Last year, Pride at San Diego’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility was a two-day celebration with drag queens, performances, outside wellness organizations and people from the Southern California queer communities.
The festivities featured gay Chicano social media influencers Trino&Adam and their live hip-hop performance, a mini-documentary about their lives as gay men in a traditional Catholic Mexican American community, and a Q&A with the newly married couple.
There was also a drag show from local queens Strawberry, Amber St. James and Snowflake, followed by a theater performance inspired by Trino&Adam’s story and written by incarcerated playwright JC Rodriguez.
A man detained here, who goes by Mr. Ford, said Trino&Adam’s performance made our prison stage a place of understanding.
“I am a heterosexual male and I appreciate you guys because you came here and you shared your story,” he said during the Q&A. “You didn’t push your agenda on me, and I feel like that’s a great first step for me to see you.”
The Pride celebration here was led by specialists Sonia Bahro, Joseph Slimowicz and Mark Lukasik, who oversee the prison’s mental health department. Community partners, including AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and San Diego County Public Library, were also featured at the event.
“I think that Pride is important, especially for the prison community,” said Mattie Nicholson, a transgender resident. “It helps us be visible and shows that we are proud of who we are.”
“Being true to myself [and] learning about my gender and my sexuality saved my life,” Courtney “Strawberry” Johnson said before her performance. “If you are LGBTQ, fight for those trans children and adults that are struggling to come out and transition.”
Before this year’s festivities, I interviewed people for their perspective on our unique Pride celebration. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What does it mean to celebrate Pride in prison?
Steve W.: Celebrating the idea that no matter what, we are all the same. … I will celebrate anyone who is genuinely being themselves.
Roderick Fonseca: An opportunity to support not just the LGBTQ community and the system, but also my brother, who is a part of that community out there.
JC Cervantes: I’ve never celebrated Pride in the free world, so to celebrate Pride in prison was like … wow! It’s something that I never thought would be possible, and that I would never get a chance to experience.
Stephen H.: To support the community — to provide them with a sense of peace and safety and acceptance in a place otherwise filled with hate and segregation.
Q: How has the Pride event changed and grown over the years?
Brad M.: I only went last year for the first time. I was aware of the year before that, but I don’t think it was a big deal. Next year, I went outside and they had tiny horses, and four drag queens, and booths and guest talks. It’s a much bigger thing, it’s grown definitely more than it was in the years previous, and I saw way more people attending than years before.
James: It’s grown in numbers. I’ve seen more allies. I think more people are becoming more accepting because they see it every year, and it’s becoming a natural norm. It’s changing prison culture.
Cervantes: This will be the third one. I’ve noticed that it’s become bigger and bigger — even with my peers and the community here. Everybody is very supportive and it’s become more inclusive. I’ve noticed more unity. Not just the community but also friends of the community that identify as heterosexuals. I have my cellies tell me we have to go to the Pride event to support. They’ve agreed to attend just to support. We all go and walk together as a cell.
Q: In what ways have these events changed how you think about Pride?
James: It hasn’t changed my way of thinking about Pride, it’s changed the way I view others — to be able to accept who they truly are. It is what it is, and you are who you are. I came from the mainline [general population], so it’s a whole other story. I used to be concerned [for my safety] when it came to Pride, but now I really do feel confident and more accepted.
Cervantes: The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I’ve become more comfortable with my identity, and I’ve become more comfortable speaking about it with heterosexuals.
Stephen H.: They haven’t really changed how I feel about Pride, but more how I perceive the power of acceptance and community. No matter what our differences are, we all need that acceptance and to feel like we belong.
Q: What’s one thing about celebrating Pride in prison that people on the outside would be surprised to learn?
Steve W.: How many people are actually very against it. At the same time, a lot of those people just have never had positive interactions with LGBT+ community. So, when they see that people are just people, it helps them to relax a little more. They may not celebrate Pride day, but they stop being against it and that’s a major accomplishment in itself.
James: How many people are actually accepting of it here. Most people don’t believe it — they think prison, they think hardcore-stabbing-beatdown. All in all, there are a lot more allies here than you’d think.
Stephen H.: That the allies in here have just as much fun celebrating it as the allies out there, because I see a lot of allies laughing their asses off with the drag queens doing their thing. And that surprised the shit out of me. I thought there were going to be a lot of people feeling uncomfortable and walking out of there.
