June almost feels like Pride Month did 20 or 30 years ago, before social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people was as widespread as it later became, and San Francisco was a genuine oasis in an otherwise hostile country.
It wasn’t so long ago that Pride Weekend meant a positive ruling from the Supreme Court—overturning California’s Proposition 8, say, or enacting marriage equality nationwide. This year, though, the mood is decidedly different. Conservative-controlled state legislatures are banning drag and criminalizing transgender health care, and the world’s richest man personally promotes conspiracy theories and hatred for queer and trans people on the social media site he owns.
The Standard headed out to the Castro this week to speak with a number of LGBTQ+ people about their thoughts on Pride 2023: drag performers, famous local comics, longtime queer advocates, visitors from afar and a few ordinary queer folks. This is what they had to say.