San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community celebrates Trump’s defeat

Liberal strongholds throughout the country rejoiced Saturday, ecstatic about Joe Biden’s presidential win. However, while coverage of DC, LA, and Atlanta was plentiful, San Diego’s enormous LBGTQ+ community, Hillcrest, had a largely uncovered celebration akin to a Pride Parade to commemorate the incoming blue president.

Saturday was a good day for residents of Hillcrest and most members of the LGBT community since current President Donald Trump’s administration has made some very unfriendly policies in the past term. From the military ban to forbidding embassies to fly pride flags, Trump has proven himself to be less than an ally, especially to transgender individuals. With his defeat, Hillcrest residents came out in droves to celebrate a bright new future for their community.

Driving down University Avenue, Hillcrest’s main street, was a miles-long motorcade of every possible vehicle filled to the brim with prideful people hanging signs out their windows and waving flags from their sunroofs. People danced in the streets, played music from their cars, and shouted out their windows, all expressing their happiness at the end of Trump’s time in office. With such a long year behind them, including the cancellation of this year’s pride parade, so many people were just happy for something to be happy about.

This was doubtless a celebration of Trump’s defeat, rather than one of Biden’s victory. Few people carried pro-Biden signs (though one woman did stop in the middle of the road to pull one from her trunk and wave it out her window for the next twenty minutes) and signs proclaiming “You’re fired” and the ever-popular “F—k Trump” stretched as far as the eye could see. Yet, by far the most common item to see were pride flags. People carried them, wore them as capes, held them out their car windows, and waved them out their sunroofs. The parade, while still a celebration rooted in politics, commemorated what an incoming Democratic president would mean, rather than the victory or defeat itself.

For LGBTQ+ people, Biden means security and protection from uber-conservative politicians who have already overturned dozens of pro-LGBTQ laws and even contemplated revoking same-sex marriage as an American right. While the Democratic House majority has shrunk and Republicans may keep control of the Senate, a blue president offers much more safety than even a moderate Republican, let alone a president like Trump. Love Biden or not, his win means something very important to millions of Americans: four more years of rights. And that is always worth celebrating.