According to this year’s parade lineup there will be 218 contingents marching down the parade route. However, group number 215 in the printed parade lineup, sponsored by the Poway branch of GEICO Direct, will not be making an appearance.

An anonymous source contacted the Gay and Lesbian Times to inform the paper that GEICO pulled its participation in the parade after a mass e-mail was sent to company employees, notifying them of the company’s participation in the parade. A phone call from a person identifying themselves as the partner of an openly gay GEICIO employee said the e-mail allegedly asked if anyone would be interested in participating in the parade. The caller said several employees, citing religious reasons, voiced concerns over the office’s participation in the event.

The Times contacted the offices of San Diego Pride to confirm whether or not GEICO had pulled out of the parade. Dale Sutherland, who handles festival logistics said, “They requested all of their information be destroyed. I didn’t hold their packet. They said, ‘We are pulling out. Could you please not have our packet there,’ so I complied with that.”

When contacted for a response, Pride Executive Director Suanne Pauley said that she did not have enough information to comment on the reason for GEICO’s withdrawal, adding that, “The GEICO people told Dale to throw [their information] away. They didn’t make it a big deal to us. They said, ‘Take it out, we can’t make it.’ They didn’t fill us in on their little problems.”

Bill Cronic, who works in public relations for the insurance provider, confirmed that GEICO had intended to participate in the parade.

“We were one of the late additions to it,” Cronic told the Times, “and just organizationally, trying to pull it all together, we weren’t able to get it all done quite as efficiently as we had wanted.”

Cronic did confirm that an e-mail was sent out to company employees seeking parade participants.

“It was after that, that we decided we didn’t have the time or the organizational resources or materials that we needed,” Cronic said. “What we are doing is trying to get a much earlier start now, so we have actually created a task force that is going to be working with our company and looking at how we can make sure some of these things happen in the future. For instance, I am going to be championing our AIDS Walk [contingent], so we’ve already got that started so we are not waiting to the last minute.”

When asked if GEICO’s decision not to participate in the parade was a result of negative employee response, Cronic said, “It’s hard for me to comment on that, but one of the things that we will be doing with the task force is addressing issues, needs and concerns of the gay and lesbian community for our associates here.”

Cronic denied that he asked Sutherland to destroy the company’s information in regards to their planned participation in the parade, saying that they had indeed submitted a complete registration form along with the $25 late fee.

“I will call him back and see where he got that information, because I was the one that contacted him and the only thing that we submitted to them was the request to let them know that we would not be able to participate,” Cronic added. “So I will see where he got that information.”

When asked to confirm the accuracy of Cronic’s statement, Sutherland responded, “All I can say is they pulled out of the parade. That is all we know. That’s all they asked us to do — to pull out of the parade. “

When asked whether GEICO’s records were available or still in existence, he responded, “We can’t share those records with you…. That’s … not exactly confidential, but it’s information for San Diego Pride, so we can’t share that,” and deferred all further questions to Pauley.

“Well, hmm … that’s what [Sutherland] told me,” Pauley said when asked if GEICO had indeed asked to have their information destroyed.

Pauley did confirm that GEICO had paid their registration fees. “They don’t get a refund because they cancelled too late,” she said. “I have a record of taking their money,” Pauley added, noting that there were “four or five” late withdrawals from the parade.

Pauley said she would have to look through bank deposits to confirm how much GEICO had paid to participate in the parade but she said it was most likely between $40 and $60.