We are well into pride month, but this year it’s hard to tell if the mood is celebratory. In 2025 nearly 600 anti LGBT bills have been introduced across the United States, including six in California. KALW’s Ellie Prickett-Morgan went to the Castro to see if folks there feel like Pride is different this year.
To most people the Castro is synonymous with iconic queer nightlife, like Twin Peaks, San Francisco's first gay bar. But at 10:00 am on a Monday morning, those institutions are still waking up.
Who’s up before noon on Market Street? Alvin Orloff, owner of Fabulosa Books.
"We have a policy of trying to promote books that would otherwise just be kind of shoved off in a corner in your local bookstore," says Alvin. "Books by trans people and people of color who wouldn't get the same fair shakes."
Alvin attended pride for the first time back in 1978, during Anita Bryant’s crusade against equal protections. This year, Alvin says Pride feels a bit more like it did back in the day.
"It's a little bit less of a party and a little bit more of a rally," says Alvin.
Around the corner is Nail Me, where Austin Lopes works as nail tech. He says that even in a queer sanctuary like SF, he’s still thinking about federal policies.
"The complete and utter attack on the trans community by certain forces I think is kind of looming over everyone," says Lopes.
Austin says there’s a saying that went around during the AIDS crisis that he’s been thinking about a lot. It goes like this:
"We attend the funerals during the morning, we protest during the day and we twirl at night," says Austin.
Austin thinks attending Pride is a great opportunity to organize and protest, but also to twirl.
"You have to have fun and get away so that you don't burn yourself out," says Austin.
Out on Market Street Nopal Reyes says this pride he’s trying to show up in new ways.
" I've never been to the SF LGBT Center here, and I've lived here for eight years and I went there for their wellbeing fair, I think two weeks ago," says Nopal.
Nopal works for the SF National Parks Conservancy, and this year he’ll be marching with them in the Pride parade.
"I encourage folks to just look for opportunities like that big or small, no matter how it looks like, to just be within their own community," says Nopal.
