Dear Editor:

I don’t know if the rest of the GLBT community cares, but this PFLAG Mom is furious!

To my absolute shock and surprise, and without even so much as a conversation with us, the Pride “Deciders” moved our PFLAG booth from its location of 17+ years on the main drag of the Festival to the boondocks!

We were down on the lower road in the depths with construction and port-a-potties across from us and nothing else! People couldn’t even walk all the way around the festival to stumble upon us because the road was closed. The only humans near us were the police and there was a couple hundred yards of nothingness between even them and us. Of course, a few people cut through the park and came our way, but not many. Apparently Pride thinks more of AT&T (who, I think, got “our” location), auto dealerships, retailers, financial services, pet insurance, jewelry and stucco companies than they think of us.

I am absolutely appalled that Pride would have moved us to this completely-out-of-the-way location. I feel both insulted and hurt by the gay community. Perhaps they don’t realize PFLAG is the only non-gay group who has been out there supporting, educating and advocating for GLBT for years and years. The analogy that keeps going through my head is one where my grandchildren decided to shove me, their long-time, loving and supportive grandmother, down in the basement to get me out of the way because. . . . . . . I don’t make them any money?

If that is the reason behind this outrageous decision, I think the “Deciders” have their priorities all screwed up, plus they know nothing about moving a crowd around an event.

I understand the need to make this a profitable event, and I “get it” that no one is going to be happy to have a booth in the boondocks the way everything is now set up.

How do you get the crowd to walk around and see everything? You move the majority of the food and drink booths to the outer reaches of the area, that’s how!! Instead they were all located by the opening gates and along the main drag. No drinks or food could be found in the boondocks this year.

I have to wonder if there are new folks making decisions this year. This letter is my personal opinion, and I’m only one vote on the PFLAG board, but next year if our booth doesn’t return to its historical location, I’ll be voting against spending money to have a repeat performance of this disaster.

Shame on the Pride “Deciders!”

Gail Folkman

Dear Editor:

As a member of the LGBT community here in San Diego, I found it only necessary that I share with you my disappointment in this year’s Pride Festival. I attended Saturday (despite the thoroughly uninspiring entertainment lineup), because I thought maybe I was mistaken regarding the quality of the acts you booked.

Unfortunately, not only were my preconceptions fully met (with the exception of Lauren Derose and MC Flow who more than deserved to be on the Main Stage), I was further upset by the fact that most of the acts booked didn’t seem to have any LGBT relevance whatsoever. Very few acts had Gay members and not a single one spoke from stage about why Gay Pride is important. In fact, the most relevant acts I saw were on the Lavender Lens Stage, all the way at the very end of the festival route.

Your stages looked so unbelievably sub-par, without even proper lighting for the acts come nightfall. There’s no point in bragging about the quantity of stages in your press releases when they look and sound this awful. The only stage that looked halfway decent was your Main Stage, but too bad the lawn was never even half-full because you booked mediocre bar bands and karaoke singers. (And FYI on your Main Stage backdrop... while I respect honoring the grand marshals etc., as a racial minority in this community, I would have liked to have seen at least one non-white face in that lineup, not to mention how it made my Sisters feel. Rainbow of diversity, remember?)

It’s no secret about your new policy of NOT paying your musicians. Many groups expressed regret for taking the gig after seeing how bands were being treated, despite your budget of well over a million dollars. I also learned that you didn’t make water or food available for your non-Main Stage acts. Do you know how disrespectful that is? If you’re not compensating your acts, the very LEAST you can do is feed them.

People know you’ve increased spending, and are still making less for the community than what Pride was making under Suanne Pauley’s direction. If you’re going to increase spending, do it wisely. I highly encourage you contract professional concert producers to handle your entertainment in the future. What’s more, is that you have a priceless resource on that end, right here in our own San Diego LGBT community in the team of Danielle LoPresti and Alicia Champion. They made music history with the San Diego Indie Music Fest and they’re passionate about civil rights. I’ve volunteered at their festival and they care so deeply about this community. They are awesome entertainers, concert producers, and quite frankly, Pride just sucks without them.

I hope you consider the above. I believe San Diego Pride has the potential to be as wonderful as Long Beach and San Francisco Pride, but only if you change your policies now and get some help on the entertainment front.

Marc Johnson

Dear Editor:

The San Diego Men’s Chorus has a rich history of serving the LGBT community. We performed in groundbreaking venues and came to the aid of our fellow gay men during a time of great crisis. We were the first gay identified chorus to sing in The White House under the Clinton Administration, and have raised money for countless HIV/AIDS outreach, support and prevention causes throughout our existence.

This year, after having rehearsed for upwards of five weeks, our members were looking forward to sending our community our annual message of pride in song at the annual SD Pride Concert. It is with great sadness that we are unable to send this message beside our fellow San Diego choruses this year.

The SDMC first offered this event, sponsored it and invited other like minded musical groups to perform during Pride Week. It was a way of giving back to a community that so richly supported us. More precisely, it was a way of thanking our sister Lesbian community for supporting us when gay men were dying from AIDS in droves. At the urging of our fellow musical groups and in keeping with a spirit of cooperation, the SDMC relegated the responsibilities of SD Pride Concert production to a team of representative musical groups. This team voted recently to not go forward with the concert due to lack of funds, preparation and busy schedules.

This tradition stopped this year.

Since when did lack of funds, lack of preparation and busy schedules get in the way of giving back to our community? Historically, the concert has been produced on a shoestring and had a very grassroots feeling of organization and support. Having asked this difficult question, the SDMC fought to keep the concert alive by trying to get the committee members to remain focused on the very reason we outline above. This effort was ignored and gave way to the greater consensus.

The San Diego Men’s Chorus is deeply saddened by SD Pride Concert Committee’s decision. Rest assured, the LGBT community and SD Pride can count on the SDMC to bring back this tradition in future years.

Don Palmer