Yang, Johnson Named SF Pride Grand Marshals

A leader in the meditation community and a well-known transgender advocate are the first two people to be named community grand marshals for this year's San Francisco LGBT Pride parade.

Larry Yang, who teaches mindfulness and meditation locally and nationally, was the public's choice, based on balloting, according to officials with the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee.
Janetta Johnson

SF Pride members last week selected Janetta Johnson, executive director of the Transgender Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project, as their choice for community grand marshal.

SF Pride also announced that Black Lives Matter will be this year's organizational grand marshal, based on the public vote.

This year's Pride theme is "For Racial and Economic Justice."

Yang, 61, identifies as an Asian American queer man. He played a key role in the development of the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland and the Insight Community of the Desert in Palm Springs. He's helped to found a number of longtime LGBTQ meditation groups and is on the Teacher's Council of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County. Yang has a long-standing commitment to serving multicultural and queer activist communities.

He pointed out that fighting for equality and dealing with bigotry can be quite stressful - meditation can play a key role in alleviating that stress, he said.

"The work of social activism is hard and often harsh," Yang said. "Can we do the work without our hearts hardening and becoming harsh as well? What would it be like to do the work of justice with hearts and minds that are free from greed, hatred, and delusion. That is the invitation of meditation, to create our social activism as our spiritual practice."

Yang also said that he was "deeply humbled and moved by all our communities who have expressed their caring and support for all our collective journeys and aspirations for a more just and kind world."

"I bow deeply to the lives and work of my co-marshals, Janetta Johnson and Black Lives Matter," he said. "They are role models for me as I continue to learn how I might be of service."

Johnson told the Bay Area Reporter that she was delighted to be chosen, but cautioned the community to keep in mind that equality for all has yet to be achieved.

"I am thrilled to be selected as grand marshal and deeply appreciate the recognition of my work with TGI Justice Project," she said. "I just have to say that while I am honored, I am also aware that there is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us. So I will be celebrating, and I will also be thinking of my trans sisters, brothers, and siblings currently kept out of the community in cages by systems of oppression - including prisons, jails, and detention centers."

Johnson, who declined to state her age, added that she enjoys working with others who share her goals.

"I am proud to be working with and alongside the other grand marshals and proud to continue to create spaces and campaigns for economic justice and safety, together," she said. "Thank you for selecting me as a SF Pride grand marshal. Black trans lives matter."

According to its website, TGI Justice Project works "in collaboration with others to forge a culture of resistance and resilience to strengthen us for the fight against human rights abuses, imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty, and societal pressures."

The agency seeks to create a world rooted in self-determination, freedom of expression, and gender justice. The site further notes that the organization's membership is comprised of low-income transgender women of color, their families who are in prison, formerly incarcerated, or targeted by the police.

Black Lives Matter is an international network of more than 30 chapters working for the validity of black life, according to an SF Pride news release. It works to build the black liberation movement and affirm the lives of all black people, specifically black women, queer and trans people, people who are differently-abled, and those who are undocumented and formerly incarcerated.

"The Black Lives Matter national network is honored to have received the distinction of serving as the organizational grand marshal for this year's San Francisco Pride parade," Shanelle Matthews, communications strategist for BLM, told the B.A.R. "Black Lives Matter is committed to empowering those marginalized within black liberation movements, specifically queer, transgender and gender non-conforming people."

Some have questioned whether the Black Lives Matter movement is an LGBT issue. Matthews said that it is.

"The fight for LGBT rights and black liberation has always been inextricably linked," she said. "We know many San Franciscans share our vision of a world where black LGBT people can have the political, social, and economic power we deserve to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families, like everyone else. Black Lives Matter was founded and is staffed by queer black women. We never miss an opportunity to highlight the needs of the LGBT community, especially black trans women."

In fact, one of the co-founders, Alicia Garza, a queer woman, served as a Pride community grand marshal last year.

SF Pride officials said that additional community grand marshals are expected to be named in a couple weeks.

This year's Pride Parade will commence on Sunday, June 26 at 10:30 a.m.