With a conference in Sydney to attend at the end of the month and both of us seriously yearning for sunshine after what had seemed like a long, wet and windy winter, my partner and I reckoned a last-minute holiday was in order to get us through the remainder of the wintry months ahead.

- Advertisement -

There’s nothing more exciting than spur of the moment travel but would it be Cairns, Fiji or Asia that we’d choose to warm our souls? As if by magic the latest specials from Qantas arrived in my inbox and with cheap flights to Los Angeles on offer the decision was made that off to the United States we would go.

Neither of us had spent quality time on the west coast before so a quick google search helped plan the adventure and for the 2009 San Diego LGBT Pride weekend we set sail.

With the ‘Stonewall 2.0 – Activism for Equality’ theme chosen to reflect the modern wave of US LGBT activism evident in the ongoing quest for equal rights, the event highlighted the community goals of achieving marriage equality and dismantling the US military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.

Unlike our own local version, the mile-long 35th Anniversary parade takes place during the day and attracts over 150,000 participants and spectators and almost 160 floats and marching groups.

It seems like a world away from San Diego’s first parade of about 150 participants and supporters, some of whom wore paper bags over their heads in fear of reprisal from employers and landlords.

The number of churches marching in the parade amazed us. It seems almost every denomination in San Diego, including the Catholics, joined the throng to celebrate the event, while the local Police, Ambulance and Fire Brigade also played prominent roles in this year’s celebration.

Snaking its way through the vibrant gay Hillcrest area the colourful three hour long parade ends at the city’s stunning Balboa Park in time to celebrate the two-day Pride festival.

As fans of Perth’s Pride Fair Day in Russell Square we were amazed by the size and innovations of the festival – small additions like providing a map of the festival area and the littering of ATM machines around the event site made for a surprisingly more enjoyable day.

San Diego reminded us of Fremantle on a hot summer’s day. Given that the city hosts the west coast’s major US naval base means plenty of handsome tanned sailors can be encountered enjoying the bars and clubs day and night in the Gaslight District. Combined with the Mexican border only an hour away this made for a vibrant cosmopolitan city.

There’s plenty to do and see in San Diego and while in town we took time to visit the city’s other world-renowned attraction – the San Diego Zoo. From Bears at the Festival to Gorillas and Pandas at the Zoo, San Diego well and truly showed us a good time.

July 17 -18 have been announced as the dates for the 2010 San Diego Pride themed “One World, One Heart, One Pride”. For more information go to www.sandiegopride.org

Stephen Dawson

***