San Leandro hosts city's first official Pride celebration
SAN LEANDRO -- The city of San Leandro hosted its first Pride celebration Friday.
Victor Aguilar Jr. is the first openly gay member of the San Leandro city council. He says he felt the city needed an opportunity to celebrate the LGBT members of his community.
"This is long overdue and I am so happy and so proud," Aguliar said. "I had this dream to create our first Pride in San Leandro. Representation matters, advocacy matters, making sure that we're advocating for policy to protect our LGBTQ community and to advocate for our youth and having this Pride event lets folks know that they are welcome in San Leandro. They are safe and we belong."
The event was put on with the help of the Downtown San Leandro Community Benefit District. Morgan Mack-Rose took the reins when it came to organizing the inaugural pride celebration.
"We're making a stand. San Leandro is a queer-friendly city. We want to support our neighbors and ourselves in the queer community and we should be doing this every year," Mack-Rose said. "It's a little embarrassing we haven't done it before."
She says the city has hosted Pride ceremonies before but never a celebration.
City leaders decided to wait until July so they wouldn't have to compete with San Francisco Pride in June.
Mack-Rose is excited that people have reacted positively to the event and she's already thinking about next year.
"I think, for a first time event, it's going to probably be a lot bigger than we expected but it'll demonstrate the demand so that next year it will be even bigger and better and somewhere else that can accommodate more people," Mack-Rose said.
"I think it's so important to have that role model and positions of power to advocate and make sure we're able to celebrate them and celebrate our city," Aguliar said.
Both say they want to make sure people know that San Leandro is a safe city for everyone.