The nonprofit that organizes Oakland Pride is dissolving — but the festival has found a new home within the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.
Leadership of both the center and the pride celebration say the transition will bring more stability and opportunities to an event that has suffered from financial insecurity and mismanagement for years.
Oakland’s LGBTQ Center, on Lakeshore Avenue, has hired two staffers, Manifair Hwang and Brandon Harami, to manage the pride program. They’ll be responsible for lining up sponsors and curating the annual celebration, as well as associated events throughout the year.
“This will lead to a bigger, more efficient, and more effective Pride, especially as we build on the experience and knowledge of the people who came before us,” said Harami, who most recently worked for former Mayor Sheng Thao.
Harami said the center will use Oakland Pride to introduce community members to the center’s other offerings, including health care and social services.
Oakland Pride, traditionally held in September, will get a new date: Aug. 16. A parade course introduced last year — from 22nd Street and Broadway to Frank Ogawa Plaza — will remain in place.
Joe Hawkins, who co-founded both the LGBTQ Center and Oakland Pride, said the merger is a roundabout manifestation of the original vision.
When Oakland Pride launched in 2010, the plan was to also create a permanent home for the city’s queer community, Hawkins said. When that didn’t come to fruition, Hawkins branched off and, in 2017, helped found the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, which he still directs. Now, the two organizations, which have often worked together in different capacities, will become one, as initially envisioned.
In 2021, the Bay Area Reporter published emails revealing financial strife within Oakland Pride, which had canceled the annual event under confusing circumstances. That year, the organization actually asked the center to take over planning the celebration, but Hawkins demurred, saying the logistics and legalities would be too complicated on short notice. A separate group started a different event, Pridefest, to fill the gap, and then both events were held the following year.
The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center on Lakeshore Avenue will now house Oakland Pride. Credit: Amir Aziz/The Oaklandside
In a press release announcing the dissolution of Oakland Pride this month, George Smith III, the board president, said the decision was “not sudden.” He said the financial situation he encountered at Oakland Pride when he joined the board in 2023 was a “mess,” including poor record-keeping, improper credit card use, and outstanding debts.
As a program of the center, Oakland Pride “will finally have the financial and operational infrastructure it needs to thrive,” Smith said.
Like many organizations serving LGBTQ communities during the second Trump administration, Oakland’s center has also had a rocky year, including losing a $600,000 federal grant, according to Hawkins.
But local foundations, governments, and residents have more than made up for the loss.
“Our community has always been that way — people stepped up in ways that were phenomenal,” Hawkins said. With Oakland Pride struggling too, “it was pretty clear we could help.”
Harami said the idea is for the pride program to be self-sustaining through the sponsors it attracts. He emphasized that the festival is looking for both financial support and volunteers this year.
Hosting an exuberant, festive celebration is a form of protest in an era when “rainbow crosswalks get removed, and the rainbow flag gets taken down at Stonewall,” said Harami.
“Our mere existence as queer folks is political,” he said, “and it’s also an event where everyone can celebrate and find joy in these hard times.”
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