In San Francisco, we do celebrate a new record low of new h. I. V. Infections, less than 200 last year. Thank you, dr. Brent colfax, for your leadership in the department of health. We know we will continue to make those investments that well get to zero. We know that we did the count around homeless youth. About 50 of the youth that are homeless in this city identify as lgbt, and we want to make sure that we help the next generation of young people growing up in this community so that they have hope. So many great things but also so much more work to do. And i am really confident in the leadership of this city to really help us move forward on so many different levels. As we think about just the attacks that we have been under. I mean, we just had a visit from the other number 45 here this weekend, and i cant help but think about not only our city being under attack, but also our Lgbt Community, where we continue to fight for things that we shouldnt have to at this point. You know, when i think about just what were celebrating in the month of february, black history month. Black history is American History. Were celebrating lunar new year. Chinese American History is American History. Lgbt history is American History. We are all a part of the fabric of what makes our city and our country so great. So we will not be silenced. We will continue to lift our voices and celebrate what makes us so great, what makes us so unique. And during the month of pride, we will just do it with that much more flair. So thank you all so much for being here. Heres to 50 more incredible years for future generations to come. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Thank you, mayor breed. And one other note im just so proud of, thanks to the mayors leadership, weve invested over 1 million in the next year to seniors. So thank you to the department of aging and adult services, and thank you to all of those in our city who made sure that we were brought to this 50 years and continue to be brought to the right place. So now, a leader that we know will continue to bring us forward in the next 50 years, our new director of pride, fred lopez. [applause] hi. Good morning, everybody. How are you . Excited . S. F. Pride, sfpride50. Before anything else, i just want to convey our sincerest gratitude to the mayor, to supervisor mandelman and all these elected officials today for coming out today to start the celebration right. Every City Department that is present, we want to thank you for your unwavering support for San Franciscos most iconic went. It may cost millions of dollars to produce, but it wouldnt happen without the amazing work of our departments, employees, and volunteers. [applause] as claire said, the theme for San Francisco pride is a generation of hope, and it was originally suggested by pride member larry nelson. That spirit of hope will become visible at the beginning of june when the rainbow flags go up along Market Street, much of Market Street now newly car free. On saturday, june 37, civic center will once again become a site of celebration. All weekend, with crowds in the tens of thousands were expecting. Its going to be a big year, and were excited for it. Then, as clair has mentioned, for many of us, the center piece of pride, the parade, on june 28. 50,000 marchers are expected to be in the parade, all cheered on by more than 100,000 spectators its going to be quite a spectacle this year. [applause] if your organization or group is thinking about marching, we encourage you to register soon because we think the parade might run out of space earlier as it has in the years past, so thats great. For the past two years, our partners at cbs bay area have live streamed the parade so that people around the world can see it live. Wear something cute, and call your mom, because youre going to be on t. V. Thats exciting. Thank you to our friends at kpix. [applause] thats not the only new development for 2020. On april 17, an exhibition entitled labor of love, the birth of San Francisco pride, 19701980 opened at the gobt museum in San Francisco. Itll be up in the museum until january 2021. Further, starting may 7 in the city hall in the north light court, the Historical Society and San FranciscoArts Commission will mount a photography exhibition called 50 years of pride, so make sure to check out the amazing history that we can learn from. Our entire team at San Francisco pride is working hard to ensure that we are ready for this monumental event, and here are some ways in which our communities can help. Applications are now open for our volunteers who provide power during the event. I want to acknowledge that in this room, there are some former Community Grand marshals and honorees, like our board president , carolyn, was once an honoree, and others. If you want to raise your hands, folks who have been honored in the past. Thank you for all of your tireless work. That spirit of tireless volunteerism is at the core of San Francisco pride, and that commitment goes both ways. In 2019, we were pleased to go nate more than 203 donate more than 203,000 to ongoing bay area nonprofits, which adds to our total of more than 3 million since 1997. [applause] finally, 2020 may be the 50th anniversary of pride as a march and a celebration, but San Franciscos pride began way before 1970. The compton cafeteria riots took place in 1966. As we look forward to the next 50 years, lets always remember the valuient struggles of previous valiant struggles of previous generations, and as hectare remilk said, all give them hope. And here at pride, we always will. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you, fred. Were so excited, and we know that pride is in great hands. Thank you. So it is my honor to introduce our new pride chair, carolyn wisenger. Thank you, fred, thank you, mayor breed, thank you to my aunt who has threatened bodily harm if i dont mention them. As fred mentioned, the board is excited about completing our threeyear theme with this years generation of hope. While we are excited about the events leading up to the pride weekend, we are most excited about what that word hope represents. As a community, we are in challenging times, and being in pride, its so different. There is more required now that we are headed into 50. The organizational needs arent the same as they were in 1970, and either are the needs of the community that we represent. Theres more required in the way that we represent community, there is more required in the way that we support our community, and theres more required in the way that we are supported. Now the last leg to 50 is always the hardest leg. Some of you may have been married 50 years, and you know its hard getting to 50. It doesnt get easier as we march in these last months to 50. As someone who grew up in a church thats now 75 years old, i remember in 1995, and how hard that last road to 50 was. I remember the struggles, and i remember the squabbles, and i remember the day it seemed like it would all fall part. We are in a crunch time now, but we as a board continue to believe that it is