It's Pride 2025!
Happy July! It’s Pride in San Diego, CA!
While the world feels immeasurably messed up, I still revel in Pride and all of its glory.
Here is some information about Pride and why people attend the festivities. LGBTQ+ Pride has different meanings. Summarized in the 2018 book, Pride Parades and LGBT Movements,” Peterson et al. (2018, p.218) point out that there are different reasons people attend Pride events including political protest, disruption of heterosexual norms, sexual partner finding, display identity, continue a tradition, meet friends, to have a feeling of belonging and community, and celebration.
For me, when I think about attending the festivities, I feel happier. I focus on more of the excitement that got me here, living life as a queer person with my wife and our daughter. I’m mostly out in my world. My parents know and love and support my little family as does my brother and his family. I’m out in my Jewish world too. I’m mostly out as a queer trans-intersex-female psychologist in my professional life too. My neighbors have kids who play with my kid and my kid is at an elementary school that has a Rainbow club. No one has deemed me unfit for my life and my identities or if they have, they are far from me and I haven’t heard about it. I am so freakin’ lucky. It’s not perfect by any means, but focusing on the good stuff feels, well, good and empowering. Instead of curling into a ball and hiding from the outside world, I want to shout out my joy and happiness.
It is in these moments that I love that Pride here in San Diego is in July.
For the rest of the country and much of the world, Pride was in June and as it is July, has already happened. It is over for another year. For those who love the feeling of being in a queer-dominated space, I wholeheartedly encourage them to come visit San Diego in July. Or, closer to home, to seek out LGBTQI+ centered-like activities. Maybe join a Queer sports team or check out a local LGBTQI+ organization for a game night.
In July, I love that San Diego keeps the Pride spirit going with all sorts of events. While this year I am boycotting the official festival and Pride parade due to safety issues for Jews, I will be attending other Pride related events.
One event I attended recently was about Black queer history and current experiences in San Diego at Whose World, Whose Home: Uncovering SD's Queer Black Futures and Histories
The event description was found through eventbright, Whose World, Whose Home: Uncovering SD's Queer Black Futures and Histories
“Lambda Archives, in collaboration with San Diego Black Pride, invites you to a culminating celebration of groundbreaking historical research that has been a year in the making. Join us on July 10th at 6:30 PM at Diversionary Theatre for this essential panel discussion exploring Black queer life in San Diego.
About the Project Lambda Archives Community Historian in Residence, Dr. TJ Tallie, has dedicated the past year to "'Whose World, Whose Home?': Black Queer Life in San Diego, 1988-2002" – an in-depth archival study examining how Black queer San Diegans navigated and articulated the rapidly changing city around them during the late 1980s and 1990s.
This meticulously researched project draws from the papers of Black gay and lesbian activists, community newspaper editorials, first-person accounts, and other archival collections. Influenced by Dr. Tallie's three years as inaugural director of the Africana Studies program at the University of San Diego, this work foregrounds Black queer voices in a crucial chapter of our local LGBTQ+ history.
Digital Exhibit As part of the evening, we'll be showcasing a digital exhibit that highlights periodicals, photographs, and other archival materials that align with Dr. Tallie's research, bringing this important history to life through visual storytelling.
Featured Panelists:
Dr. TJ Tallie, Community Historian in Residence
Rayyon Robinson
Miki Vale
Jordan Daniels
Joshua Dunn
Amber St. James
Special Performance Following the panel, Phyllis Jackson will present a reading of writings by Marti Mackey, adding another layer of community storytelling to this important evening.
This event represents more than historical scholarship – it's a celebration of resilience, community, and the ongoing work of preserving our shared stories. Reserve your seat today and be part of this important conversation about Black queer futures and histories in San Diego.”
It was an incredible event. I don’t even have words. I was left grateful to hear the experiences of Black LGBTQ+ people in my adult San Diego home. There is so much I didn’t realize I missed as a whyte person in San Diego. I took some notes but mostly I listened. There was so much going on that I might need a few more days to process it all. Two things I learned was to support San Diego Black LGBT Pride monetarily https://www.sandiegoblackpride.org/support-us (you can too at this link) and that as a whyte person, it is my responsibility to start and continue deep conversations about race and racism with other whyte people. There’s more to say of course, but that’s where I’m landing for now. I’m so glad I attended.
This weekend, I’ll also be heading over to the new Jewish - affirming Pride events here in town. It was all hush hush for a bit but now they are advertising it all over the place. To keep the eventgoers safe, you need to register for the events. Only one event costs money - the Big Gay Brunch at Temple Emanu-el.
When I spoke with the folks at the synagogue yesterday, I learned that they have 100 guests registered and only space for about 150 people! When I went a few years ago, it was super yummy but not quite that crowded with people. I can’t wait to see what it’s like this year.
The other events are a Pride festival and a Pride Shabbat. For those who don’t know, Shabbat is our day of rest and Shabbat services on Friday night usually starts the holiday. It’s a weekly holiday of rest and different segments of Judaism have different practices. Here’s an article that gives some ideas for Shabbat. https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/shabbat/7-ways-make-summer-shabbats-special
If Pride reminds you that you need some extra support or a sounding board, please give us a call at 619-403-5578. If you hate phone calls, please text us at 619-403-5578 or send us an email message to office@wavespsych.com. If you want to learn more about the Waves Psych team, please check out our website at https://www.wavespsych.com.
We at Waves are happy to support Californians with LGBTQI+ centered therapy services. We listen closely and we don’t shy away from the tough topics. We are kink and polyamory - affirming. We have appointments and can’t wait to fill them with people interested in making their lives better - however that looks like for each person. We provide individualized care as each person has different needs. We have LGBTQI+ - centered mental health care and provide EMDR, talk therapy, and somatic therapy (Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy). We work with people 11 years old and up and love our work. If you want to feel better today, please schedule a 15 minute free consultation with us.
Happy Pride however you celebrate it! Waves, A Psych Co and its psychologists are so happy to be able to be a part of San Diego and the worldwide LGBTQi+ community!
Works Cited
Peterson, A., Wahlström, M., & Wennerhag, M. (2018). Pride Parades and
LGBT Movements. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315474052
