Still here. Hard to believe. [cheers and applause] we are all here wearing our Pink Triangle teachers out of can rotary for those who are forced to wear them out of the holocaust. [cheers and applause] ten years ago today, the Pink Triangle was set on fire right here on twin peaks. Like a phoenix we rose from the ashes and this display has continued ever since. It is ironic that a hate crime took place atop the symbol, which is there to prevent hate crimes. This display is a reminder that the third reich demonstrates how easily a government can die but divide minority scapegoats. Branding homosexuals as criminals lead most germans to feel comfortable looking the other way as the nazis went about their persecution. Can this happen again . Can happen now . It is a gradual process that dehumanizes people and is taking place in this country to stigmatize certain groups. Opinion polls show that for the first time in decades, Public Acceptance of lgbtq has actually gone down two years in a row. I would like to welcome our guests this morning. The sentence our San Francisco mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause] trans rights advocate, claire farley. [cheers and applause] california state senator, scott weiner. [cheers and applause] the consul general of germany [cheers and applause] and his husband and two children. [cheers and applause] the consul general of france. The honorary consul general of monaco. Assembly member david chiu and his son. [laughter] San Francisco treasurer. [cheers and applause] San Francisco supervisor, rafael nadal in, who might still be running a marathon Raphael Mandel and who might still be running and meth a marathon. San francisco trustee. [applause] i would like to acknowledge matthew good oh, formerly of the mayors Mayors Office of protocol for the arts. Matthew . Several of the grand marshals and honourees of this parade are here and they will be introduced a bit later by the pride board president , jaclyn bishop. [applause] and of course, the San Francisco lesbian freedom band. Thank you. [cheers and applause] and of course, i would like to thank all of our 2019 sponsors, San Francisco pride. [applause] the Bob Ross Foundation and tom horn. [applause] , the incredible and fabulous sister fabulous sisters of perpetual indulgence. [cheers and applause] toad hall and badlands. [applause]. Lazy bear weekend fund. [applause]. The owner of steam work. Paul pendergast consulting group. [applause] brian garrison and his partner. Long time Pink Triangle volunteers who are now contributing. Hodgkins jewellers, my sister. [applause] starbucks for the coffee and pastries. [cheers and applause] barefoot and bubbly for what is behind me. We will be christening the Pink Triangles. [applause] katy hickox for the website. The San Francisco police department, thank you. [applause] and of course, my family. I couldnt do it without my husband, jose, in the middle there. [applause] my 60 my sisters and my nieces. [applause]. And lastly many volunteers have asked me how my 95yearold mother, edith, for over two decades, she has greeted all of the volunteers and handed out coffee and doughnuts right here on twin peaks. She unfortunately passed away a few months ago. She was not only the heart and soul of our family, but also this project. She is greatly missed. I thank her for the love and courage to be who i am. I know how lucky i am and how an everyday person is fortunate enough to have a mother like her she was a true treasure. [applause] we start our project each year by telling the history of the Pink Triangle and today we are honored to have an official representative of the German Government start off the program by telling the history of the Pink Triangle. We all know germany is the nation where the Pink Triangle began. However, germany is now one of the most gay friendly places on earth. [cheers and applause] speaking on behalf of the nation of germany, please welcome the German Council general and his husband and there two children. [applause] look what i found. [laughter] good morning, San Francisco, good morning friends. Im so glad to be here again at the Pink Triangle at twin peaks. Thank you for inviting me and fred and i were two kids. Today and tomorrow, it is about celebration. We are celebrating pride and we celebrate the accomplishments of the fight for emancipation which men and women in the lgbtq oh , my god, lgbt qi movement. [cheers and applause] one of the seat one of the key symbols is this Pink Triangle. We celebrate that in many countries, this movement has led to an astonishing degree of liberation. A lot of that happened, when looked at for from a historic perspective, in a fairly brief period of time. When i grew up as a gay boy in germany, in west germany, i wouldnt have dared to hope that one day i would be standing here with my husband and my two kids and a couple of other federal states of the United States and speak to you. So much for the good news. At the same time, of course, the struggle is far from over. There are 73 nations in the world where homosexuality is criminalized and some of these countries impose the death penalty. And there are many, many more societies where alternative lifestyles are frowned on, ridiculed and threatened. Also, it is fairly recent a development, it is achieved in many western liberal communities under threat. It is under threat by the newly emerging far right movement and by their right rise of hate speech on social media and by the rise of hate crime. Where we are in San Francisco is just