By Melanie Nathan, July 26, 2025
I visited the San Diego Pride website, intending to email the Board about my disappointment that Jews had in effect been excluded by San Diego Pride this year. A space where we had always felt welcome and well treated. I noticed that the website gave an excuse why it was not saying who the Board members are… and it led to this process:
I left a message today for San Diego Pride, via its website:” SHAME ON a BOARD AND STAFF OF COWARDS – at a time like this who cannot show their faces on PRIDE pages? If you were living in Uganda, where you were subject to the KILL THE GAYS BILL or a LGBTQI+ refugee in Kakuma camp, Kenya, not to mention other venues, one could understand why you would hide your faces. But hell, you are in San Diego, California! If you cannot stand up without fear in this queer space to the government, then you do not actually fully serve as Board or staff for a PRIDE organization! So many of us are facing this administration head-on and your fear is no excuse! The very idea of a BOARD is to stand up for your mission and to be accountable to the people your organization serves. Your failure is antithesis to PRIDE
By refusing to show your faces on your website, you are modeling shame, the inability to represent with courage, and failed resistance. Do you know how many LGBTI activists put their life on the line for rights, world wide, while you hide like cowards in your relative safety when comparing to the rest of world? If you do not have the stomach for it – do not do it!
If San Francisco Pride Board Members, as well as other LGBTQI+ people across the U.S.A. can put their names and faces out there – why not you? You are accountable to community, yet disappear yourselves from this accountability.
Unless you are truly cowards – you are not being honest about your abdication.
Perhaps the truth is that you are hiding behind the fact that your Board and Staff are too afraid to be identified associating them with the antisemitism San Diego Pride through the exclusion of Jews. This year Jews were excluded San Diego Pride Parade and festival because of the invitation and platforming of Kehlani. A person you know we believe supports our demise as Jews. “Long Live the Intifada” – a theme of her video makes this very clear to us. The audacity to say you fear violence against yourselves while you promote it an outrage! You platformed violence this past weekend against Jews through featuring Kehlani, who is calling for Intifada against Jews in her Music Video to her 25 million supporters, all the while she is propping up the current Intifada on American soil. YOU FEATURED THAT!
Shame on you!
That said – the mere fact that the LGBTQI+ Jewish community did not show up for Pride, had a separate Pride event, based on being excluded, invokes an apology at the very least – from this board – and some form of remedial or educational programing, moving forward, in attempt to restore the ideals of equality, inclusion and peace that San Diego Pride purports it stands for. You need to show your faces and you need to show up for this.
Scroll down for Board Members.
This is the notes San Diego Pride has placed on its website:
Ensuring Pride and Safety for our Team
Because of the ongoing threats and targeting of LGBTQIA+ work, non-profits generally, and pride organizations, specifically, we’ve made the decision not to share staff or board member names or photos here. This is about keeping our team safe—plain and simple.
The San Diego team is made up of individuals who not only do the work, but live the work. Our community knows us, and we are proud to be part of the community.
While we hope this is a temporary change, we recognize it might feel strange – it does to us. Nothing has changed about our mission to foster pride, equality, and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities locally, nationally, and globally.
If you need to get in touch, please complete the form below and we will get back to you as soon as we are able. We’re grateful for your support and for standing with us in protecting the people who work everyday to help build a a world free of prejudice and bias.
The Story behind the Antisemitism:
Jewish people did not attend San Diego Pride this year. In fact the organizations and advocates, myself included, who begged San Diego Pride to cancel Kehlani, did not show up. Jewish organizations partnered and created their own separate Pride event for Jews. San Diego Pride effectively can be seen to have purposely excluded LGBTQI+ Jewish people. Given the decision they made with all the information lobbed at them, they knew exactly what they were doing. Now I can only deduce that the Board and Staff are hiding from accountability for what transpired: THE EXCLUSION of JEWS and the PLATFORMING of Jew-Hate.
I wrote two articles about this here on OBLOGDEE and sent it to San Diego Pride: The last one on June 02, 2025, also calling out the exploitation of lesbian sex that Kehlani had indulged in. Waving the Palestinian flag, while engaging in simulated lesbian sex is glamorizing and exploitative. The Palestinian flag happens to be a symbol of violence against lesbians, and associated with the oppression of lesbians. The latter defying truth about our community’s suffering.
