{"id":20183788,"date":"2025-08-27T06:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/?p=20183788"},"modified":"2025-08-27T03:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:39:58","slug":"silicon-valley-pride-weekend-50th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/silicon-valley-pride-weekend-50th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride of Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fifty years after its first march in San Jose, Silicon Valley Pride is still defined by the people daring to show up\u2014who refuse to let the party, or the politics, fade into the background, and the community go unseen. People like Nicole Denson, CEO of SV Pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came out when I was 17 years old,\u201d says Denson, who has \u201cmade it a point to attend San Francisco Pride and also San Jose, now Silicon Valley Pride, every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activist says attending year after year shaped her connection to the LGBTQ+ community. \u201cI always felt it was important, even to this day. I no longer go to San Francisco on Sunday for the parade, but I remember starting with SV Pride in 2017 and that was a whole other level of the community bond that I have since developed and cherished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denson had attended the first Women\u2019s March in San Jose in 2016, after President Donald Trump won the presidency the first time. \u201cIt was right after the election had just happened, and I was in a desperate state to do something, to be heard,\u201d she says. \u201cThere had to be some action because of the state that we were all in, as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a recommendation from her brother Timothy, she connected with then SV Pride CEO Thaddeus Campbell, who had revived the event and was searching for a new board of directors for the nonprofit that was \u201ccoming back from a few depleted years when [Thaddeus] took over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activists met at the Billy de Frank Center on a rainy evening, and he simply asked her what she\u2019d like to help with. \u201cHe was like \u2018What would you like to do? We have operations, marketing\u2026\u2019 And I thought, well, I work for the City of San Jose and I could help with permitting. \u2018How about the chief operations officer role?\u2019 And unbeknownst to me, it was one of the hardest roles in the organization,\u201d she says, smiling. \u201cIt was the first year we brought the event back to Plaza de Cesar Chavez, which has been its home ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RAISING VOICES <\/strong>The Silicon Valley Gay Men\u2019s Chorus has performed at past SV Pride events. PHOTO: Phoebe Mortensen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, SV Pride has shifted names, venues, and scope alongside the community it represents. The very first Pride event in San Jose was organized in 1975 by San Jose State University\u2019s Gay Student Union across its campus, and a year later it moved to St. James Park as the Gay Freedom Rally and Dance. Among the roughly 300 attendees was Harvey Milk, who returned as a speaker in 1978.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1981, the celebration relocated to what\u2019s now Plaza de C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez, then called City Plaza, and in 1983 took on the name Gay Pride Celebration. Just two years later it returned to St. James Park, where, according to QueerSiliconValley.org, about 5,000 people turned out\u2014joined by a growing number of local LGBTQ+ businesses and organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the \u201980s and \u201990s the event kept moving: from SJSU\u2019s athletic fields on 10th and Alma, to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, to Stockton Avenue in the early \u201990s, and in 1995 to Discovery Meadow, where attendance hit a then record high of 12,000 attendees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly two decades later, in 2014, Pride\u2019s organizers rebranded San Jose Pride as Silicon Valley Pride to better include the region\u2019s wider LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reviving the event with a new parade and venue, and clearing the debt that had burdened the organization in previous years, Thaddeus Campbell guided Pride\u2019s return to its longtime home at Plaza de C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, recognizing that Pride events often skew heavily male, the organization launched HEY GIRL!, a queer women\u2013focused subcommittee under the SV Pride umbrella, co-founded by Denson and Liz Asborno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat first year I joined was a successful year. Since then, Silicon Valley Pride, under Thaddeus\u2019 leadership and my own, cheering on his vision and mission, we\u2019ve seen growth. The event has quadrupled in attendance, things are operating on budget, and we\u2019re still growing and that\u2019s in large part due to his vision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Strategic Partnership Officer Saldy Suriben started with SV Pride in 2014 as chief marketing officer. \u201cI had volunteered for other LGBTQ+ organizations such as GLADD and the Billy De Frank Center, but I felt like I wanted to give more back and enhance my skillset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a background in event planning and a degree in marketing from San Jose State, Suriben says he was keen to get involved. \u201cSV Pride, at that time, was the perfect organization to get involved with. Throughout the years, I\u2019ve learned a lot, helping [Pride] with sponsorships