ARTICLES

City Council Shames Itself Over Pride

Council Honors Gay Pride Organization; Debauchery, Depravity Displayed at the Parade

BY NICHOLAS OWEN

Although San Diego's annual Gay Pride Week is now in its 32nd year, 2006 marks the first time in recent memory that citizens organized to oppose it being honored by the San Diego City Council, documented the event, and saw their efforts publicized in nationwide alternative media outlets.

Last year's proclamation was pulled after it was revealed that the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Pride organization, which organizes the Gay Pride Week events, included registered sex offenders. Gay-agenda activists turned out in force at the July 25 San Diego City Council meeting to ensure the adoption of this year's resolution, "proclaiming the week of July 24 to July 30, 2006 to be 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Week' in the City of San Diego." Councilwoman Toni Atkins, an open lesbian, recommended it.

All eight council members voted to adopt the resolution after some of the 30 or so pro-family opponents of the proclamation spoke during the public comment period. About 60 Pride supporters attended the meeting. Council President Scott Peters allowed each side a total of 15 minutes to comment.

Nine Christians spoke against issuing the proclamation. Ex-homosexual James Hartline, who organized the "Not in My Name" campaign against the resolution, asserted, "We represent the majority of San Diegans who are not only opposed to this parade and festival but also are opposed to this proclamation." Hartline decried the pornographic aspects of Gay Pride events and the potential for children to be exposed to it.

Hartline informed council members about some of the scheduled Pride Week events, including "the Leather Realm," which the "2006 San Diego Pride Official Souvenir Program" described as "an educational outreach and workshop forum for people interested in or fascinated by the BDSM [bondage, domination, sadomasochism]/Leather/Fetish/Kink lifestyle." He pointed out the program's highly visible ads for sexual lubricants, "circuit parties" featuring gay porn stars, photos of nude males, and sponsorship by publications featuring graphic sex ads for male prostitutes, porn businesses, and dating ads for anal intercourse which can lead to HIV transmission.

Others who spoke against the proclamation included Kim Tran, a pro-family candidate running as a write-in candidate for the 76th Assembly District against Ralph Denney, a Log Cabin Republican; Phil Magnan, Biblical Family Advocates director; and Bill Daniel, a former Republican Central Committee candidate. One speaker mentioned the vulgar names of four bands scheduled to entertain and asserted that the Gay Pride events promote male homosexual promiscuity.

"Could you not instead honor something that is supported by the whole community rather than a community that promotes sex outside of marriage?" Magnan asked. "I plead with you to have the courage to really look closely at the horrendous psychological, spiritual, and medical effects of a life given over to homosexuality. It is really cruel for many heterosexuals to embrace the homosexual agenda in order to get a few more votes."

Daniel reminded the council that, since some of them had successfully appealed to Christian conservatives for their votes, they now needed to return the favor by opposing the proclamation.

Seven speakers spoke in favor of the proclamation. Eric Isaacson, president of the San Diego Foundation for Change, lambasted Hartline for invoking Biblical morality. "Mr. Hartline seems to be bound up in Old Testament legalisms.... It's homophobia and hatred that are a sin, not homosexuality.... I will be proud to take my children, ages 6, 12 and 14 to the Pride festival this year."

Marci Bair yelled at the audience, "As a Christian, I am disgusted by what's gone on this morning! All the hate that's been displayed this morning really hurts my heart. We are here today to show true family values that's not filled with hate." Bair is the executive director of Family Matters, which, among other things, supports adoptions by homosexuals and sponsors the Children's Garden at the Gay Pride festival. Marty the Clown, one of the five registered sex offenders discovered to be working for the Gay Pride organization last summer, worked in the Children's Garden.

"The comments of the opposition, I think, make very clear the case that the LGBT community needs to continue in our civil rights struggles," Councilwoman Atkins declared. "As I look at my colleagues today, I know that some of you know very well how it feels to be the target of hatred and intolerance. Today, you get to witness it firsthand, to see it directed at the LGBT community."

