It was another celebratory, rainbow-filled San Francisco Pride Weekend June 23-25. The Bay Area’s Jewish community was, as always, well represented at Sunday’s Pride Parade, the weekend’s signature event, as well as smaller gatherings such as the Trans March on Friday.
The 20th annual San Francisco Trans March was preceded by a late afternoon Shabbat service in Dolores Park in the Mission District. The gathering was led by rabbis from Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, Base Bay in Oakland and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s historically LGBTQ synagogue located just blocks away from the park.
The short service included prayers, singing, a reflection on “personal revolutions,” and a discussion of the week’s Torah portion. The event ended with Kiddush over grape juice and chocolate chip challah.
Some attendees stuck around for Sha’ar Zahav’s full annual Pride Shabbat service, while others joined the Trans March, which started in Dolores Park before wending its way through the city.
On Sunday, a large group associated with Jewish communities and organizations from around the Bay Area participated together in the Pride Parade, marching behind a colorful JCCSF banner that read “Love and Be Loved.”
It was the JCCSF’s sixth year organizing the contingent, this time with 14 community partners: Keshet, the national Jewish LGBTQ group; Congregations Beth Sholom and Sherith Israel of San Francisco; the East Bay JCC; the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area; Jewish Baby Network; Jewish Community Federation; Jewish Silicon Valley; Honeymoon Israel; the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael; the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto; the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Foster City; Value Culture; and J.
A separate contingent from Sha’ar Zahav marched in matching purple shirts, one carrying a sign that proudly proclaimed: “We’re queer and religious.”
Inspired by legislative attacks on transgender people in many states this year, some marchers carried Keshet signs that read “Trans Jews belong here.”
