SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A crowd at Dolores Park was not happy to hear from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other city leaders, as they were booed off the stage at a Pride weekend kickoff event.
The Pride festivities got off to a noisy start at Dolores Park before a transgender march in San Francisco.
The 13th annual Trans March and celebration usually is a very peaceful event, with lots of people showing support for one another.
But on Friday, that was slightly overshadowed by the cold reception local politicians received.
“My first year in Sacramento, we added gender identity to the Fair Employment Housing Act,” state Sen. Mark Leno said.
But he was mooned by a heckler and booed by several others. Openly gay state Sen. Leno was yelled off the stage, as was Scott Weiner, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and also openly gay, and Lee.
Lee and Weiner didn’t even have a chance to speak.
“Though this has not been a warm welcome or one of respect, I will continue to fight for transgender rights, equality, and the respect that your not giving us today,” Leno said.
This as local leaders showed up shortly before the Trans March to commemorate the tragedy in Orlando and protest hatred toward the trans community.
“I’m upset because I’m a Trans woman who has a lot of Trans friends who are homeless, and I’m tired of people using our community as a prop, a political prop,” Ashley Love said. “I’m tired of white, gay men riding the Stonewall movie and reducing Trans women of color to secondary props, to historical props, to social props, political props. I’m tired of politicians coming here for 5 minutes, do a little sound bite, and run off, but do they really care about us?”
KRON tried to speak with Lee and Weiner but was not able to do so.KRON’s Vince Cestone contributed to this report.