She continued, "What the opposition didn't mention was the large number of churches that participate in our parade and PFLAG, the Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays."

Councilman Peters then asserted that "this could hardly be a more 'white bread' resolution. I want you to know that there's no endorsement of any of the things that Mr. Hartline talked about, that he objects to, and that you can have a perfectly fun time at Pride weekend without encountering that, and in fact, if you bring children, that's probably a good plan for you. I'm just sorry that people had to see that on Channel 24 [which broadcasts city council meetings]; I think that was really unnecessary.... This is really a resolution just about thanking a bunch of San Diegans who've made wonderful contributions to our city. It's nothing more than that, and I'm just so happy and proud to be part of presenting it."

As Atkins and Peters awarded the proclamation to members of San Diego LGBT Pride, they were joined at the podium by the rest of the council except for Councilmen Young and Maienschein. "If mentalities cannot change overnight, official attitudes and laws can and must," Pride co-chair Philip Princetta asserted in his acceptance speech. "We must first demolish the walls of prejudice and intolerance."

That evening, KUSI-TV News reported that "things got ugly" at the council meeting and showed a clip of Hartline's comments about pornography, followed by Bair's outburst.

On Friday, July 28, Mayor Jerry Sanders sent out an e-mail exulting that "this weekend's San Diego LGBT Pride in Hillcrest and Balboa Park" brings in an estimated $21 million annually to the regional economy. On July 29, the Union-Tribune reported that "about 40,000 people attended the parade and subsequent party at Balboa Park." However, its July 30 issue estimated the crowd as being at "well over 100,000."

The July 29 parade lasted over three hours and included 185 contingents. Many entries featured scantily clad participants, mostly men, gyrating suggestively to loud, throbbing music. Float titles included "In Dmood for Decadence." Simulated sex acts were performed in several entries, and many advertised gay bars, pornography vendors, and male prostitution businesses. A rider in the Rentboy.com convertible flashed the devil sign with his hand. Handouts to parade spectators included condoms, sexual lubricant samples, and literature promoting a pornographic web site. Numerous trash receptacles bearing the slogan "Got lube?" (advertising an anal sex lubricant) were placed along the parade route and in the festival venue inside Balboa Park.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag queen group in outlandish outfits parodying Catholic women religious, carried an "Asylum of the Tortured Heart" banner, mocking Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the Gay Pride festival, they provided crowd control and received an award for the "most outrageous contingent."

A woman who was topless except for pasties walked alongside the parade. A man wearing a body thong covering only his genitals roller-skated by parade watchers in defiance of municipal code which prohibits nudity on public lands and defines it as being "devoid of an opaque covering which covers the genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus or anal region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the areola thereof of any female person." But according to the July 30 Union-Tribune, "police reported no arrests or disturbances at the parade."

Several law enforcement and government agencies participated in the parade or had a booth at the festival, including San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender, the San Diego Fire Department, the Chula Vista Police Department, the Oceanside Police Department, the Harbor Police, and the San Diego Regional Airport Authority.

San Diego LGBT Pride, as a non-profit organization, "prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign ... for elective public office." Nonetheless, the following political candidates' campaigns were represented in the parade and/or the festival: gay Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla; Congressional candidates Francine Busby, John Rinaldi, and Jeeni Criscenzo; and State Assembly candidates Ralph Denney and Chris Larkin.

Elected officials who participated in the parade or were represented therein included Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who rode in a convertible sandwiched between her partner Jennifer LeSar and Councilman Scott Peters; Councilwoman Donna Frye; District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis; state Senator Christine Kehoe; Supervisor Ron Roberts; San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders; San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre; Congresswoman Susan Davis, and Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña.

