Overview: Pride Month
Now, Pride month is a time to reconnect with friends he has known for decades and spend quality time with his family.
During the summer recess of the California legislature, Assemblymember Chris Ward — who represents
California’s 78th District
— will be back in San Diego to celebrate Pride with his family and longtime friends.
As the chair of the
LGBTQ Caucus
in the state capitol, he also plans on hosting a roundtable with local LGBTQ+ leaders to keep them apprised of the work of the caucus and bills affecting the community.
The caucus has sponsored bills advancing gender-affirming health equity and data privacy, which mirror protections instituted for reproductive healthcare workers and patients seeking abortions in California after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
They are also fighting to fund HIV prevention and care resources on the chopping block, as well as staying connected to their local districts and supporting LGBTQ+ people at home. Their work is multi-pronged, ambitious and strategic.
The caucus is more powerful than ever with fourteen members — seven in the Assembly and seven in the Senate.
California is the first state for LGBTQ+ members to surpass 10% in the legislature, achieving parity with the general population. While the membership has grown since five lesbian and gay legislators, including San Diego’s own
Christine Kehoe
, founded the caucus in 2002, they are also facing new difficulties.
Youth under threat
After the rightward shift in the November election, Sacramento has seen an influx in legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community. So far, Ward said the caucus has been 100% successful in killing those bills — but not without cost.
At a long hearing about a bill aiming to repeal protections for transgender youth in school sports, Ward recalled the difficulty of excavating his own painful memories on the floor of the Assembly to explain the personal toll such a bill would have on young and vulnerable Californians.
While Ward is not transgender, he can relate to the feeling of fear faced by trans people. He recalls struggling with his sexuality in high school along with messages that he was wrong and not normal, and had no future if he was gay.
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“I relate that feeling and realize that (we have) had some advancements, and we can always lose those advancements, and we’re going to fight like hell for those,” Ward said.
“The emotion really takes you back to a very personal and painful memory where you live through that hurt and those years, and you never want that to happen to kids today.”
Ward feels added pressure to defeat these bills because he says that LGBTQ+ children’s life and future depend on it, just as his once did.
His adult success might belie the fears of his younger self. After starting his career as an environmental planner, he has fought climate change, worked to build housing and addressed homelessness since entering office.
He has been undefeated at the ballot box since first running in 2016 to take up the mantle of the third City Council district, long the center of LGBTQ+ political power in San Diego, then moving to the Assembly in 2020.
When not in Sacramento, he is living the domestic dream with his husband Thom Harpole and two children, Betty and Billy, in University Heights.
Pride requires community
San Diego Pride in 1998 was a turning point in Ward’s life.
At the time, he was testing out places like San Diego to live after graduating college. He grew up in a military family without a permanent place to call home.
When he attended the parade and festival, Ward was blown away by how large, organized, and put together the LGBTQ+ community was. Pride made him decide to stay.
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“That was sort of the event that crystallized that I had found my forever home. And it was a community I wanted to be a part of, be engaged with, volunteer with, and find myself and establish roots,” Ward said.
Now, Pride month is a time for him to reconnect with friends he has known for decades and spend quality time with his family, who have participated in the parade, been spectators, attended the festival and gone to backyard Pride parties.
While his children have always had two dads, interacting with other diverse families helps show their upbringing is normal. Celebrating Pride is all they have ever known.
As national sentiment towards LGBTQ+ people sours, he urges others to remain in community too.
Isolation can lead to hopelessness and choosing to conform to appease hate actors will only exacerbate that, he warns. Ward believes that during difficult times, it is important to remember not only to fight against something, but to fight for something as well.
“Continue to be yourself and show them that… you are awesome,” Ward said. “We’re going to be able to get through this together.”
