He states in a controversial editorial published Aug. 1 in the San Diego Union-Tribune that, “San Diego gay pride festivities begin with a candlelight vigil to remember those who died of AIDS or were the victims of violence.” The vigils, he continues, “are sometimes sponsored by the owners of the three bathhouses (sex clubs) in San Diego where gay men go to have anonymous sex in the comfort and privacy of places that the San Diego City Council simply ignores.”

Meet Steve Yuhas, an upstanding, openly gay Jewish journalist who graduated with a “degree in government” from a Catholic university, and who habitually condemns Pride parades around the country because marchers expose their bare chests and don silvery raiment in front of kids. It’s the kind of described “debauchery” that keeps the Rick Santorums and George Bushes awake all night fantasizing of that little red button that could obliterate all the showy participants of Pride celebrations around the country. When this self-loathing, Ozzie-and-Harriet-wannabe gets his Fruit of the Looms in a wad over shirtless men gyrating on floats – or those so-called candlelight vigils preceding our Pride parades – one has to wonder if Yuhas is falling asleep on the couch too many nights with Fox network news blaring in his ears.

Having worked as the media coordinator of San Diego LGBT Pride for 11 years, the claims made by Yuhas in his Union-Tribune piece are preposterous. For starters, same-sex couples are not dragging their kids into the parade as political bait. These are the lifeline protégés of GLBT parents – the same types of kids that heterosexuals tote to the Pacific Beach Street Fair amid bikini-clad babes carousing with shirtless, beer-drinking dudes. If our Pride participants were dressed in the J.C. Penny garb that Yuhas appears to be wearing in his self-serving website photos (visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to it), then who on earth would come and witness them? This is a parade for god’s sake. And the kids can handle the revelry considering that San Diego Pride weekend is far less outrageous than your typical Mardi Gras celebrations, which happen to carry a message that nobody understands. So, please Steve, lose the sport coat and throw some beads around that uptight neck!

Secondly, I urge Yuhas to check the police records linked to San Diego LGBT Pride parades over the past several years. He states in his inaccurate editorial that, “ambulances are paid overtime in order to care for the men and women who fall in the streets or collapse in the clubs.” How many ambulances are we talking here? And from what hospitals are they coming from? The average numbers of arrests for disorderly conduct or drug overdoses during San Diego Pride parades have been zero. And when the number is anything above, why not factor in the extraordinary ratio of participants and spectators to those who supposedly “fall in the streets?”

Lastly, the editorial states that “all this celebrating” is fueled by “people feeling the need to tell the world that they are gay.” The social conservatives that Yuhas spiritually embraces have apparently dug a deep trench into his psyche to sell him the double standards they impose continually on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. Do frat house parties and spring break celebrations held throughout the country each year not remind us that heterosexual men and women are perpetually attracted to one another? Or how about spending a day at the mall? Surely, you’ll see a fair share of blatant heterosexual nuzzling at the food courts, which a shoddy journalist like Yuhas might deem as the straight community losing its integrity. Heaven help us when those straight folk decide to paint their faces green for a St. Paddy’s Day parade.

For every conservative mouthpiece that accuses the GLBT community of “shoving the gay issue down people’s throats,” they need only conduct a sound check on themselves before discovering that they are products of religious and political institutions that breed radical fear and stubborn misunderstanding toward the GLBT community. The homophobic mindset we see in such editorials has been in place long before drag queens, go-go boys or nipple tape sprung onto the scene.

Yuhas is both a champion and victim of the moral majority. He abhors individualism and views his fellow gay man largely as “right-wing liberals” who should spend more time huddling around television sets with their straight friends during Sunday afternoon football games. As so many GLBT individuals have come to learn by now, the Yuhas philosophy of kissing up to Dick and Jane as a way of “assimilating” into straight society doesn’t always work. Such ignorance should simply be ignored.

Visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to Yuhas’ editorial.