Dear Editor:

I feel it’s about time someone woke up and realized that Latin Pride is superfluous.

As a gay Latino in San Diego, I haven’t attended Latin Pride because I don’t feel I have to. How come no one before thought of devoting a “section of the festival” at San Diego Pride to Latino and other cultural groups? There’s a “fetish” garden, so why not a Latin “quarter” and other cultural sections? Festival attendees would get a lot more out of it because they can be exposed to true multicultural art, foods and music at one event. I sure would get more from this: I can learn about other cultures and share my own with my friends at one event.

I moved from New York in June of last year, and I wondered why there weren’t really any gay cultural groups represented at both the SD Pride parade and festival last year and this year. Some of my white friends pointed out a few floats on the parade this year and said, “There’s not one person of color on that float.” I have the photos to prove it! I certainly don’t understand why since practically half this city is Mexican. I speak more Spanish here every day than in NY, and I had friends from all over Latin America there!

The organizers of Latin Pride are the ones responsible for its failure because its mere existence results in a perceived exclusivity: this is for Latin people only. Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. Also, the fact is Latino gay people tend to be more closeted, and having an event that points them out more prominently is unappealing compared to a bigger festival where they can mix into.

No wonder attendance is low. A friend said there were more whites than Latinos there last year.

San Diego Pride should reflect a lot more of the cultural diversity of San Diego. It may not be as big a city as New York, San Francisco or Chicago, but it’s large enough that its Pride festival should feature true multicultural events, vendors, foods and community services. SD Pride has the potential of being a true jewel of the Pride events season because of the beautiful public space it holds the festival: Balboa Park. The organizers and promoters of the event must learn to leverage the cultural value of the park and integrate it into the experience of San Diego Pride. There must be more than the Zoo Party. I can think of no other Pride event that is held in such a magnificent public space in the middle of a major city.

Latin Pride’s organizers should work closely with SD Pride to integrate a rich cultural menu of events into the festival weekend.

Latin Pride as a separate event makes no sense. It didn’t make sense to me when I first moved to San Diego last year, and it still doesn’t. I also agree with both the opening and closing paragraphs of your editorial.

Mario Cajina

Dear Editor:

Bonny Dumanis the gay “moderate” Republican District Attorney for San Diego compares gays to sex offenders. Here’s the quote, decide for yourself, from the August 25, 2005 issue of The Gay and Lesbian Times;

“My experience is, if you want to talk about what rehabilitation is for a sex offender, it means containment. It doesn’t mean that you cure them, because it is like sexual orientation…It’s internal,”

This begs the question, is this outrageous statement supported by any facts or studies? In the hunt for ever more scary “perps” did all good judgment become incarcerated as well? Maybe she could have compared it to being, oh I don’t know, stupid, just something you can’t help…

Of course this is just the latest sorry chapter in the ongoing self induced PR disaster for the San Diego Gay Community. Then again with self serving “community leaders” like Ms. Dumanis, it’s not surprising.

So, let’s count how many ways the deeply unpopular child molester can be exploited.

If you’re an “ex-gay” religious nut job out to discredit the gay community, you can find them volunteering and frame the argument that the entire community as a bunch of perverts.

If you’re a law and order District Attorney up for reelection you can use the child molester as proof that you are more law and order than anyone, while you perpetrate the idea that “the gays” kind‘a sexual deviants too.

If you’re a self promoting drag queen you can use the child molester as an excuse to take over a community institution and maybe get the parade named after yourself.

Apparently none of them have stopped to think about the damage to the gay community. By buying into this manufactured “concern” these so called “community leaders” have let the ex-gay whackjob frame the argument. This entire incident could have been solved quickly and quietly with no collateral damage. Even better they could have done the right thing and exposed the “ex-gay” whackjob for what he is.

In the end easy exploitation and self promotion won the day.

As for Ms. Dumanis, it would seem that she has indeed proven that yes, despite being a lesbian, she is very much a Republican, willing to exploit any “family” issue that comes along.

She owes the gay community and apology.

Calvin Radford

Dear Editor:

Mason McCleary’s letter dated 7/28/05 as it relates to the 2200 Club on 2200 University Avenue is full on nonsense. In particular McCleary’s comment that management has not changed and his implication that I do not exist flies in the face of certain verifiable facts.

I moved to San Diego from Cathedral City last summer. Last fall I made substantial improvements to the establishment and opened it as the 2200 Club. Currently, there is bitter litigation going on between the old owners, Mssrs. Dewalt and Suddeth, the property owner and my consultant, Bob Smith relating to the building.

I certainly do exist. In this case McClery’s reasoning is the mirror opposite of President

John Smith

Owner, The 2200 Club

Dear Editor:

In reference to the fallout over registered sex offenders working at Pride, I would like to know if anyone has looked into the staff or volunteers of other popular San Diego events like the Fun Run or the Rock and Roll Marathon. How many registered sex offenders worked at Street Scene? It seems like LGBT Pride has been singled out for criticism.

