Violence during recent pride weekends is causing big changes in this year's event.
There is now a unified voice that Pink Saturday, a celebration that draws hundreds of thousands of people from all over the Bay Area during Pride Weekend in June, has to change.
"It's no good anymore," said Dana Van Iquity, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. "So we don't want the responsibility of people being beat up and shot at and harassed."
And that is why the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who have produced Pink Saturday since its inception 20 years ago will not be pulling the permit this year.
"People come here specifically to attack queers," Van Iquity said.
Pink Saturday originally coincided with an international AIDS conference in San Francisco to bring together HIV activists and the queer community.
"A lot of violence we've seen is not about a hate crime -- it's about people getting drunk and belligerent," San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener said.
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Wiener, who oversees the city's Castro district, said one change this year will be a shorter street party, ending at about 8 p.m.
Other proposed ideas include charging for the event to eliminate troublemakers coming to the party.
