Passing the Hat for New Hats
The 44th annual San Francisco Pride celebration is June 28th and 29th – and for the past 36 years, The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band has been front and center with bright uniforms, uplifting music and baton twirlers.
But when Tom Taylor and Jerry Goldstein, founders of the Diversity Foundation of San Francisco, saw the band at their 2013 Dance-Along Nutcracker®: Nutcrackers of the Caribbean! Takes Clara & Fritz on Pirate Adventure they realized that the Band was missing something. That something was… new hats or new fedoras to be exact!
It’s hard to imagine, but in 1978 when the band was founded, it became the very first openly gay musical group in the world. Since that time, the band has entertained many thousands of fans and spawned similar bands in other cities.
It’s not cheap outfitting a marching band and not just any hats will do. The bill for these festive fedoras was in the neighborhood of $1,500 and Tom and Jerry were able to deliver them in less than two days!
Be on the look out at Pride 2014 for The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band as they will be on the march. If you would like to get involved and help defray the costs of maintaining this Bay Area treasure, you can log on here and help them “Pass The Hat.”