BY DAY, I am one of Bay City News’ newest summer interns. By night — or at least every Monday from 7-10 p.m. — I am a proud member of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. These two worlds converged this Pride month, offering me the unique opportunity to report from our performance at SoSF in San Francisco’s Dogpatch.

While conducting interviews with festival-goers, chorus members, and staff, and moving between the audience and the stage, I observed just how much queer people are fighting for, even in their collective celebration.

Finbar Labelle reports from this year’s San Francisco Pride festival on the impacts President Trump’s culture war on the queer community.

This year, significant social progress faces constant contestation in a world marked by turmoil. Even San Francisco, a city long considered a paragon of liberalism and gay rights, has felt the blow of the Trump administration’s continued encroachment on civil liberties. From the inability to correctly identify on government documents like passports, to restrictions on inclusion in sports, to challenges regarding appropriate prison housing and health care access, Trump has repeatedly left queer and especially transgender people under attack.

SoSF, and all the chorus’s contributions served as a direct pushback against the silencing of queer people. It aimed to provide — as Mitch Galli, associate director of music, education and outreach, put it — “a protest for love and a protest for joy.” Our group, which is rapidly approaching its 50th anniversary as the first Gay Men’s Chorus in the country, opened for two iconic pop divas: Tinashe and Kim Petras.

Kim Petras bathes in the spotlight of her headlining act for SoSF, performing “Heart to Break” on Friday, June 27, 2025. (Finbar LaBelle/Bay City News)

Opening for Kim Petras felt all the more special because she made history as the first openly transgender woman to win a Grammy. Her performance was electrifying, and I couldn’t help but feel the crowd’s own kinetic energy pulsing with an undercurrent of resistance.

The accompanying podcast delves deeper into Pride’s history and explores some of the ways the community is rallying together in these challenging times.