A car zooms past a mural on North Main Avenue in the newly named Pride Cultural Heritage District in San Antonio on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News
Pride San Antonio president Phillip Barcena chose one word to describe how he felt Wednesday when a mile-long stretch of North Main Avenue was officially named the city’s Pride Cultural Heritage District.
The newly designated district’s core is North Main Avenue, between East Elmira Street and East Mistletoe Avenue. It includes the surrounding neighborhood, bounded by West Grayson and North St. Mary’s streets to the east and San Pedro Avenue to the west.
The area is home to an annual Pride festival and parade, and several LGBTQ-owned or oriented businesses operate in the district, including Pegasus, Sparky’s Pub, Knockout and Heat. LGBTQ+ community members flocked to the area as early as the 1960s, according to a 60-page report from the city’s Office of Historic Preservation.
Several major cities have similar LGBTQ+ districts, including Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C.
Barcena and his husband, Pride San Antonio secretary James Poindexter, wore matching rainbow argyle shirts to the Wednesday afternoon meeting.
Poindexter said the nonprofit had sought to secure special recognition for the strip for well over a decade. The decision to pursue the cultural heritage designation came after Pride San Antonio met with District 1 Council Member Sukh Kaur two years ago to find ways to highlight the LGBTQ+ community.
Kaur and District 2 Council Member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, the council’s first openly-gay man, made a formal request for the district last year.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” Poindexter said ahead of Wednesday meeting. “It’s just a step along the way, but a big step for the LGBT community. It’s a big step for the elders of the LGBT community. It’s a step that shows the progress of where we’ve come and those who have come before us.
“It signifies a new phase to the youth coming up to know that this is a safe space for them and that this community can continue to thrive with their help, dedication and commitment,” he added.
Pride San Antonio is best known for organizing the annual Pride “Bigger Than” Texas Festival and Parade, but the nonprofit also organizes several other events and donates the proceeds to dozens of charities.
The organization was also behind the 2018 decision to put a rainbow crosswalk at North Main Avenue and East Evergreen Street near San Antonio College.
HDRC Commissioner Jimmy Cervantes abstained from voting Wednesday, saying he was concerned the district would essentially segregate a minority group in San Antonio.
“I don’t like the way that people are being marginalized and put into a box in this district like that,” he said. “Kind of boxing people in, saying ‘this is a zone for this type of culture or lifestyle.’ I don’t think that’s correct. This type of lifestyle should be celebrated all over, and there should be no differential between where people go.”
Eight of his colleagues on the 11-person board voted in favor of the district. Two commissioners were absent.
Before voting, Commissioner Christopher Mammen responded to Cervantes.
“To the comment that this maybe boxes in a culture or a people — I think it does the opposite in our community now,” Mammen said. “It forms a formal recognition and awareness of a culture that has been boxed into a portion of the community.”
North Main Avenue is the city’s fifth cultural heritage district. In December, a section of Wurzbach Road was named the Silk Road Cultural Heritage District to highlight the Northwest Side communities whose roots are in North and Central Africa to Eastern Asia. Others include Jefferson Heights, Old U.S. Highway 90 and the Hockley-Clay Cemetery.
June 4, 2025