When former Mayor Maureen O’Connor rode in the Pride parade the first time, she was surrounded by a contingent of police officers. In 1986, San Diego’s first female mayor faced death threats and vicious criticism from conservative constituents for riding in the parade. But, she set an inclusive tone with regard to the city’s stance toward the GLBT community, regardless the cost, and hers is an attitude we’ve come to expect of our elected officials.

O’Connor changed the dynamic of the GLBT community’s relationship with San Diego, characterized for more than a decade under Pete Wilson by bar raids, police violence and gross inequality.

Wilson, as mayor, the city’s chief elected official, from 1971 to 1983, never tried to eliminate a hostile environment for the GLBT community. Perhaps the starry-eyed future governor knew what it would cost him, namely the GOP’s backing in his campaigns for state senate and governor.

When politics conflicted with progress, Wilson sided with politics.

He could have done more for the GLBT community. Hell, he could have done something. Instead, he watched idly as the GLBT community, for more than a decade, lived outside the city’s history. He didn’t appoint openly GLBT people to boards or commissions. He failed to form advisory committees, or draft proclamations acknowledging our presence. Purportedly, Wilson allowed the police department to continue a pattern of violent behavior against San Diego’s GLBT residents.

In short, Wilson failed to represent the diversity of what he called America’s Finest City.

Despite that, the San Diego City Council, no stranger to “felony-stupid” behavior, will unveil, on Saturday, a statue honoring Wilson at Horton Plaza, at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Broadway, in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter.

The location is no coincidence. Wilson reinvented downtown San Diego. He created a vibrant borough that has become a destination point for the city. He re-imagined the landscape of the Gaslamp. If only he’d had the 20/20 vision for civil rights he did for development, our community’s battle for equal rights would not have been stagnant for 12 years – not to mention, later in the 1990s when he cold-shouldered GLBT voters again by courting the gay vote for his gubernatorial campaign. He said he would sign AB101, a bill designed to protect homosexuals from job and housing discrimination; and, in fact, 62 percent of Californians wanted the then-governor to sign the bill.

Instead, he reneged his commitment, turned his back on GLBT constituents, and vetoed a bill that would have made California the fifth state in the nation to up its anti-discrimination legislation.

Wilson caved to more than 100,000 letters he claimed to receive from outraged conservatives. And he hid behind another poor excuse: the bill would unleash lawsuits, stifle job creation, and burden businesses. He failed to mention this hadn’t happened in Wisconsin, Hawaii, Massachusetts or Connecticut, states that drafted similar legislation.

He sucker-punched progress again when, near the end of his time in office, he ordered the Social Services Department to develop a state regulation that would discourage adoption by unmarried couples – or more specifically, same-sex partners. State officials didn’t follow Wilson’s order, and the rule died quietly before it could be enforced.

As governor, Wilson also supported Proposition 187, the racist ballot initiative designed to deny undocumented immigrants social services, health care and public education. He did this, despite the fact that the Latino community is slightly more than a quarter of America’s Finest City, where Wilson will be honored Saturday.

His track record for celebrating diversity and opening the door for minorities was as bad at the state level as it was on the home front.

So why honor the former mayor? Why honor a cowardly politician who did nothing to change a climate of hate in this city, for the GLBT community and people of color? Why honor an elected official who only represented a select group of San Diegans – rich, white, conservative, establishment Republicans?

In a city as diverse as San Diego, is former Mayor Pete Wilson someone who fought for equal rights for the GLBT community? No.

Is he worthy of being recognized and honored with a statue?

Definitely not.