important to have a celebration that is reflective of the community we serves, and important to be reflective of all of those voices, and to make all those voices be heard. I remember when Bishop Carlton pearson said we have to remind them of the hope, so thats what were going to do, and we ask you to join us for that. [applause] thank you. So 2020 is kind of an incredible year. Also, its not the 50th anniversary, and also, we need to get out there and vote. Every one of you matters, so lets get out there and do that. So now, its my honor to introduce our only out gay supervisor who has been doing some incredible work not only in his district but for the Lgbt Community at large and in San Francisco at large. Please welcome supervisor raphael mandelman. Supervisor mandelman good morning, everybody. It does you know, february does feel like a slightly odd time to be celebrating time, but i will say theres never a bad time for the Queer Community to take the mayors balcony, so we are happy to be here. And madam mayor, i think it is just worth noting the extraordinary collection of Queer Department heads you have, from clair farley at the o. T. I. , and grant colfax at the department of public health, and jeffrey tumlin, and sherreen mcspadden. You have a very queer administration, and we are quite appreciative of that. [applause] supervisor mandelman the trustees never get acknowledge them, so im going to acknowledge them now. We have our past president , Alex Randolph of the college board, and our current president , tom temprano of the college board, doing great and important work. You know, as i and then, i also do want to congratulate fred lopez. Thank you, fred, thank you, carolyn. Thank you to the whole board. Pride has never been easy, but it is important, so i this year is particularly important and seems to be particularly challenging, and i know you will get through it, and i am grateful for what you are doing to get us through what will be an amazing 50year celebration, so thank you. [applause] supervisor mandelman i was trying to think about that 1970 gayin, the people who participa participated in that. The next 50 years, what did they imagine it would be like . Did they imagine that in a few years, a gay man would get elected supervisor in San Francisco . And after that, rainbow wave after rainbow wave would come crashing down until the last election when we got a Record Number of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people elected, even in virginia. They would not have imagined the Extraordinary Community response that would come to it. Tom and i were just over at the airport where the quilt is getting brought from atlanta. It is finally coming home, and theres going to be a fantastic rollout of panels of the last ten years on april 3, 4, and 5, and everybody should come. But the resilience of the gay community, responding to that crisis and building an aids movement, they had no idea. And would they have imagined same sex marriage . No matter how you feel about pete buttigieg, would they have imagine that a gay man would be one of the leading candidates for president s this year . And gay c. E. O. S, and so much of what they imagined would have come to pass. I dont think they would have imagined that the mayor of San Francisco would have been an African American woman who grew up in the projects, and i do think they would be particularly amazed and delighted at that prospect, because harvey milk talked about the uses and those who had been left out of the power structure in the 70s, and those who had just begun to imagine that there might be a universe where they can take power. So its amazing with our Department Heads and our mayor i dont remember, San Francisco and our mayor, San Francisco is living up to the hope. I feel like i have generationally benefited so much. And in a lot of ways, the work is about building, acknowledging the institution like the lesbian gay freedom ban. That was a great moment for the city, but some of those other great moments, a second building, and now having purchased a third site and affirming lgbt senior housing. Thank you, mayor, for that. Theres just around the corner from that, the gay mens chorus. They are becoming the national lgbtq center for the arts, and we got some help for them into the budget last year. Again, thank you, madam mayor, and thank you to my colleagues on the board. We have inherited so much, and so i think going forward, obviously, the obligations to move forward on that, and to fulfill the unfulfilled promises. In 1970, we knew that people had been left behind, and in 2020, we know that people have been left behind. We need to eradicate the epidemic. We need to reach folks who have not been reached, and so the work of justice which they know we needed to do in 1970 and 80 and 90, and they know the work that we need to do. It was the work of 50 years, so it was exciting, and now, fred lopez is going to come back. [applause] thats a great way to sort of summarize all the Amazing Things that are happening in San Francisco. We are so incredibly fortunate to live in this amazing place and be supported by all of these amazing people and institutions that surround us. I do want to say quickly that i make sure i acknowledge the Board Members of San Francisco pride who are here. Give us a wave. [applause] and San Francisco pride wouldnt happen without a really talented teams of contractors or staff. If youre a contractor or staff, give us a wave. [applause] great work. Finally, as raphael said, it is a little we have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. This is a huge catalyst for change. It will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. Now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to Work Together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. One of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for permit center. Special events. We are a one stop shop for those three things. This has many different uses throughout if years. In 1940s it was cocacola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are retaining the clock tower. The permit center is little working closely with the Digital Services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. The Digital Services team was created in 2017. It is 2. 5 years. Our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. One of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. We have 58 Different Department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. We are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. It is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. Our goal is you dont have to know the department. You are dealing with the city. Now if you are trying to get construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. Here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to Work Together to make it easy to comply with the rules. There are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. There is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. The first project is allowing people to apply online