John Keasler

Dear Editor:

This is a response to Mark Gabrish Conlan’s letter (8/4/2005) regarding what GLT has named “Pridegate.” I, too, have rarely been less proud of my community than I am right now. However, Mr. Conlan’s logic is flawed. I agree that the controversy was mostly a response to the usual, homophobic religious wrong (I can’t bring myself to call them right...), but Pride could have avoided the entire problem from the beginning by excluding known violent sexual offenders or child molesters from involvement in the event. The fact this scandal happened, therefore, is not the result of external homophobia, but rather internal irresponsibility and secrecy on the part of Pride.

The fact that the individuals at the center of the scandal have served their sentences and not (yet) re-offended does not remove the stigma of sexual offender, nor should it. That is the legitimate purpose of Megan’s Law—to make the public aware of the potential danger. As sexual offenders, they will likely not be elected to public office, teach in elementary schools or coach children’s sports. These are the consequences of the unwise choices they made in their lives—not vigilantism as Conlan asserts.

Pride played right into our critics’ hands by running itself in such a careless manner. Making sure that the people involved in putting on a large community event do not have a criminal background is a basic security concern. Pride obviously places a high value on security for our community by fencing in the festival site, having the parade patrolled by radio-wielding security volunteers, and even keeping people off the University Avenue bridge over Highway 163. Why should the safety and security of our community’s children and non-gay allies be any less important? In this case, the reputation of our community has been tarnished—the lack of a city proclamation is shameful, but if a sexual crime had been committed by one of these Pride-protected sex offenders, the future of Pride in San Diego could be at risk.

A few years ago, in San Francisco, the National Man Boy Love Association was permitted to march in the parade, provoking anger and controversy in the community at large. The public reaction during the parade was so hostile that the group has not marched since. Their right to free speech was protected by allowing them to march, but the community’s reaction seems to have resolved the issue there. Hopefully our community’s anger about the current situation will prevent it from happening again.

For years now, Pride events have been advertised as family-friendly.

As a gay father, I have proudly brought my daughter with me to Pride events. Since Conran doesn’t want outsiders interfering in our community celebrations, I hope he’ll join me in calling on our community organizations to adopt policies excluding known violent sex offenders and child molesters from being involved in our community events. Maybe next year we’ll have good cause for more gay pride, and less gay shame.

Kenny Landes

Dear Editor:

Mr. Matthew Veritas (?) Tsien seems misguided in his recent letter attacking the Democratic party and the “usual slanderous liberal ideology.” I’m not sure that anyone’s ideology is properly termed “slanderous”—such a statement itself seems overtly slanderous, oddly enough. Furthermore, the logic behind his election statement “If government officials are corrupt, or dishonest, then the loser must have been worse . . .” totally eludes rational comprehension. You’re ready to run for office, Matthew!

Writing as a fifty-nine year old gay man, I can’t recall my country’s being at a lower ethical/political ebb. It would appear that both major parties have been taken over by deliberately polarizing, shrill fringe elements. Neither party is serving this nation with any genuinely uniting leadership right now (but “don’t ask” and “don’t tell”). The voices on the left are indeed divided, but where is the right and its ethics when a prominent columnist like Robert Novak “outs” a CIA operative? Whatever we might think of the CIA’s past actions, we should not support endangering someone’s life, especially someone presumably serving our nation’s best interests. How patriotic/ethical is that?

I taught and coached in the town of Modesto for the previous thirty-one years before retiring and moving to Southern California. The “Moral Majority,” or whatever they have evolved into today, long ago targeted school boards as their objective rather than the Senate, the governor’s house, etc. Program young minds, and elections fall right into place! Three of the seven members of our board followed the “Christian right’s” agenda. These people want evolution moved out of science and into literature, etc. This “born again” element—America’s own Taliban—has apparently taken effective control of the Republican party. It’s indeed hard to tell who is in charge of the Democrats, but the polarization, though disorganized, seems pretty complete there too. Does either party offer a healing sense of unity for our entire nation? More importantly, is either really even trying?

What we all need is for one of these parties to head quite legitimately to the center. We don’t need a continuance of one or two-issue politics based on hate and divisiveness. What was true about race relations and the Vietnam War in the sixties and seventies remains true today. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence. Geography shifts, race can become religion/hatred of gays-gay rights, but principles remain inviolable (such as no country’s enjoying being militarily occupied).

Moving more narrowly into focus, in California we have become a cartoonish joke with a supplements-laden governor (or no apparent prior experience managing anything) who may be opposed by left-wingers from Hollywood of similarly lacking backgrounds. And Jane Fonda, not having learned from Vietnam, is about to embark on a bus tour opposing the Iraqi War. Perhaps Robert Novak can reveal some troop movements in advance from the Fonda bus. Let the far left and far right join together. They really are distressingly similar in effect, after all.

Frank Moore