one point in the long road of emancipation. In order to know where we are going from here, we must know what we are where we are coming from. That is the history of the Pink Triangle. In 1933, the nazis emerged from a general election as a strongest party. They managed to form a majority government because some conservative party leader supported them. These conservatives hoped they could contain the nazis and prevent the worst from happening by cooperating with them. That was a huge mistake and probably one of the biggest mistakes in history. As soon as the nazis were in power, they started picking out certain groups of people to stigmatize them. People who were different, different in their face, the culture, the traditions, the political convictions, there looks, and their sexual orientation. They single them out and tried to take away their personal dignity and persecuted them, incarcerated them and murdered so many of them. Among those persecuted were gay men, roughly 50,000 gay men were imprisoned and five to 15,000 of those were sent to concentration camps. In the concentration camps, all prisoners were identified by triangular labels on their jackets welsh yellow triangles identify jews, brown identified the gypsies, grey the political prisoners, green the criminals and like the antisocial his and purple, the witnesses, the Pink Triangle identified homosexuals. It often gave chris often gay prisoners were treated extremely badly and sometimes other prisoners joined in harassing them. When world war ii finally ended, for gay men in germany, east and west, the persecution continues. In the 1950s and sixties, gay men were imprisoned, fired from their jobs and were considered unworthy of society. It wasnt until the student revolt against the postwar elites in the sixties in europe, that homosexuality was eventually decriminalized in both parts of germany. What followed then was a struggle in society to do stigmatize lgbtq ways of life and this struggle is still ongoing. More and more of these years more and more of these symbols became a symbol of the struggle for the emancipation. The Pink Triangle was embraced by the community as a symbol of pride and resilience. I know many people would speak out to me and i will just end with a few words on the challenges we face in our liberal societies because it is very close to my heart. It is obvious that we have a resurgence in chauvinism and reaction as to tendencies, both in the u. S. And of course, in many european countries, including my own. History tells us that the earlier we stand up against the factors contributing, the better are our chances to fight for what we have to achieve what we have fought for. Therefore, it is for us to stand up against the growing divide between rich and poor, against anything that diminishes the social coherence of our society. Against the trend to make good education a privilege for the rich, against the Inhumane Treatment of any minority, any human being, no matter where they come from, whether they are legal or illegal migrants. Against politicians who also oversimplify and judge mental solutions to serious questions, against people who when speaking publicly are going on twitter and are willing to push back further and further the limits of language that seems to be publicly acceptable. Against people who present lies as truth and truth as lies. Against people finally who bully others just because they can. Lets be proud, confident and strong and lets where this triangle for the fight that is going to come. [applause] thank you to the Council General of germany. It is a great honor to have the mayor of San Francisco with us today. She works diligently every day to solve our citys problems and she is a great supporter of her lgbtq plus constituents. [cheers and applause] so mike and the band are going to do a special introduction for the mayor and all of you are going to participate via singalong cards. [laughter] i would like to thank the mayor and the board supervisors for putting into an ordinance that we are the official band. [applause] we hope you will lead us in a singalong to sing the official song of San Francisco. You will all singalong and we would have cue cards for you. [laughter] [ ] [singing] [singing] clap mac[singing] [singing] [applause] thank you to the lesbian gay freedom band. The official band of San Francisco. You know, we are celebrating pride month here in San Francisco and it feels like not too long ago we raise the flag at city hall. We had some amazing events, some great ribboncutting, some parties, some festivities, so many incredible things to celebrate pride month. That is why it is so appropriate that we are here today to take a moment to pause and reflect on our history, reflect on the challenges that we still face and to rededicate ourselves to being a force of good for the rest of the country to follow. I want to thank patrick for his dedication to this incredible event that he continues to host during pride month and all the amazing volunteers, and express my sincere condolences the loss of your mother, who year after year after year, people who came here to assist in putting up the triangle member her generosity, her support, and her love, not only for her son, but for this community. Thank you, patrick, for your leadership, and ongoing efforts in this. [applause] and as the Council General of germany reminded us that although we have made incredible gains and we are so fortunate to be in a place like San Francisco where there is love and respect and support