F – “It gets me out of the house,” Michael Mehr shared as he laughed with his friends during band rehearsal at Rikki Streicher Field on Sunday, May 22, 2022 in San Francisco.

Mehr joined the band in 1987 with a slight push from his partner, “My lover at the time was pushing for spring cleaning that year and told me that I should use that horn sitting on the living room floor, or he would get rid of it for me.”

Mehr made the 40 mile journey by train to the pride parade to sign up and has stuck with it ever since.