While diversity and inclusiveness are celebrated all year in San Francisco, the city goes all out in June for Pride Month with one of the largest Pride parades in North America and festivals, parties, and performances celebrating LGTBQ+ community and culture.

The 52nd annual SF Pride celebration and parade are back in person on June 25 and 26 this year. In addition, San Francisco will be home for two days to the largest display of the National Aids Memorial Quilt in over a decade. The memorial quilt will be displayed in Golden Gate Park for its 35th anniversary on June 11 and 12.

Here’s what’s happening in the City by the Bay during Pride Month.

ENCORE at The New Conservatory Theatre Center, through June 12: NCTC, San Francisco’s premier LGBTQ+ and Allied performing arts institution and progressive arts education conservatory, is wrapping up its 40th-anniversary celebration with Encore, a special cabaret featuring melodious performances of iconic numbers that have lit up its stage. Hit songs from blockbuster mega-musicals like Avenue Q, Dirty Little Showtunes, Head Over Heels and hidden gems from indie darlings make this the party of the season.

The Pink Triangle 2022, June 1-30: In a reclamation of the symbol once used to shame the gay community, San Francisco illuminates a massive pink triangle atop Twin Peaks each year during Pride Month. The Pink Triangle tradition began in 1996 and has served ever since as a reminder of both a painful past and a hopeful future. This year volunteers will fill the hillside with pink canvas streamers, creating a massive daytime triangle. At dusk, 2,700 LED nodes of pink lights illuminate the Pink Triangle, ensuring the symbol is visible 24 hours a day.

Castro Theatre Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary, June 3-22: Castro Theatre, the world-renowned entertainment and LGBTQ community landmark, will celebrate its 100th anniversary on June 22. To mark the occasion, the Nasser Family in partnership with Another Planet Entertainment is scheduling 11 days of film screenings from June 3 to 22, featuring iconic movies from each decade of the Castro’s history, including a “Happy Birthday” special event on June 22 with movies filmed in San Francisco.

Queer Arts Featured (Queer A.F.) Popup, June 3-Oct. 31: This new pop-up arts gallery, boutique and gathering space is opening in Harvey Milk’s historic former storefront, Castro Camera. Helmed by queer photographer Devlin Shand, his partner Fadi Salah and Erika Pappas, Queer A.F. aims to build on Milk’s legacy by celebrating disenfranchised, underrepresented and emerging local Queer artists across mediums and the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Located at 575 Castro St., the space will celebrate its grand opening on June 10. Queer A.F. will feature rotating monthly exhibitions and a permanent display of photos by Dan Nicoletta that show the store and neighborhood’s evolution through the decades. The pop-up aims to promote access and opportunity and reduce financial barriers by offering reduced commission rates and financial assistance to its artists. It will also host a diverse range of events centered around community connection and creation.

Ferry Building Marketplace, June 4-30: With the SF Pride Parade starting by the Embarcadero, the Ferry Building Marketplace is the perfect pit stop to sip, celebrate, and support the LGBTQ+ community this year. But don’t just limit the festivities to one weekend. The Ferry Building has plenty of special offerings and activities throughout June. On Saturday, June 4, the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market will be hosting a free cooking demo with famed fermentationist, author, and queer farmer Sandor Katz, promoting his new book Fermentation Journeys, at the Foodwise Classroom. The demo will be followed by a book signing at Book Passage.

All month, Humphry Slocombe will be scooping some of its best Pride flavours at the Ferry Building. Try the PRIDE Sundae made with two scoops of Harvey Milk & Honey Graham ice cream (or any flavor you want) with house-made pink marshmallow fluff and Fruit Loops. Other sweet treats offered throughout Pride Weekend include a lemon almond cookie with rainbow sprinkles from Acme Bread Company and Gott’s Roadside’s classic soft serve with rainbow sprinkles and blended frosé (offered all summer).

25th Anniversary National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF), June 9-23: This annual multidisciplinary festival is the largest queer arts festival in North America and is held throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. This year’s NQAF will feature in-person and virtual events under the theme “Our Destiny,” honoring the work of artists in the present and all the abundant possibilities for the community in the future. The National Queer Arts Festival centers Queer, Trans, Gender Nonconforming, Intersex, Two-spirit, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTI2SBIPOC artists) and honors their work. The Queer Cultural Center commissions over twenty performances, visual arts exhibitions, and interdisciplinary showcases for the festival, supporting hundreds of artists and production crews. Many artists find their start at the festival.

18th Annual Queer Women of Colour Film Festival, June 10-12: Presented by Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), this free annual film festival will take place at the Presidio Theatre. The festival showcases new films that reflect the lives of queer women of color and address social justice issues that concern multiple communities. Screening at the festival will be films created through QWOCMAP’s programs and those by independent filmmakers from around the world.

35th Anniversary National Aids Memorial Quilt Display, June 11-12: The 35th-anniversary display of the memorial quilt in Golden Gate Park will be the largest display of the quilt in over a decade and the largest-ever memorial quilt display in San Francisco history. The first panels in the AIDS Memorial Quilt were created in 1987 in San Francisco, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, to remember the names and lives of loved ones that friends and family feared history would forget. Today, the memorial quilt is a national treasure and the largest community arts project in the world.

