San Francisco Pride

June 24-25, 2000
San Francisco, CA

For the second consecutive year, for the LGVMA participated in the annual Gay Pride Parade of San Francisco, the weekend of June 24-25.

This was the 30th anniversary of the parade and the city of San Francisco went all out to welcome all of us: gay flags from all over the city, the huge pink triangle overlooking the city from the top of Twin Peaks, the large public street fair in front of the Civic Center.

The "festivities" started for the LGVMA with a fantastic get together that was hosted by Dr. Ken Gorczyca and his partner Lorenz Obwegeser at their house overlooking the Castro area. Ken and Lorenz really went out of their way to put on a great party for all of the members -- they went beyond the call of duty and we all appreciate you two helping us out.

It was great renewing old friendships and making new ones, especially meeting Pavel, a Siberian vet student from Perth, Australia, who flew all of the way over here to join us in the parade. Interesting person.

After the party, several members made their way down to the Castro where it was packed with people. It was estimated that about 1 million people showed up for Gay Pride, and I swear, most of them were packed into the Castro that night.

Bright and early Sunday morning (which was hard for us that closed down the Castro Saturday PM!) we lined up for the parade.

The parade route was packed with thousands and thousands of cheering people. The LGVMA group was between the PAWS organization (Pets Are Wonderful Support) -- a great group -- and a group called Radical Faeries. For those of you who don't know what the Radical Faeries are, they are a group who tend to be on the "fringe."

All in all, it was a great fun filled weekend for the LGVMA. Thanks for all of you who attended. You are a great group of people and fun to be with!!

And now, if I may be cynical for a second. Basically most of the people in our group were from outside of San Francisco. I was very disappointed in the response that I got from most of the local San Francisco members. You all missed a great time, and a great opportunity to meet other members like yourself from around the world.

Next year folks -- plan to take the last weekend off in June and join us in THE city. And anybody that would like to help Dr. Gorczyca and myself plan the events for next year -- we could sure use the extra help.

-- Craig Callen, DVM