By Beatrice Farb

This June, with parades, parties and community events, San Franciscans were never far from an opportunity to participate in Pride Month – with the Richmond District being no exception.

Businesses in the Outer Richmond kicked off Pride Month a day early, on May 31, with a celebration billed as “Queer Out Here: A day of solidarity, celebration and fundraising for our LGBTQ+ Community.”

From 33rd Avenue to La Playa Street, Richmond residents were offered an array of options to support their queer neighbors. There were events throughout the day, ranging from a 10 a.m. drag show at Devil’s Teeth Baking Company to an evening DJ performance at The Laundromat. While some businesses put on special events, others donated a portion of the day’s proceeds to some of a dozen LGBTQ+ charities.

Multiple businesses raised money for the LYRIC Center of San Francisco, whose mission is to “build community and inspire positive social change through education enhancement, career trainings, health promotion and leadership development with LGBTQQ youth,” according to its website. Businesses also fundraised for national charities, like the Trans Justice Funding Project, Black LGBTQIA+ Immigrant Project and the Campaign for Southern Equality.

The day was organized by Danny Montoya, the owner of The Butterfly Joint, a cafe and woodworking studio for children on Cabrillo Street near 45th Avenue.

“We wanted to show solidarity for the LGBTQ community because of all the nonsense that’s happening lately. We just wanted to have a way of showing that this neighborhood cares about all of our community,” Montoya said.

“I just told everybody: If you want to put (the Queer Out Here poster) in your window, it shows the LGBTQ community that this is a safe place that’s down for us,” Montoya said. “At the same time, we are going to raise as much money as we can for all of these organizations.”

Other participating Richmond District businesses included Boa’s CVC, Butterlove Bakeshop, Noise Records, Eye & Hand Society, Iggy’s Place, Ocean Beach Cafe, Slake San Francisco Bottle and Sundry, Simple Pleasures Cafe and Rampant Bottle & Bar.

One local couple, Peter and Daniel Warren, took advantage of multiple events throughout the day.

“We started the day getting coffee at The Butterfly Joint,” Peter said. “They were doing a live screen-printing event and donating, I think, 10% of their proceeds to a list of pro-trans, pro-queer organizations that are raising money,” Peter said.

Next, they visited Rampant Bottle & Bar for wines made by queer, Bay-Area wine makers. A percentage of proceeds were donated to Co-Fermented, “an organization dedicated to creating awareness and facilitating representation for the LGBTQIA+ community within the wine industry,” according to its website.

By 4 p.m., Peter and Daniel had made their way to The Eye & Hand Society, an art gallery, boutique and venue on Balboa Street, across the street from Simple Pleasures. They joined a crowd of locals enjoying a series of live musical performances.

One performer, Chloe Montoya, engaged the swaying audience with a series of slow rock songs. Montoya played an acoustic guitar, and they were accompanied by a drummer and a backing vocalist.

While introducing a song, Montoya cheekily told the crowd, “I thought this was a perfect song to play because it’s about gay yearning.”

The next performance was by Jenny Haniver, a San Francisco-based musical duo led by Natasha Jong, who also served as a backing instrumentalist for other performers throughout the show. They played stripped-down, folksy originals accompanied by banjo and acoustic guitar. The show finished with a high-energy set from Oakland-based band Six Legs, which band member Surya Baskaran described as playing “emo, ethereal, queer, insect rock.”

After the show, Baskaran said, “I really like that we are playing with a bunch of other queer people of color. That means a lot.”

For more information on the businesses and LGBTQ+ organizations involved in the Queer Out Here celebration, visit thebutterflyjoint.com/queer-out-here.