A firestorm of controversy erupted last week after anti-gay militant James Hartline and the Traditional Values Coalition, a right-wing extremist Christian group, ran criminal background checks on San Diego Pride volunteers and discovered that two of the volunteers were convicted sex offenders registered under Megan’s Law.

Hartline and the Traditional Values Coalition sent a press release to local and national media last week announcing their findings and called for a boycott of the annual parade.

“We believe these men have violated the federal Megan’s law by working directly with minors who are involved in the Gay Pride event,” the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chair of the Traditional Values Coalition, said in the press release. “We urged them to surrender to local authorities and cooperate with any investigation.”

On Friday, conservative talk radio pundit Mark Larson called on local politicians and law officers to boycott the parade if the volunteers were not removed.

Though Pride was not violating Megan’s Law by allowing the volunteers to participate, their initial decision to allow the two volunteers to stay on board caused them a public relations headache, with numerous law enforcement officials, politicians, community organizations and entertainers slated to perform at the festival vowing to back out of the parade and festival if Pride let the volunteers participate.

With only a few days left before Saturday’s parade, the non-profit issued a statement Wednesday morning announcing that “the board has decided, in collaboration with the individuals involved, to accept the resignation of the two members who have become the focus of this issue.”

The decision to accept the resignations came following an emergency meeting of the Pride board Tuesday night, and the board said it is meeting to adopt new screening policies this week. What those specific screening policies will be and when they will be implicated remain unclear.

The initial volunteers in question were former supervisor Warren Patrick Derichsweiler, 39, and former set-up coordinator Daniel Joshua Rieger, also 39, who perform such duties as hauling stage equipment and putting up fences, Pride said. Derichsweiler was convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years, with force,” and Rieger was convicted of “oral copulation with person under 16 years.” Both men have since resigned their positions.

Hartline and cohorts appeared before the City Council on Monday to protest the council’s annual resolution honoring Pride, which is usually presented by the mayor – or acting mayor Toni Atkins in this year’s case – at the annual Spirit of Stonewall rally. But the resolution was conspicuously absent from the docket this year, and the Gay & Lesbian Times’ attempts to reach Atkins for comment as to what motivated its absence were unsuccessful. Atkins would have been the first openly gay mayor to present the proclamation in San Diego Pride’s 31-year history.

Regardless of the absent resolution, Atkins encouraged her colleagues to attend Saturday’s parade, which garnered boos and hisses from Hartline’s contingent. “You know, I listened to each and every one of you and was respectful when you stood up,” Atkins replied at the meeting. “I have a right to make the comment, so I will invite those that would like to join me.”

However, the situation intensified when, after researching all of Pride’s staff, board members, coordinators and supervisors, the Gay & Lesbian Times was able to confirm that two other people, one who served as festival safety manager and another as a logistics coordinator, are also registered as sex offenders on the Megan’s Law Web site.

Safety manager Shawn Renken, 34, was convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years.” Renken resigned his position last week prior to the information being made public. Gerald “Jerry” Garrett, 39, a full-time, paid staff member who served as a logistics coordinator, was convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child 14 or 15 years old.” Garrett resigned from his position on Tuesday.

Prior to Wednesday’s statement, the Pride board had met at least three times to discuss the issue and decided in each case to let the men stay on board, saying they supported the individuals’ “commitment to rehabilitation” and that their decision did not violate Megan’s Law. They cited state law Section 290.95 (b) under Sex Assault, Decency, Morals, which states: “No person who is required to register under Section 290 because of a conviction for a crime where the victim was a minor under 16 years of age shall be an employee or act as a volunteer with any person, group, or organization where the registrant would be working directly and in an unaccompanied setting with minor children on more than an incidental and occasional basis or have supervision or disciplinary power over minor children.”

Prior to Pride’s announcement that they had accepted the volunteers’ resignation, no one had officially withdrawn from the parade, but all signs pointed to last-minute withdrawals from nearly all elected officials, police and fire departments, and even several GLBT community organizations, bars and clubs.

“No one has officially [withdrawn] even though it was looking imminent that many groups would,” said Frank Sabatini, Jr., San Diego LGBT Pride’s media coordinator.

Pride said the situation may set a precedent for other organizations working with a large volunteer staff.

“If any other individuals come forth or are proven to be registered sex offenders, the board will remain consistent in this policy it has adopted for this weekend,” Sabatini said, referring to new polices and regulations the board has begun drafting in response to the problem. “I would like it known that … this isn’t to say that the personal character of these three individuals [Derichsweiler, Rieger and Garrett, since Renken had resigned the week prior] and their commitment and hard work to Pride will not go unnoticed.”

Pride’s Wednesday morning statement referred only to the two volunteers that initially sparked the controversy, but, according to Sabatini, the statement should have also included Garrett’s resignation, making the total three. Because Renken had given his resignation the week prior he was not included in the statement, Sabatini said.

Pride has not amended their statement to reflect the correct number.