Dear Editor:

I was perusing the latest issue of the GLBT Times and I came across your editorial about the Center being “white washed” when I came across this paragraph:

Mixing our communitys rapidly changing demographic with its history rooted in freedom of sexual expression is no easy task. San Diego Pride, for example, has decided that youth 17 years old and younger who want to enter the Pride festival at Marston Point this summer will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

I had to re-read it a couple times to make sure I read this correctly. WHAT?!?!! Now young people have to be accompanied by their PARENTS to get into our festival?!?

As someone who came out at 15 years old, I was lucky enough to have parents who supported me. But what about all the GLBT and questioning youth out there who aren’t so lucky?!?

PRIDE has abandoned our youth. Young people have been a key part of Pride for as long as I have been going - since 1994. Youth have been on the forefront of Pride in regards to creating their own spaces, providing entertainment, volunteering, etc. Pride is one of the only times young people get to interact with the entirety of our community - to see what a gorgeous and wonderfully diverse culture we have. Pride is the time of year that gives us hope.

Whose decision was it to deny entrance to the very young people who so desperately need to attend? The youth that will be most affected by this asinine new policy are those not yet out to their parents, whose parents kicked them out of the house, or whose parents are too busy working to attend a festival.

If PRIDE’s decision was based upon shielding youth from certain content at the Festival (which I find highly suspect since San Diego’s Pride is so TAME) - then certain booths or whatnot that they find “questionable” could be designated to a certain 18 and up area. But to deny entrance to the entire festival is absolutely outrageous.

Margot Kelley Rodriguez

Dear Editor:

With regard to the Pride festival’s unaccompanied minor policy, protecting underage youth, by providing a safe and secure environment remains a primary focus and responsibility for San Diego Pride.

Youth in the community should know that San Diego Pride is developing a guardian / mentor program which will allow underage youth who want to participate in the festival the opportunity to do so.

In January, Pride invited the Youth Pride planning committee to be a part of the process in determining how Pride can provide for the safety and security of an estimated 100 underage and unaccompanied youth at the Festival which draws tens of thousands of adults. We understand our responsibility as event organizers and to the community to protect a vulnerable population. To ensure the youth component would be a vital part of the Pride celebration we committed to the youth that we would develop a guardian / mentor program for youth wanting to attend the festival.

We have developed this policy with an understanding that society has changed from the time many of us were in our teens, even in the last 5 years, there is greater awareness and knowledge of predators everywhere in our society, we understand the impact mixing underage youth and alcohol can have, we understand we can not watch over every underage youth that enters the festival, we understand the liability the Pride organization has when unaccompanied minors enter the festival and mix with tens of thousands of adults. At the end of the day, we also understand what it means to be a teenager.

We encourage anyone wanting to volunteer and serve as a guardian/mentor to send their contact information to info@sdPride.org.

Thank you for taking the time to understand.

Ron deHarte