Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Kehlani’s name was misspelled.
From Mayor Todd Gloria to UC San Diego, San Diego Pride has lost prominent sponsors and attendees of its upcoming festival over headliner Kehlani’s comments on the Israel-Palestine war.
A letter from past Pride board members, staff and volunteer leaders went public on Monday over what they say is a “crisis in leadership” on the board. Their beef is not with Kehlani, though — they are concerned about a hollowing out of the organization staff and abandonment of its advocacy for justice.
The letter was prompted by the quiet departure of Executive Director Leanne Marchese, with an interim leader already in place without public input, as well as the abrupt termination of the advocacy and education director in May. The letter noted the organization has seen five interim and acting executive directors within the past two years. Plus, full-time staff dropped from 30 people down to 10.
The signatories emphasize that they are not out to destroy Pride or to hurt the staff; their focus is on getting answers from the board after changes they think lacked transparency and public input at an organization they care deeply about. If the board has chosen to pull back from year-round education and justice work to instead be a single weekend of “rainbow pageantry,” they want the board to own that decision and publicly stand by it.
“What is Pride nowadays? Is it just going to be a festival and parade? And if it is, you need to communicate that with the community,” said Bob Leyh, a former Pride staff and board member. “We don’t know what their vision is.”
Unlike other regions with a proliferation of small LGBTQ-serving nonprofits, San Diego has large, centralized organizations taking on multiple roles within the community. The four at the forefront who stood against issues like the bullying of local LGBTQ+ youth or national anti-trans legislation were The LGBT Center, San Diego Pride, TransFamily Support Services, and the North County LGBTQ+ Resource Center.
Recently, Pride has been notably silent on items that would have at least prompted a public statement under previous leaders, such as the trans military ban or the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk.
The 29 backers of the letter sent it on June 2 with the promise they would make the letter public two weeks later if they did not receive a response. Board members told those involved a response would be formulated at the next board meeting.
At a town hall meeting in December 2023, following another executive director’s departure, community members expressed concern about not knowing the board members. Others noted that leadership turnover and community mistrust of the board has been a repeated pattern for decades without remedy. Some suggested public elections to the board or changing bylaws to keep them accountable.
No major changes to board structure have been announced in the two year’s since. In some ways, transparency is worse than ever. Board meetings, agendas and minutes have not been regularly posted to the website so it is impossible for the public to know what they are discussing. Amid safety concerns over the Kehlani controversy, board member names have been removed from the website.
“They’ve removed themselves publicly. We don’t see them. We don’t know them. They’re not visible. They’re not out in the community. And so it breeds uncertainty and at times, mistrust,” Leyh said.
The signatories hope for a response this week after the board meeting.
In the meantime, the Pride parade and festival are moving forward as normal.
The letter posits, though: “The public façade of celebration is now overshadowed by internal chaos.”
Drew Sitton is a contributing reporter at Times of San Diego.
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