This year, the event is spread out: across virtual and on-site platforms, and also over a ten-day period, with approximately forty individual events, López said. Pride is the largest single day event in the region, and - again, in a typical year - López said that only a third of the attendance is local. A 2018 study by San Diego State University's Center for Hospitality and Tourism clocked this figure at $26.5 million - more than double the impact from four years prior in 2014. Pride's July events and the resultant sales, tickets, hospitality and tourism in a typical year routinely result in a major economic impact for the area, said López.
I think folks are just ready to come back and connect," López said.
So we wanted to give folks as many options and opportunities as possible, for as much as possible, as long as possible and keep those events free and open to the public because we've all been through it this year. And with the Delta variant, that is super understandable. Some folks just aren't feeling safe and ready to come out yet. Some people aren't able to get vaccinated. Include some virtual components because some folks aren't yet vaccinated. "Rather than bring together a quarter million folks in one space, we said, okay, we're going to find venues all throughout the county. As the vaccines rolled out and Pride's July event date approached, the organization honed in on that middle ground. They considered a trio of potential budgets for various stages of lockdown, reopening or something in the middle. As we were also enduring the impacts of COVID-19, trying to foresee the future was nearly impossible," López said. "While we're trying to plan and prepare, we're also losing loved ones and friends and being severed from our employment and the places and people that we love. Plus, community-wide, there's a lot of grief.
The appellate court, in its ruling, found that there was “substantial evidence to support a finding that the sexual harassment experienced by the Firefighters during the Pride Parade was severe and pervasive, thus altering the conditions of employment and creating a hostile or abusive work environment.” The trial court had awarded damages to the firefighters and attorneys’ fees for the costs of the litigation, but Infranco emphasized that the lawsuit was not about money rather, the purpose of the litigation was to prevent other city employees from being compelled to be subjected to conduct which they find morally offensive.While the San Diego event industry has begun to barrel ahead full-steam, large-scale projects like Pride didn't really have enough time for the necessary advance planning. There was no indication whether the city would appeal. Limandri, West Coast Regional Director of the Thomas More Law Center and also an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, contended, “Government employees should never be forced to participate in events or acts that violate their sincerely-held beliefs.” The appellate court ruling, unless reversed on appeal, would be precedent for that legal position. Joseph Infranco, senior counsel for The Alliance Defense Fund, which supported the litigation by the firefighters, responded to the ruling: “We hope this ruling will end the city’s attempts to defend its act of compelling people to participate in sexually-charged events against their moral and personal convictions." He warned, “If not, we are prepared to defend the firefighters all the way to the California Supreme Court.” He noted that the sexually explicit nature of the conduct by some parade participants could not be repeated in polite company.Ĭharles S. Fire Captain John Ghiotti, a 28-year veteran, said that in the past he had been subjected to the emotional trauma of burned families, injured colleagues, and similar pressures, but “I’ve never been so stressed out before as in this incident.” Four San Diego firefighters won a court battle in the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District when the court upheld a jury verdict at the trial court level against the city compelling the firefighters to participate in San Diego’s 2007 Gay Pride Parade.Ĭity firefighters said that they had been subjected to obscene gestures, catcalls, and other offensive sexual conduct during the parade.