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About fifteen years ago, KishaLynn Elliott’s wife bought her a $12 ring at San Diego Pride.
The couple, then living in Long Beach, had already been married for three years, but Elliott was in need of a new wedding ring — her old one no longer fit. As they walked through the vendors at the Pride Festival, a ring caught her eye with the word “love” on one side and “unconditional” on the other.
It was a perfect fit, and the start of Elliott’s journey in San Diego.
“We definitely drove home saying ‘We’re moving,’ and the next year we’re here,” she said. “I wear San Diego Pride on my finger every day as a symbol of our love and our history.”
Elliott is now the new executive director of San Diego Pride, a nonprofit that hosts the city’s annual Pride festival and parade in July and year-round programming for the LGBTQ+ community. Over years of working in nonprofits, she says she sees the job as a way to connect her identity as a Black lesbian with her work in the community.
Elliott takes the helm after years of turnover at the top — she’s the seventh person to lead San Diego Pride since 2023, but only the third permanent one — and as the organization re-evaluates its mission and strategy.
She takes over as the Trump administration and Republicans around the country have made rolling back LGBTQ+ rights a key part of their age...
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