Joe.My.God. LGBT News
From the Bay Area Reporter:
San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener confirmed Thursday that there will be no Pink Party in the city’s gay Castro district the Saturday before the annual LGBT Pride parade. Following a March 17 meeting with key stakeholders, Wiener told the Bay Area Reporter that there will be no street closures this year. In previous years, the streets were closed for the unofficial party.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence had produced what was known as Pink Saturday for nearly two decades. Last year, however, the Sisters decided to end their oversight of the street party due to escalating violence. A sister and his husband were attacked in 2014, while Stephen Powell, 19, died after being shot toward the end of the party in 2010.
Last year, at the request of Wiener, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center stepped in to oversee the event, which was renamed the Pink Party and held earlier in the day. Wiener said Thursday that the center, which is planning for a major interior remodel of its upper Market Street building this spring, doesn’t have the capacity to continue producing the street party.
Pink Saturday has long been criticized for its unruly crowds. In 2014 two Sisters were assaulted and two women were attacked by a group of six men. In 2013 a woman was brutally beaten and robbed during the event. Her attacker was later sentenced to six years in prison. In 2010, three people were shot and one young man was killed during a gang-related altercation on Pink Saturday. (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)