and donations, so I was able to enhance my skillset after all, in addition to the marketing and planning,\u201d he says. \u201cWithout being boastful, I do believe my contributions have helped make a difference in what SV Pride is today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Aug. 21, Suriben was recognized for his advocacy work and commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ community organizations by Assemblymember Ash Kalra on behalf of the 25th Assembly District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s thanks to contributions from individuals like Suriben and Denson that SV Pride has grown into a collaborative, well-attended celebration. Now, it not only provides guidance and support to the LGBTQ+ community but also advocates for their rights, sponsors year-round events, and awards $30,000 annually in scholarships to LGBTQ+ youth through the Thaddeus Orlando Campbell Scholarship Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Campbell passed away in 2019, Denson became interim CEO and then took over officially in 2021. Denson, reflecting on his influence and his work, says she still carries Campbell in her leadership today. \u201cI always ask myself, what would Thaddeus do? When he took over the organization it was San Jose Pride. He had a vision to make a more high-tech festival and he also saw the need to diversify what SV Pride entailed\u2014and not only in the landscape, which included all of the South Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, Prides around the country have leaned toward white cis-gender gay males, Denson says. Under Thaddeus\u2019 leadership, Pride brought on its first Chief Diversity Officer Sera Fernando, now Santa Clara County\u2019s manager of the Office of LGBTQ Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe became more intentional with our programming. We came up with a Trans and Friends rally that first year, and HEY GIRL!, a collaborative subcommittee of SV Pride,\u201d Denson says. The organization produces and promotes events that are geared toward \u201cqueer women and femme identified individuals across the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum, including our gender-non-conforming siblings,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HEY GIRL! has grown over the years, and it always has a \u201clarge stake hold\u201d at Pride. \u201cThe subcommittee was a largely part of Campbell\u2019s vision,\u201d Denson says, and the team continues to move his vision forward every year, welcoming new advocacy group partners and sponsors that align with the organization\u2019s mission and vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was my friend, my mentor, and somebody that I look to make proud each year. We try to make a festival that he would enjoy and be proud to be a part of,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now at the 50-year mark, Denson reflects, carrying Pride\u2019s legacy forward is something she sees as a necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the state we\u2019re in, much like in 2016, but worse, I think that we\u2019ve been set back 50 years. The true meaning and need for Pride is alive now more than ever. Pride was not started to be a party in the streets. It started from a need to be seen, to be heard, to be visible, to have a right to live. Right now, our rights are being stripped away from our community, and all other marginalized communities in this country. The need for Pride, the true definition, and the root of what it\u2019s for, is more important now than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving forward, Suriben hopes SV Pride remains as fabulous and exciting as it continues to grow. \u201cWe want people to be their authentic self,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re here for you, as a community, for whatever you need, to be out and proud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denson says she wants this year\u2019s attendees to come and take away a sense of pride, but really, a feeling of belonging and a sense of boldness, and responsibility. \u201cThis is a community that will open its arms to you, as an individual. You are safe here, and you belong here. We were unstoppable in 1975, and we\u2019re still unstoppable no matter how much they\u2019re trying to put a hold on us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pride\u2019s intersectionality touches everyone, Denson says. \u201cWe would be remiss to ignore the plights of other marginalized groups\u2014we see ICE, we see the murder of our black and brown brothers and sisters, we see the gender rights being stripped away from our siblings with female genitalia. We see all of this happening and not only does it affect those individual communities, but it also impacts the queer community because we are a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut here in Silicon Valley, California, here on the West Coast, we have the privilege of living somewhere where we are protected by the laws that govern us. \u2026 Not everybody has that privilege,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t find privilege to be some comfy place where somebody should reside; I find privilege to be a responsibility. I want people from Pride to take away the responsibility to uplift those that aren\u2019t able to uplift themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty years after its first march in San Jose, Silicon Valley Pride is still defined by the people who refuse to let the community go unseen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14789,"featured_media":20183790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1775],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n