Small children participated in and watched the parade and were seen at the festival on July 29. The June 29 Gay and Lesbian Times reported that the San Diego Pride board voted unanimously on June 21 to approve a new admission that allows youth 17 and under to enter the festival unaccompanied by a parent or guardian and dropped the requirement that they be assigned to a buddy/guardian within the festival grounds. Their website, www.sdpride.org, explained that, "Persons 17 and under may enter FREE at the Festival entrance, by cruising through the Youth Welcome Tent."

The festival featured a booth promoting sadomasochism and a "women's space" with a banner that read "VAGINA" [Vibrant Activist Girls Invoking National Attention], where lesbian couples were observed kissing on picnic tables and lying on the ground making out. Other festival features included vendors of hard core gay pornography, including teen boy porn, special areas for transgenders and bisexuals, booths offering help for substance addictions, a "Children's Garden" just outside the main festival venue, a "Xone" for "queer and questioning youth" and booths offering services to HIV/AIDS patients.

The Leather Realm displayed sadomasochistic equipment used for flogging, and spanking "play." Demonstrations occurring on July 29 included a young woman with her jeans pulled down to expose her panty-covered posterior while other women took turns whacking her with a wooden paddle until red welts appeared on her back and flanks. Men took turns paddling a young man. A completely bare-breasted woman and at least one "pasties-only" woman roamed inside the Leather Realm. On Sunday, July 30, a "piercing and flesh hooks" demonstration was scheduled inside the Leather Realm.

Signs were posted at the Leather Realm prohibiting entrance to anyone under 18 and the use of cameras and cell phones. However, a male prostitute who volunteered to have staples shot from a staple gun into his torso at the Leather Realm this year posted photos on his web site. In them, he stands outside of the leather zone in full view of several teenagers. Chains hang from the staples still stuck in his body.

The Lubery booth handed out packages containing 19 different condoms and sexual lubricants. One booth had a large, highly visible poster showing two fully nude men having anal sex and several other booths displayed large salacious or pornographic posters and magazines, easily visible to passersby. Free pornographic promotional literature was available from several pornography and sex toy vendors. A banner at one food vendor's booth read, "Big Dick's Burgers."

In addition to local and national gay-centered businesses, sponsors included included Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo Bank, Cox Communications, Viejas Casino, Sparkletts Water, Starbucks Coffee, Verizon, Sirius Satellite Radio Sempra Energy, iSOLD It, Great American Credit Union, Kaiser Permanente, Travelocity, Yahoo, Smirnoff, Bud Light, Avis Car Rentals, Glaceau Vitamin Water, and the Old Globe Theatre. Free copies of The Filipino Press newspaper were available inside the festival.

Participating organizations included the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice, San Diego Hospice, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, San Diego Youth and Community Services, Rotary Club of San Diego (Uptown Sunrise), San Diego Psychological Association, Amnesty International, Greater San Diego Business Association and the San Diego Central National Organization for Women.

Participating churches and synagogues included All Saints Parish and Saint John the Beloved Cathedral of the Catholic Church of America (not affiliated with the true Catholic Church); Dignity, another group using the Catholic label but not sanctioned by the Catholic Church; Christ Chapel of North Park; Saint Paul's Episcopal Cathedral; Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad; Temple Emanu-El and the Metropolitan Community Church, founded by a homosexual "leatherman." Participating schools included San Diego State University, UCSD, Cal State University San Marcos, and the San Diego Cooperative Charter School.

Participating media outlets included the Union-Tribune, US 95.7 FM country music radio station, AM 1360 KLSD (the Air America station), 90.3 FM radio (also known as Z90), Channel 933, Fox 6 TV, Sirius Satellite Radio, 100.7 Jack FM, which sponsored a stage wherein a "commitment ceremony" took place Sunday afternoon.

Other Pride Week events included an "It's Raining Men" wet underwear contest and gay porn star appearance at Bacchus House, a gay bar; "circuit parties" at the San Diego Sports Arena and Zoo (ads for which show large crowds of frenzied, topless or mostly nude men), and entertainment by numerous bands, including Deep Dickollective, Shi--ing Glitter, Slow Mo Erotic, and the Blasphemous Guitars.

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