for our differences, in over 70 countries around the world, there are still places where being who you are, as a member of our Lgbtq Community is illegal, and that is something that we have got to change and we know this. Ive got to say that in San Francisco, we are doing so many incredible things in order to advance this community. I am so glad that supervisor mandelman who was in the pride run earlier today probably ran up the hill to get here for this event. Working with him on the board of supervisors, the millions of dollars of investments that we are making to provide support for housing opportunities, for h. I. V. Funding, for all of the things that are truly important investments, we are doing it here in San Francisco and i am most excited about a new initiative. We are making. [applause] a 2 milliondollar investment to support trans home chefs after s. F. The first of its kind. [applause]. Because we know folks who are part of our Trans Committee are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness than any other population. We must do more. We must do more to support our communities, we must be reminded of the challenges that still exist and we must continue to fight for the kinds of changes that will lead to a better society, not just here in San Francisco, but across the world. I was really excited about making the San Francisco lesbian and gay freedom band the official band of soup of San Francisco. Not just because i played french horn in junior high school, but because we are sending a message we are sending a message to people across the world about who we are and what our values are at sentences as san franciscans. We will continue to put forth the right policies. We will continue to make the right investments and we are so blessed to have incredible leaders who are fighting for equality for all of us. So i want to thank you all again for being here today. I know it is cold, but last year , remember it was burning up hot. We were all sweating and today we are freezing. That is just the way San Francisco goes. Thank you all so much and enjoy the day. [cheers and applause] i almost forgot, one of the most important things that you can do as mayor of San Francisco , today on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, i would like to declare it Pink Triangle day in the city and county of San Francisco. Patrick, just because it is Pink Triangle day, it doesnt mean that your parking tickets arent wait too. Congratulations. Thank you so much. [applause] [cheers and applause] thank you mayor london breed. Fabulous. [cheers and applause] i am going to make a change in the middle of the program. I would like Jennifer Bishop to come up. I would like to introduce all of the grand marshals because they have to get to another event. Jennifer is my wife, she is here today. [laughter] jacqueline. Hello, Jacklyn Bishop e. It is an honor to represent San Francisco pride. I would like to acknowledge our Board Members who are here today carolyn washington. [cheers and applause] and bruce gaudet. The Pink Triangle beekeeper. [laughter] with San Francisco what San Francisco pride accomplishes is not simple. But to us, our values are very simple. It is about visibility, inclusion, and community. The Pink Triangle is a beautiful symbol of resilience and it is an honor for us to support it. Speaking of honor of supporting, i would like to quickly introduce some of our grand marshals and honourees who are here today. Vince. [cheers and applause] sampson mccormick. [cheers and applause] and mrs. Vera. [cheers and applause] we have acknowledged my wife today and my mother is visiting from boston to support me and all of us. [cheers and applause] finally i would like to say [singing] [cheers and applause] [singing] were all family, we are a community, keep loving each other and resist. Inc. You. [cheers and applause] thank you. [cheers and applause] Jacklyn Bishop, thank you. When miss vera and michael gladstone, please at least walk across the stage. [cheers and applause] maybe even give us a few words, please. Hello and thank you all for being here. I will keep really brief because it is cold, but, you know, the Pink Triangle, to me, is such a powerful and clear symbol, and, you know, that simplicity means that what it stands for cant be forgotten. It is so thrilling to see it every year with the bittersweet qualities and the historical significance of it, and it just makes me realize that im so glad to live in San Francisco, which is a more complicated kind of symbol, but a really important and tiny one to this country and to the world and it is a little less clear what it means to different people, but that is where the dialogue is in this country right now, is which places are putting their money where their mouth is. What we stand for, and people are watching and people are seeing and, you know, california is really leading the way. I think all of our politicians and the people who support them, and just this surge to live well , live properly, live kindly , live decently and treat other people the way you would want them to treat you. It is not rocket science. Thank you for being here and remembering why were here to commemorate this important symbol. Thank you. [applause] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] just something she had hanging in her plump in her closet and a few other grand marshals before they run off, mr. Mccormick. [cheers and applause] mind your business. Telling me what to do. That is my job. Hi all, happy pride. Oh, my god, do you all