Dear Editor:

Surprise surprise surprise.....Yet another scandal in the gay community here in San Diego. Excluding the truly ignorant and/or those who need to believe that their leaders and publisher act in their best interest, can anyone really be surprised? Over the past five years I have had a hard lesson on the systemic hypocrisy and the outright corruption that permeates this community. My experience has taught me that the local “straight-mainstream” media has no interest in reporting about the local gay community, and contrary to proclaiming himself “guard to the guards”, Portantino isn’t qualified to guard an outhouse. Surprised? I think not.

However I was extremely surprised that channels 6 and 10 chose to report this particular scandal. Mind you these two stations, (along with all the others,) did not report the overdose and death that occurred last June at the ‘Center run’ Sunburst Youth Housing Project, nor was the second overdose and arrest of a third resident for possession that occurred only two months later, nor was it reported when Delores Jacobs forgot a deadline for a $125,000.00 grant, which this paper describe as a “scheduling” or “data entry error.” Nor was it ever reported that registered sex offenders were allowed to volunteer at the “children’s garden” at a pride parade a few years ago.

Back in the day of Club 2200, along with this very news magazine, there was never any interest in the fact that there were two drug related deaths at the old Mustang Spa in the last year and a half of its operation, and that the manager of the new 2200 had been the same guy who had been the general manager of the former bathhouse. One reporter did make a superficial report basically announcing the closure, but that was do more to my tenacity rather then any real interest or concern.

So why would this relatively small $5000.00 bonus garner any attention at all? Then your editorial of 1-14-10, issue 1151, jumped off the page “like a rolled up newspaper and whacked me over the head.” After stating the S.D. LGBT Pride Inc. “is widely considered one of the most effective Pride organizations in the nation,” you then stated that “the organization stretched beyond its reach of promoting GLTB pride,” and “became a competing organization to the Center...” I have long questioned the “influence” of the Center on local media, but it now seems blatantly obvious.

This years theme begins with “Proven practices...” I will end by asking exactly what are these proven practices? Young men and boys still allow themselves to become HIVPOZ and S.D. is the syphilis capital of the nation, we still have “don’t ask don’t tell,” we have the Prop. 8 debacle, gay organizations here in town will continue to operate with no demand for accountability from anyone, and most important of all, what proven practices have lead to the parade getting progressively worse over the past 5 years becoming a patheticly arduous display of apathetic yet arrogant ineptitude.

Kevin McCarthy