We’re very excited to share the news that our friend Belo Cipriani has just been named as a Grand Marshal for this year’s LGBTQ Pride Parade in San Francisco! Pride is set to take over the city once again June 27-28, and for the first time, one of its eleven Grand Marshals will be totally blind. A past student of the LightHouse, freelance journalist and accomplished memoirist, Cipriani is an exemplary figure for both the LGBTQ community and the Blindness Community. After losing his sight several years ago after being brutally beaten in the Castro, Cipriani (now 34) emerged as not only an incredibly resilient character, but one willing to share his most personal experiences both in print and in person.
“This is one of the best things that has happened in my life and I’ll always treasure this moment,” said Cipriani, beaming from the front page of this week’s Bay Area Reporter, where he also writes a column called “Seeing in the Dark.” Cipriani has been attending Pride for going on twenty years now, and one can only imagine his “pride” at becoming the celebration’s first-ever blind Grand Marshal. Cipriani said he is brainstorming how to incorporate this into the theme for his parade contingent, adding, “the only thing that is certain is that my guide dog, Oslo, will ride with me in the convertible. I am sure he’ll have a blast.”
This year’s Pride Parade will march from Embarcadero to right near our headquarters at 214 Van Ness Ave., and we’ll be there cheering along. Read more about the 2015 theme, “Equality Without Exception,” over at the Bay Area Reporter. You can read more about Belo at his website, and hear him talk about himself and his book in the YouTube video below. Recently Cipriani also wrote a great article about beauty and dating for Huffington Post.
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