreaking work we have done with seniors and homeless

youth. we are taking that statewide. this shouldn't depends on where you live. i want to close. in terms of h.i.v., there is a narrative we have defeated h.i.v. we haven't. we have so much more work to do in california. we have dunk am -- done amazing work to reduce infection rates. we need to end h.i.v. let's recommit and have an amazing month. this community deserves it. thank you. [applause.] >> thank you so much. next we have our champion here on the board of supervisors, the only out gay member of the board of supervisors big responsibility, and he is doing

it with charm and grace. please welcome rafael mandelman, our supervisor. [applause.] >> thank you, for all of the amazing work that you do. every time we get the queers and friends together, this is a beautiful and wonderful group. happy tried 2019 everybody -- happy pride 2019 ever body. thank you for bringing us here today, mayor. you have been a champion. senator wean you wiener it is go have you back and thank you for your leadership. this is a very big pride. folks know i it is the 49th anniversary of our san francisco

pride parade but 50th anniversary of stone wall. [cheers and applause.] >> now in san francisco we know the modern civil rights movement began in 1966 with the compton cafeteria riots, but i think we can still acknowledge that stone wall is a big deal. now, madam mayor, we both grew up in san francisco. you and i both know so many communities are under stress in san francisco with our overheated real estate market and displacement across the city. on friday you brought us out to the sunnydale housing project to focus energy and attention and light on a community that for far too long our city has shamefully ignored. at that event you announced your

budget, which is your statement of values. i want to thank you for your commitment around the housing needses all of our communities in the city and particularly the lbgq community. we talked about the extraordinary $3 million investment for the first time in transcommunity housing needs. that is a big, big deal. i want to point out and celebrate the 79 new units opening at open house this summer right now. [applause.] i know many folks in this room worked on that adding to 40 units opened two years ago. it is partially due to the work of this mayor when she was on the board of supervisors that there are queer people going in those units. thank you for that and all of your work to ensure our

generations every assistance will be able to age and remain in san francisco. i know we are just getting started. those open house units are the first. i am excited. with that we have such a fantastic group of community grand marshalls that i have the honor to introduce to you today. i will start with api equality northern california. [applause.] >> where are you? very good. api equality northern california builds queer and transgender fire to trans form the community livelihoods from scarcity to abundance through their movement building they envision a world where all queer islanders can be affirmed in bodies and communities as their full

authentic selfs. api equality northern california. one more round of applause for them. [applause.] >> for our extremely queer district two catherine stephanie who has joined us. [applause.] >> our second amazing community grangrand marshall is ms. billy cooper. she is a 60-year-old who has worked for years in h.i.v. positive community engagement. she has traveled and spoken for both communities. she is a 30 plus year survivor living with h.i.v. who works with her recovery family because she has been clean and sober for 15 years. ms. billy cooper.

[applause.] >> vince. he is a gay pacific islander, aid aids survivor who has dedicated more than 30 years to aids activism and he currently runs the program for long-term survivors at the aids foundation and co-chairs the aging work group of the long-term care council. he was executive director of regional networks and founded the pacific island aids action group and served as united nations delegate. (applause). is vera here? she is amazing.

she has been encouraging people to experiment by attending public events. by creating costumes utilizing recycled materials they help discover unique visions in free workshops. they have marched in the san francisco pride parade since 1995. entertaining the ftca and bookmobile. vera sphere. [applause.] >> last, but not least by any means, ms. donna persona. the open house video with donna is absolutely amazing. donna is an activist for transgender rights. she served on the boards of

trans-march and day of remembrance and on the main streets after the compton's coms cafeteria. she raised the first transgender flag at city hall with mayor breed. the play recreates the transgender history and including sf weeklys best of 2018, donna persona. [cheers and applause.] >> this is such a great group of grand marshalls for 2019. i am excited to watch you celebrate this month and be honored. with that happy pride again. [applause.] >> thank you so much. you are doing such amazing work. it is my honor to bring up our last speaker.

the executive director of sf pride has done amazing work with pride. we are sad that he will be leaving pride this year. he has done so much amazing work. please join me in welcoming george and thanking him for his incredible service. [applause.] >> thank you, clair, mayor breed, supervisor mandelman. i have many of our team joining us. as mayor breed mentioned, there is a lot of work to do to put this event on. these are just some of the people that help make it work. i would introduce you buy name but i only have three minutes to do my talking points. i have more board members. we have board members and staff here today. we are excited to be here to

kickoff pride month with all of you. we are really grateful for the excellent relationship that we have with the city and many of the agencies that we have to work with to pull this event off. it is true i am leaving after this year's event. i will be working with rec and park. i intend to volunteer for pride when i can and do as much work for the city as i can. the global pride movement has proven to be an effective and enduring agent for change. it is the modern movement san francisco has been the leader in the space as supervisor mandelman mentioned we had o our own rising. this is part of a trilogy, generations every assistance. last year was generations of

strength. as we were putting together the plan we fixated on the word generations and that that meant and the generations of people whose shoulders we stand on and who came before us to make it what it is today. next year our theme is generations of hope. you can see how that plays out to the 50th anniversary. every year we celebrate individuals and organizations, local heroes who have done so much to give back and build the lbgq community. in addition to the grand marshalls that supervisor mandelman pointed out we have award des here. i want to acknowledge them. china silk.

