While San Diego Pride Weekend has transitioned to virtual events due to COVID-19, San Diego County found other ways to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community Friday by raising the Pride Flag above the County Administration Center in downtown San Diego for the first time.
The flag, raised during a small ceremony Friday morning, will fly all weekend and the colors of the rainbow will light up the County Administration Center and county parking garage on Kettner Boulevard, between West Cedar and West Beech streets, every night during San Diego Pride Weekend.
The lights are set to illuminate downtown starting just before 8 p.m. Friday.
The flag-raising ceremony was attended by County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and San Diego Pride representatives.
"Flying the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag over the County Administration Center for the first time is a symbolically significant step in the direction of equality," said Fletcher, "but the work yet to be undertaken by our recently established human relations commission and office of equity and racial justice will take our commitment to equality to new heights."
Pride Weekend will continue Saturday with the first-ever virtual Pride Live 2020 event, in place of what would normally be Pride Parade and Festival Day. The daylong virtual event starts at 10 a.m.
"Pride is not canceled. In-person mass gatherings are canceled. Nothing can strip away our pride. Nothing can deny us the pride our community has built inside ourselves, our community or the broader world," said Fernando Lopez, executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride.