Well, I guess, it is not wonder the San Diego Pride Board is in hiding. After all they have done their part well, for the upside down world, exclusion and glamorizing those who want to hurt us, in which San Diego Pride Board and staff has chosen to participate. Accountability cannot escape them.
San Diego Pride Founder Calls for Cancellation of Kehlani Jew-Hate at Pride
Posted on BY Melanie Nathan, June 02, 2025.
Since contracting Kehlani as a headline act for San Diego Pride, a coveted honor, there has been a spate of attacks against Jews in the United States that is very clearly rooted in the call to “Globalize the Intifada”, a movement which Kehlani not only supports, but fervently promotes through her music videos. The Intifada has begun and Kehlani is instrumental in calling for it! Kehlani has over 25 million social media followers. More than the 15 million Jews who exist today in the world, and amounting to around 20% of the Jewish population exterminated in the Holocaust.
According to what I could find on the internet – with a simple chat GPT search – These are the names:
Current Senior Staff & Executive Team
San Diego Pride has not publicly disclosed names or photos of staff members due to security concerns. However, the following leadership transitions are publicly documented: Kristin Flickinger has been serving as Interim Executive Director since May 2025, following the resignation of Leane Marchese. Previously, Flickinger held senior roles with other major LGBTQ organizations and specializes in organizational transition support.
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San Diego Pride Board of Directors (as listed on June 2025)
According to CHAT GPT on the organization’s earlier official website, the Board consists of eight volunteer members:
- Geneva Lake — Co-Chair – Linked In:
- Noah Lomax — Co-Chair
- Brian Zotti — Treasurer
- Tyler Renner — Secretary
- Paris Quion — Board Member
- Teevrat Garg — Board Member
- Lori Hensic — Board Member
- Oleene Perera — Board Member
- Andrew Picard — Board Member
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NOT SURE OF FOLLOWING ROLES: - Joe Mayer — Emeritus
- Doug Moore — Emeritus
- Judi Schaim — Emeritus
Separate FB Search: Paris Quion, Co-Chair Noah Lomax, Co-Chair Brian Zotti, Treasurer Tyler Renner, Secretary Melody Corvalan, Director Martha Henderson, Director Lori Hensic, Director Geneva Lake, Director Oleene Perera, Director Andrew Picard, Director
M. Geneva Lake
TYLER RENNER
NOAH LOMAX
Paris Quion
is a California based Drag entertainer, nightlife personality, community activist and business person.
BRIAN ZOTTI
Brian Zotti, our Chief Operating Officer, has contributed to our mission by developing and implementing strategies that enable Options For All (OFA) to grow at scale and deliver exceptional experiences to our consumers. We are proud to share that Brian has been elected to serve on the board of Directors for San Diego Pride, an organization dedicated to fostering pride, equality, and respect for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities locally, nationally, and globally.
Options For All (OFA) is a California, 501(c)3 non-profit organization, dedicated to creating and supporting opportunities for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD). https://optionsforall.org/about-us/
Teevrat Garg
(he/him) is an associate professor of economics in the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) at UC San Diego. His research focuses on environmental policy and energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries. His current portfolio of research involves working directly with regional governments and utilities in understanding climate adaptation and decarbonization. In recent years, he has conducted research in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Uganda and Vietnam. Garg’s work has been published in leading academic journals and covered by prominent media outlets such as The New York Times and Science magazine. His policy engagements include serving as an academic advisor to the Green Growth Initiative at the International Growth Center and serving as a technical contributor to the fifth National Climate Assessment. He currently serves as editor at the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. https://gps.ucsd.edu/faculty-directory/teevrat-garg.html
LORI HENSIC
Lori Hensic, PharmD, PRS, BCACP She/Her, Healthcare Compliance & Risk Management | Regulatory & Government Affairs | Clinical Pharmacist Specialist https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-hensic/ “
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Provide high-level strategy, oversight, and accountability of the organization. Responsible for making key decisions that address the organization’s mission, strategy, and goals”
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OLEENE PERERA
ANDREW PICARD
We are excited to announce Andrew Picard has been appointed the new Executive Director of Stepping Stone of San Diego. With a strong background in non-profit leadership, organizational development, and a dedication to LGBTQ+ and recovery communities, Picard is well-equipped to guide the organization into its next chapter.
O-blog-dee-o-blog-da 
I boycotted SD Pride Parade this year, not because I wanted to, but because they have broken their mission to represent fairly all LGBTQI+ people without exception. First one I’ve missed in many, many years! Peace, Love, & Rock N Roll!