ARTICLES

Better to Have a Millstone...

Youth Pride in Hillcrest

BY ALLYSON SMITH

Children as young as 12 years old and dance students from Carlsbad High School mingled with gray-haired homosexuals and transvestites amid booths hawking erotic gay magazines, free condoms, and anal lubricant samples during the second annual San Diego Youth Pride festival Saturday afternoon, May 1, at the taxpayer-funded Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center in Hillcrest.

Youth Pride opened Friday night, April 30, with a "Family OUTing intergenerational kickoff" attended by an estimated 150 people. The kickoff featured "theater pieces written and produced by queer youth, plus speeches addressing school safety and homophobia, and a special appearance by openly gay actor Wilson Cruz of the Fox Network television program, 'My So-Called Life,'" according to a press release from San Diego Pride organizers Frank Sabatini and Suanne Pauley.

Saturday started with an 11:00 a.m. "youth march" from the Hillcrest Youth Center at 3777 Fourth Street to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center at 3909 Centre Street. On its website, the youth center is described as a "drop-in center serving all of San Diego County for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth between the ages of 14 and 24."

A Christian outreach group organized by former homosexual James Hartline passed evangelism tracts to marchers along the parade route and in front of the Center. Chanting, "What do we want? Equal rights! When do we want them? Now!" and carrying hand-lettered signs that said such things as "Jesus did not preach hate" the young people entered the festival area in the Center parking lot.

Atop the Center's roof, a rainbow flag waved at equal height with the Stars and Stripes. A sign posted at the festival entrance advertised the event for ages "24 and under" with one adult guest permitted per youth. No minimum age was specified. Cardboard trash bins advertising ID Sensual Lubricants were placed throughout the area, as were campaign signs for homosexual San Diego City councilmember Toni Atkins, a former abortion clinic operator. At a booth sponsored by Being Alive, a non-profit HIV/AIDS services group, kids played a game where they tossed rings onto empty beer bottles. Other booths were sponsored by such groups as: the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the foremost promoter of homosexuality in public schools grades Pre-K through 12; an HIV prevention group called In the Mix; Xodus, an erotic gay youth magazine headquartered in San Diego; the San Diego Democratic Club which is the homosexual wing of the San Diego County Democrat Party; and Hamburger Mary's restaurant.

I was part of a three-member crew that photographed some of the Saturday Youth Pride events. As our team began videotaping from the public sidewalk across the street from the Center, Suanne Pauley approached us and began asking questions in an attempt to stop us from filming. Later, I walked over to the venue entrance to shoot still photographs as the young people marched in. Two adult male homosexuals bodily blocked me from taking pictures, saying I could not photograph the kids.

Despite efforts to prevent photography, kids in attendance were filmed dancing with male-to-female transvestites and "Miss San Diego Gay Teen" winners. One transvestite opened his halter-top to reveal his bra underneath. Same-sex couples were photographed kissing, while, across the street from the Center, a taxpayer-funded San Diego County Health and Human Services van offered "free HIV testing" to "ages 13 & older."

As the event progressed, Christians Chris Cohen, 21, of Horizon Park Chapel and Landy Root attempted to enter the festival accompanied by adults. Recognizing that the pair was part of the Christian group, Youth Pride organizers asked them to affirm they were homosexual as a required "litmus test" for admission. When Cohen and Root refused, they were turned away.

Escondido residents Bette and Kevin Hammang, who attend Mission Valley Christian Fellowship, witnessed the homosexuals' illegal discrimination against Cohen and Root. "It makes me wonder, what don't they want us to see?" Bette said. "What are they afraid of? It should be illegal to bar us from going in and seeing an event that's being held in a public arena. I think we should all be able to go in and see what's going on in there."

Dave Ames of Poway decided to send his 12-year-old granddaughter, Amy (not her real name) into the festival to get more information. Because Amy arrived late to the event, the Youth Pride organizers did not realize she was part of the Christian group.

"When I went into Youth Pride," said Amy, "they asked how old I was. I said '12'. Then they asked if I had an ID, and I said, 'No.' They said, 'That's all right,' and let me in free of charge. They put a red band on my wrist for being under 16. They put blue bands on people who were 16 and over. At the first booth I visited, I was asked to sign a petition for a gay and lesbian magazine to help promote queer artwork. At another booth, they gave us condoms and samples of lubricant." She also collected literature from the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network booth.

When asked if she witnessed any same-sex behaviors, Amy said, "I saw two guys kissing. There were a lot of women dressed as men and a lot of men wearing tight clothing." Asked her overall impression of the event, Amy replied, "It was gross and people were crude and they dressed disgusting and acted disgusting toward each other. I think it's wrong and sick."

Saturday's keynote speaker was Leslie Feinberg, author of Stone Butch Blues and Transgender Warrior and a member of the Workers World party. She recalled the 1969 Stonewall bar rebellion in New York City, considered a defining event in U.S. homosexual history and urged the kids to protest the Iraq war during June 5 demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. "Stonewall was made by youth who look just like you here," said Feinberg. "They were African-Americans, they were Latinas, working-class and poor whites. They were teenagers, 11, 12, 14 and 16 years old. They were homeless. And that night when the police raided them, the police did what they always did: They humiliated them. They dumped the drag queens' heads in buckets of water and smeared their makeup on their faces."

The crowd cheered as Feinberg recalled, "That night ... the police began to retreat because they were being taught an important lesson: that a stiletto high heel in the hands of an enraged transgender youth is a formidable weapon against police repression."

After Feinberg's speech, approximately 30 students from the Carlsbad High School Lancer Dancer varsity and junior varsity dance teams performed for the crowd. With their mothers forming a line of human shields so that the Christians in attendance could not give them tracts, the high schoolers were led in through the festival front gate to dance on the parking lot asphalt after being introduced by teacher Carrie Smith.

In the weeks leading to the event, controversy over the Lancer Dancers' participation in Youth Pride began to percolate in North County after Concerned Women for America of San Diego and Imperial Counties issued an April 19 action alert. Concerned Women's area director Cindy Moles also contacted Carlsbad High School officials.

"The superintendent of Carlsbad Unified School District assured me that the dancers would not be mingling with the participants, that they would be secluded in a backstage area, that they would perform two dances and then leave," said Moles. "Clearly, that's not what happened. There was no stage; the kids performed out in the open parking lot. The dancers entered the venue through the main gate where they had to pass by booths displaying the Xodus gay erotica magazine."

"Parents, grandparents and taxpayers must hold these school officials accountable for their actions," Moles said. "They allowed our children to perform in a venue whose sole purpose was to celebrate behavior that causes disease and early death. They should be protecting these students, not endangering them."

TOP