Visitors to the memorial quilt display will see hundreds of new, never-before publicly displayed panels, many honouring Black lives lost to AIDS in recent years, a reminder that the AIDS pandemic is not over, particularly in communities of color. Nearly 3,000 panels will be brought to Golden Gate Park for the historic event. Free to the public, the event will bring the community together outdoors for a celebration of life and a reflection of hope, healing, and remembrance.

Frameline46: The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, June 16-26: Frameline, the world’s longest-running and largest showcase of queer cinema, will present Frameline46 with the theme of “The Coast is Queer.” Frameline46 will expand its footprint with screenings taking place in person at a record number of theaters and venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater, SFMOMA and AMC Kabuki in San Francisco, and the New Parkway Theater and Landmark’s Piedmont Theatre in Oakland.

Highlights will include over 90 films representing more than 30 countries; Frameline Talks, a curated series of live panels and thought-provoking Q&As with filmmakers, celebrity guests, and community personalities; and Frameline Awards.

Rainbow Hotel Illumination and “Euphoria” Cocktail at The Ritz-Carlton, June 17-26: The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco is celebrating Pride and the Frameline Film Festival with a dramatic illumination of the hotel and a specialty cocktail. The hotel will be festively illuminated with Pride’s rainbow colors from June 17 – 26. And the Lounge will be offering a special “Euphoria” cocktail with proceeds benefitting the Frameline Film Festival. The specialty drink is made with Kettle One vodka; fresh-pressed raspberry and strawberry; fresh-squeezed lemon juice; and limoncello.

Pride Night at The Opera, June 18: In honour of San Francisco’s Pride Month, the June 18 performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni will include a Pride Night at the Opera after-party. All ticket holders to the performance are invited to attend this celebration of San Francisco’s diverse LGBTQ+ community on the Dress Circle level of the Opera House for drinks, dancing and jubilation. Visit sfopera.com.

San Francisco Pride, June 25-26: SF Pride will return to an in-person celebration for the 52nd annual San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration and Parade (Pride 52) June 25 and 26.

With the theme of “Love Will Keep Us Together,” this year’s festivities include a two-day celebration and rally at Civic Center Plaza and the surrounding neighbourhood. The legendary Parade will take place on June 26 in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Featuring over 200 parade contingents and exhibitors, and more than 20 community-run stages and venues, Pride 52 remains the largest gathering of LGTBQ+ community and allies in the US.

The 2022 Community stages will include Urban Global Village Stage, produced by Christiana Remmington; API LGBT Stage, produced by Nicki Calma and SF Community Health Center; Homo Hip-Hip, produced by Ronnie and Erika Jones; Latin Stage, produced by Jamie Awad; Sober Drag Show, produced by Castro Country Club; Soul of Pride, produced by Lisa Williams; Trans Stage, produced by Maniac Films; and Women’s Stage, produced by Christie James and Jolene Linsangan.

For more information, visit sfpride.org.

News

• San Francisco was ranked the Most Accepting LGBTQ+ City in the US and fourth in the world by Money.co.uk. The index ranking was based on the LGBTQ+ acceptance level, the number of dedicated LGBTQ+ bars and clubs per 100,000 people and the average rankings of them. San Francisco scored 8.21/10 for acceptance overall and has 1.6 dedicated LGTBTQ+ bars and clubs per 100,000 people with an average TripAdvisor ranking of 4.2. Only Reykjavik, Iceland and Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands scored higher in the index, and no other US city made the top 10.

• The Leather & LGTBQ Cultural District in the South of Market neighbourhood celebrated its fourth anniversary in May. It joined San Francisco’s other Cultural Districts in 2018 after being approved by the City’s Board of Supervisors and Mayor. The Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District seeks to honour and commemorate the people, places and institutions that gave SOMA its distinctive culture and appeal. It also aims to protect the remaining businesses and spaces and sustain the people who live, work, and play there.

• “Over the Rainbow in the Castro” is a new self-guided audio tour from the San Francisco Chronicle. This stroll through San Francisco’s preeminent gaybourhood is reported and narrated by Chronicle arts & culture writer Tony Bravo. From the plate-glass windows that made history to the queer icons engraved in the sidewalk, Bravo guides users through the Castro’s story and its streets, spilling tea on local secrets and celebrating the spirit of defiance that still endures today. The GPS-based audio walking tour is hosted on the VoiceMap app.

• The Rainbow Honour Walk will honour 24 more history-making LGBTQ pioneers with sidewalk tributes in the Castro District. The diverse group includes Phyllis Lyon, the world-renowned San Francisco-based activist for lesbian rights and visibility, and Gilbert Baker, the American artist, gay rights activist and designer of the rainbow flag, the worldwide symbol of LGTBQ pride. To date, there are 44 sidewalk tributes honoring LGBTQ individuals who have made a significant difference to society in California, the US or elsewhere around the world.