Pride started as a riot, and some queer revolutionaries don’t want San Antonio to forget it.
That’s why a coalition of grassroots organizations is hosting a Reclaim Pride event Sunday, Aug. 31, from 1-8 p.m. The event, to be held at radical book store Read Free on San Antonio’s East Side, is part of a national movement to counter what activists see as the increasing corporatization and police presence at Pride celebrations.
Although many Pride celebrations take place in June, others fall in August, including Austin Pride.
San Antonio’s first ever Reclaim Pride event will feature panel discussions, a resource fair, live music, drag performances and more, according to organizers. In the community-driven spirit of the grassroots events, food and drinks will also be free, provided by the activist groups.
The coalition of groups behind the event — which calls itself The Gay Agenda — includes Oppressed Revolutionaries for Worker Power of San Antonio, Mujeres Marcharán and Autonomous Brown Berets.
“The first Pride started out as a riot, and it started as a riot from police oppression,” Robert Hernandez, an organizer for both Oppressed Revolutionaries and The Gay Agenda, told the Current in a phone conversation. “Police officers were essentially raiding gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn, and locking up queer people, trans people, basically just for being gay. But now in our Pride celebrations, we kind of see a co-optation of our identity. So here in San Antonio, the Pride celebration is flooded with police officers. And police officers, of course, for the Gay Agenda, are state oppressive forces.”
The Gay Agenda first made waves in June when it called for a boycott of Pride.
“Queers of San Antonio are demanding change!” read the group’s boycott letter. “For years San Antonio’s Pride celebration has made space for police, politicians, and corporations. The police are a state gang that protects private property and enforces laws built by the ruling class to oppress the working class.”
The Current reached out to Pride San Antonio organizers for comment but didn’t receive a response by press time.
Tensions with the San Antonio Police Department came to a head just as Pride month kicked off with the June 1 murder of Jonathan Joss and SAPD’s hasty declaration that it was not a hate crime, which they later walked back.
At a subsequent community forum, attendees aired a long history of grievances with the SAPD and its handling of hate crimes against San Antonio’s queer community. As one attendee mentioned, a survey by Trinity University revealed that 70% of self-identified trans respondents said they had been intentionally misgendered by police.
In its boycott letter, the Gay Agenda also demanded divesting from corporate sponsors, particularly alcohol brands that Hernandez feels encourage alcoholism in the queer community. White Claw and Austin EastCiders are both sponsors of Pride Bigger Than Texas, San Antonio’s Pride celebration and parade.
The coalition also believes that Pride events should be free to truly be “for the people.” The Pride Bigger Than Texas parade is free to attend and march in, though the associated festival has a $12 entry fee, or $15 for the day of the festival.
Though, of course, if the event became a free celebration without corporate sponsors, the question then becomes … how does Pride Bigger Than Texas pay for itself?
Hernandez says the coalition is also calling for a transparent expense report from Pride San Antonio, insisting that there are ways to cut costs and raise funds ethically, but they need to see the cost breakdown first in order to recommend cost-saving and fundraising solutions.
Pride Bigger Than Texas also serves as a fundraiser for a number of beneficiary organizations, including San Antonio AIDS Foundation, Beat AIDS, San Antonio Footbridge Association, and others.
Hernandez, a former Starbucks union organizer, is also critical of what he calls a “lack of political messaging” at Pride San Antonio.
“So that’s why we kind of believe in making our own Pride celebration for and by the people,” Hernandez said. “So that we can ensure that it’s political and we can ensure it’s a safe space for people away from politicians, away from corporations and away from the police.”
Working-class solidarity and anti-imperialism is a through line of the Reclaim Pride event — from a panel discussion on “Finding Queer Joy in a Capitalist System” to a performance by a drag artist named Miss Red Scare. The main theme of the drag show is “Do Drag Not War,” a rebuke of another Pride Bigger Than Texas sponsor, USAA.
‘We’re hoping in the future, the larger our movement gets here in San Antonio, the more we can see local festivals here in San Antonio adopt more of a political message of maybe divesting from police officers and investing more in the local community,” Hernandez added.
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This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 6, 2025.