Sarah Miller and Crystal Long knew they wanted to spend forever together when they realized how different they are — and how those differences complemented each other.
Read more Photos: San Diego Pride Parade 2026
“She’s free and fun, and I’m practical and logical,” said Long as the couple stood on Sixth Avenue to watch the San Diego Pride Parade on Saturday.
The Minnesota couple came to San Diego to get married at Sunset Cliffs this weekend — timing their celebration with the Pride parade and festival, the annual event that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and its triumphs over hard-fought struggles.
Miller and Long want to “support people in our world,” Miller said. “We have transgender and gay children as well, so it’s just part of our culture.”
Wearing matching tie-dye shirts that read “love more,” Miller and Long were two of the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up in the heat on Saturday to watch the Pride parade.
Bright and elaborately adorned floats blasted music down University and Sixth avenues, with other participants walking and holding signs in support of the LGBTQ+ community. On the sidelines, crowds of people cheered them on, waving rainbow flags with glitter on their faces.
“We’re here, we’re human — this is how people are. And to celebrate that, I think it’s great,” said Britney Hazzard, the La Mesa deputy city clerk who attended with her children and friends.
“The Pride community is a fun community to be a part of,” she added.
The parade was led by its signature motorcycle legion and featured some of the event’s classic floats like the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Foam Experience, a mobile foam and bubble shower. There was even a horse named Snacx being ridden near the beginning of the parade.
Photos: San Diego Pride Parade 2026
This year’s grand marshals were a group of LGBTQ+ civil rights defenders — including the Transgender Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and the Tom Homann LGBTQ+ Law Association.
Over the last year, the Trump administration has repeatedly targeted the LGBTQ+ community, limiting gender-affirming care for transgender individuals, banning transgender troops from the military and removing references to LGBTQ+ history and leaders from federal recognition.
So far this year, more than 500 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation have been introduced nationwide, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, including six in California.
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While the number of confirmed in San Diego from 2024 to 2025, according to police, hate crimes based on anti-sexual orientation bias in 2025 still made up about 30% of the total.
“We’re fighting systems of oppression that affect all of us,” KishaLynn Elliott, the executive director of San Diego Pride, told the San Diego Union-Tribune in March. “It’s all about human dignity.”
Motorcyclists lead the San Diego Pride parade. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
A dog wears a rainbow butterfly during the San Diego Pride parade on Saturday. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Participants with the LGBTQIA+ Civil Rights Defenders, the community grand marshal, ride a trolley bus. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Participants with US Bank carry a pride flag down Sixth Avenue during the San Diego Pride parade. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Participants with Hyatt wave to people. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Dancers perform during the San Diego Pride parade. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Participants walk toward Balboa Park through Sixth Avenue during the San Diego Pride parade on Saturday. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Before the San Diego Pride parade officially kicked off, Sharat Lin performed a “dance of peace”. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Pride events are held today in San Diego to honor the Stonewall uprising of 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City and patrons fought back in a dayslong confrontation.
San Diego Pride’s own origins date back to 1974, when a group of people took to San Diego’s streets calling for gay rights. In subsequent years, the group grew, and the modest march became the Pride Parade, which now brings in about a quarter of a million people each year.
Along with the sea of rainbow flags and accessories, many attendees went the extra mile.
Pacific Beach resident and drag queen Harper Bizzarre’s outfit on Saturday paid homage to Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz, complete with a handmade dress that took 100 hours to create.
Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the 1939 film, is widely considered a queer icon, and Dorothy’s character represents finding yourself. The song “Over the Rainbow” also became an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’ve always known it was gay, and I’ve always loved the movie since I first saw it when I was 5,” Bizzarre said.
After performing in a class production of the “Wizard of Oz” in the first grade, Bizzarre said “singing along to ‘Over the Rainbow’ was like a whole world opening for me.”
Bizzarre loves coming to the San Diego Pride Parade to see the community showing up for each other in the light of the daytime — out in the open.
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“I’m just so happy to see San Diego celebrating queer people,” Bizzarre said.