is china here? she is one of our award des, she is a san francisco native and member of the imperial court. she had grand dutches 27 and empress 39. she is a prolific fundraiser and fierce community advocated. is sampson mccormick here? he is an award-winning entertainer, one of the most celebrated voices in comedy for two decades. he is hilarious. he has headlines such venues as the historic howard theater, kennedy center, san francisco punchline, harvard unit and the first lbgq comic to perform at

the smithsonian. i am not sure if there is a representative from lion martin. they set standards for community-based health service, and the organization is named after phyllis lion and del martin. it was founded in 1979 as a volunteer clinic providing healthcare to women, lesbians and in a safe and compassionate environment. another award de would be nia collective. they are in the house. they received this year's 10 years of service award. for more than 30 years they have been providing a safe space for lesbians of african descent to

teach and learn without judgment. they share information through annual gatherings and partnerships with other community organizations. nia collective. [applause.] >> i don't believe he is here today, but our board selected bob haas for the freedom award. he helped to establish levy as a corporate -- levi by establishing support groups and sponsoring volunteer activities. they have provided 7 $70 million to hiv/aids non-profits around the board. they were the first fortune 500 companies to offer benefits to same-sex couples.

[applause.] i believe that ken henderson is here from the aid foundation. they are the recipient of the pride community award this year. it is an organization dedicated to raising funds for aids, hunger programs and programs for home less youth in the bay area. through the production of quality entertainment programs. founded by two mothers who lost their only sons to aids, we honor their son's memories and helps alleviateiate suffering of other sons and daughters living with hiv/aids. finally, crystal veronica. crystal is another of our award des, a proud queer photographer

and recipient of the pride creative award. her work is stunning and beautiful. her photography focuses on persons of color and documents folks documenting decisions about love and not compromising values for societal standards. crystal veronica. [applause.] >> i also want to acknowledge teddy witherington, pride's first executive director. he is here with us today. thank you for being here. >> having walked in your path and sat in your chair i have immense respect for you. throughout this movement we are called upon to show strength and

resistance and hope. it is an honor to celebrate these individuals and organizations. they have risen to the calls and met the challenges head on. as your march down market street we will be joined by someone attending the very first pride. how cool is it they get to do that in san francisco? (applause). our city is an emblem of strength and beacon of home for lbgq people around the world. in a couple weeks we will have 280 contingents marching down market street and hundreds of thousands on civic center, 20 stages planned. people are working tirelessly around the clock to make this event successful and safe.

thanks to the mayor and city for all of the support we get. i am standing up here today with our new board president, jack lane bishop. [applause.] as well as many board members. caroline wisingger is one of our board members. i would like to introduce her to you. >> i want to thank everyone for coming out. i wrote some great remarks for this event. last night i found out a couple of young comrades were victims of hate crimes at the end of the democratic convention the other day. it reminded me about those two words in our theme. generations every assistance. i work with high school students. what is the importance of the pride flag? i am one of those folk that go

to different municipalities to fight to raise the flag. it reminds me when we fight as municipality we resist policies and institutions. our young people are learning how to resist. we have to remember the history of our resistance. it is 50 years of stone wall and it will 89th birthday of supervisor milk. we have to continue resisting. remember those still affected by violence from the community. we have to continue to protect them. thank you may or breed and the city of san francisco for continuing this tradition. i urge you to go to the communities outside of san francisco. they need your voices so they can have something like this in their city. thank you very much. [applause.]

>> what an you event. thank you to the pride team and board. thank you all. as we close, i just want to thank the bob ross foundation for the generous support to make this event happen. [applause.] and i want to thank the amazing team behind-the-scenes that work tirelessly in protocol, anthony and the team. my team at the office of transinitiatives. thank you. i would like to take a moment to recognize all of the department heads and allies who came out today and city employees. if you could raise your hands if you are with us. thank you. [applause.] all of the folks who receive support from the city. those folks here with lbg programs that work tirelessly.

let's recognize them. [applause.] this work doesn't end here. we know mayor breed and myself and all of the electives up here and all of you will continue to do the work. we have to continue to love each other, support each other, not just in june, 360, every day of the year. it is my honor to introduce san francisco official band the gay and lesbian freedom band. please enjoy cocktails and have a great day. thank you. [applause.] ♪ ♪

i pledge allegiance to the flagt ates of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. . >> roll call. (roll call)