The Proud & Jewish contingent in Sunday’s San Francisco Pride Parade featured a rainbow-saturated float with a towering Star of David made up of a tinsel triangle and a multi-colored heart. More than 130 people walked alongside or stood on the float, snapping rainbow fans, popping confetti cannons into the crowd or dancing to pop music blaring from its speakers.
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets for the 56th annual parade, cheering as float after float passed by. Signs of Jewish pride included rainbow flags with a white Star of David in the center, purple T-shirts with the “Proud & Jewish” slogan and humorous signs like “Our Hebrew school is so gay” and “Nobody knows I’m a homo” using Hebrew letters hay, vav, mem and vav to spell out the final word.
The Proud & Jewish float also featured two drag performers, Poly Poptart, who is Jewish, and T’Kara Campbell Starr. Both smiled and waved from center stage on the float. The Jewish contingent, led by the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, was co-sponsored by over 20 Jewish organizations throughout the area.
“We want to be out as LGBT people. But even more so, we want to be out and proud as Jews,” said JCRC CEO Tye Gregory, who is gay. “We think the message of Pride is something that can resonate for the entire Jewish community — and take lessons from the queer community on what we need to do now as Jews, which is to be out and loud and proud of our Jewish identities.”
Jews from across the region joined the Proud & Jewish contingent, including families from Jewish day schools.
Brandeis School of San Francisco parents Udi and Guy Ledergor brought their three children to march with them.
“I think it’s really important at this time where our entire community is under attack … to be out here and proud, both as Jewish community members [and] as a proud LGBTQIA family. I think it’s really important to increase our visibility at this challenging time and walk with our chin up high,” Udi Ledergor said.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Jewish and gay politician and the frontrunner to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress, rode atop a truck in the parade, smiling, waving and holding a “Protect trans kids” sign. His supporters walked alongside, including two people in a blow-up wiener dog costume.
His presence at the Pride Parade was in marked contrast to the reception he received Friday evening ahead of the S.F. Trans March when protesters surrounded, screamed and filmed him, accusing him of supporting genocide in Gaza. Instead of attending a pre-Trans March Shabbat event in Dolores Park or the march itself, he left.
Keshet, a national LGBTQ Jewish advocacy group, and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s historic LGBTQ+ synagogue, marched Sunday with an interfaith contingency called United in Spirit.
Rabbi Eliana Kayelle, who identifies as trans and queer and serves as Keshet’s Bay Area education and training manager, didn’t witness any negative reactions to Jewish marchers on Sunday.
“We had a 100% positive experience and were met with love and support,” Kayelle said afterward.
Jeremy Russell, JCRC director of marketing and communications, saw the same reactions even before the parade started.
“We get so many happy and surprised looks from people to see that we’re here,” Russell said. “It’s just really gratifying to know that people feel seen and represented, and that’s really our goal: to show that the Jewish community is here and in allyship with the LGBTQ community.”
United in Spirit parade coordinator Michael Leslie has been marching in S.F. Pride since 1996. Leslie reminisced about the first time marching in the parade on a visit to the city.
“I basically sort of came out during the parade. I was holding hands with people of faith,” Leslie said. “The Jewish contingent was right in front of us. I remember they had the blue Speedos with the Star of David. It was a very interesting thing. I was just visiting the city from rural Tennessee. But now I live here, and I have the pleasure of coordinating the contingent this year.”
Thirty religious groups and congregations marched with United in Spirit. Before the parade began, faith and spiritual leaders stood on their parade trolley to lead an interfaith service.
Kayelle led a prayer during the service.
“Right now the political reality is that religion is being weaponized against LGBTQ+ folks, especially trans, nonbinary and intersex people, and we’re amidst the rise of Christian nationalism, so it feels very important that there’s a collective, united, pro-LBGTQ+ faith voice,” Kayelle said.
Sha’ar Zahav congregant and volunteer Kay Magilavy said this was their second year marching in S.F. Pride and reflected on the changes Pride has undergone.
“It’s really great that there is a lot of mainstream participation here,” Magilavy said. “10 years ago you wouldn’t have seen the carpenters union or the sort of more conventional folks, so I think it’s good that people understand that diversity is really good business as well as being really important to a healthy community.”