Benny’s Beat
By Benny Cartwright
Every year I like to reflect on some element of Pride, since it has now been such a huge part of my life since I was 16 years old and I first learned that there was a thing called a Pride celebration. For 25 years now – half of the time Pride has existed in San Diego – I have been volunteering for the San Diego Pride organization in a variety of capacities and I couldn’t imagine not being involved.
Another milestone this year is the 10th anniversary of the annual Pride Kickoff Party that Rick Cervantes and I host to bring our community leaders, service industry workers, Pride staff and volunteers, and anyone else together to celebrate on the Monday before Pride weekend, before we all get so busy with pride responsibilities or playing host to visitors.
Rick and I absolutely love putting on this celebration, and consider it our gift to our friends, supporters and community that we love so much.
And so for this year’s Pride reflection, I’m thinking about the 18 years that Rick has been in my life and all that we have created together for the community. I’m thinking about the importance of friendships and special relationships and bonds that we can build with people, and how incredibly lucky I am to have someone like Rick in my life.
This community has gotten me where I am today, by giving me platforms (like the one you’re reading) to share about my life; it has given me jobs and income; the ability to put my organizing skills to use; and most importantly, some of the most amazing people I have ever met.
Rick, too, also shares his love for this community, as it was where he found acceptance when his blood family didn’t approve of him being gay. He moved to San Diego from Central California specifically to be in Hillcrest, and he doesn’t want to live anywhere else in the world.
Because of this love for the community, we give back constantly in as many ways as we can. While we’re quite comfortable, we’re not wealthy, so writing checks and giving financial donations is not something we can do often, but we love organizing community clean ups, celebrations, our Hillcrest Honors program, and so much more – including Rick’s very popular @HillcrestSanDiego Instagram account that has become a go-to for neighborhood news and updates.
Like we say at most of these events, they all have a two-fold purpose. A community cleanup does a great service by keeping trash off our streets, but more importantly, it’s a community building activity where neighbors get to know each other while doing something good. Same goes for our Hillcrest Honors awards program. We get to spotlight people doing great things in the community, but we also use social media to announce the honorees so community members can see who is who.
I absolutely love that Rick shares my joy in doing these things. I couldn’t imagine doing these things on my own today.
I’ve been an LGBT community organizer since I was 18 at SDSU and I was running all kinds of activities and events even then on campus and in Hillcrest, and I did most of that organizing alone (with the help of great volunteers). It seems like such an ancient time and strange to think there was a period of time when I was doing this stuff without Rick. We’re a natural fit for each other and each have our own unique talents to lend to our community building work.
Together, our special bond and love for each other helps us each keep going – we both get burned out sometimes (often!) and there are times when community naysayers have been so vile that we’ve just wanted to call it all off. But we get each other through it, and we always remember that we do what we do because we love this community and believe in vibrant, close knit communities.
Certainly, like any pair of people with incredibly close bonds – we’re basically family – have rough patches. We fight, we disagree on things, and sometimes I’m not good at giving Rick space when he wants/needs it (I am one of those who thrive off the energy of others, while he needs absolute peaceful alone time to recharge sometimes). I can be annoying and chatty, too, but we all have our quirks and we work through them. Our history together, our deep understanding of each other and our care for each other keeps us strong – and we want to be strong for our community!
This year, I celebrate Rick and our commitment to the community and each other as I go into this San Diego Pride season!
With all that said, Rick and I are so excited to invite the entire community to our 10th annual Pride Kickoff Happy Hour, scheduled for Monday, July 15, from 5-9 pm at The Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave. in Hillcrest.
The event is always a blast with high energy music, drink specials, dancing if you choose, some popup drag performances, and much more! While we don’t do politics or fundraising at this event by design, we always get several elected officials, candidates for elected office, and other movers and shakers who stop by, so you’ll have the chance to interact with them if you’d like. The co-interim executive directors of San Diego Pride will also share welcoming remarks to kickoff the week.
This year, we’ve also added a special feature the hour before the party. Guests who arrive from 4-5 pm will have the opportunity to hear a special presentation we’re hosting called “Power in Pride.” Participants will learn about how to keep each other safe during Pride weekend, including Narcan, sexual health, and so much more. We’re really excited to provide this educational component to our party.
We’d really love to see you there as most of us don’t get to be together during Pride weekend because there are so many different things to do and places to be. Let’s celebrate this vibrant community we have here and our love for it!
Whether or not you are able to make it to our party, I do hope to at least bump into many of you during the weekend celebrations and events, and wish everyone a very happy Pride!
–Benny Cartwright is a longtime activist and community leader. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on Instagram @BennyC80.
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