SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – San Diego Pride, the annual celebration in July considered to be one of the biggest events in the region, is getting closer and closer each day.
"We have a quarter of a million people coming in for the parade, and we have a lot of folks who participate both in the parade and the festival,” said Kristin Flickinger, Interim Executive Director of San Diego Pride.
On Monday, Flickinger spoke to ABC 10News for the first time since the organization came under fire regarding one of its festival headliners, musician Kehlani.
The artist is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and has voiced support for Palestine in music, videos, and on social media.
"When we booked our headliners, both of our headliners, we booked them as Grammy level, Queer artists and performers to come into a space that is really dedicated to centering and celebrating for voices, for identities and queer joy. That's what the purpose was,” Flickinger said.
Flickinger told ABC 10News she recognizes that artists may have viewpoints that not everyone stands with and San Diego Pride doesn't endorse any individual artists viewpoints.
"That's not what's happening. We've brought people into a space again that centers and celebrates queer identities, and we've put up some barriers around that, some rules around that. We've reinforced our code of conduct,” Flickinger said.
But groups like Jewish Federation of San Diego view Kehlani’s comments as antisemitic, despite the artist saying otherwise, and have withdrawn from participating in the Pride.
"We have no interest in shutting down artists and their freedom of expression. We do however have interest in making sure that Jews of all; are welcome in these spaces,” Heidi Gantwerk, President & CEO of Jewish Federation of San Diego, said.
Because of that, they aren't changing their stance on participating in Pride.
“What I'm focused on is creating joyful Jewish experiences for the members of our Jewish community who are LGBTQ and feel unwelcome or unsafe at Pride,” Gantwerk said.
ABC 10News asked Flickinger if Pride would make a change to the headliner and replace Kehlani with a different artist, given the backlash and groups pulling out of the festival and/or the parade.
"Those will be our headliners moving forward. We are not excited to stand in the same space as our federal government and silencing the voices of artists, especially artists with dissenting viewpoints who are queer and artists of color,” Flickinger said.
As we’ve reported, UC San Diego and UC San Diego have also opted out of participating in the Pride Festival this year. According to the university’s statement online, it reads in part, “However, due to concerns regarding the headlining performer’s history of expressing blatantly Antisemitic views, we have made the decision to withdraw our sponsorship, financial support and participation in the Pride Festival.”
Other groups like the San Diego Pride Military Department has also dropped out as well.
As we reported, the department claimed there was a lack of support from the board during recent moves by the Trump administration.
The Pride board tells ABC 10News that's untrue.
