Downtown’s 5th Avenue will look more colorful this month.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer marked the 40th anniversary of San Diego Pride by hanging rainbow pride flags above the streets.
The celebration took place Wednesday afternoon on the corner of 5th Avenue and L Street. The mayor climbed into a scissor lift and helped raise the 124 flags in support for gay rights.
Faulconer, a Republican, is chairman for the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry coalition.
With help from the Gaslamp Quarter Association and San Diego LGBT Pride, the ceremony aimed to celebrate the “diversity and inclusiveness in the heart of San Diego’s Historic Gaslamp Quarter,” according to a news release from the mayor's office.
San Diego hosted its first gay pride event in June 1974. Gay rights advocates marched from the Center for Social Services over to Balboa Park. The group was ordered to march only on the sidewalks because they lacked a parade permit.
Four decades later, flags wave above the streets of Downtown San Diego to support gay pride.
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This year's Pride Parade will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 19 in Hillcrest.
