Dear Editor:

As a 19 year old who has attended Pride since I was 15, and volunteered at the festival every year I have gone, I am completely outraged and sickened to know that this important community event is now closing itself to my peer group. Youth have been behind so much of the LGBT movement, and to shut them out of one of the most important events in the community is disgusting. To people who believe that an adult volunteer should tag along on a youth’s day at Pride, I am sorry that you have forgotten what it is like to be young and queer. I find it ridiculous that a youth struggling with what it means to be queer is expected to gladly open up their personal lives to a strange adult - if a teen can’t tell family or friends that he or she is gay/bi/trans, why should they be forced to welcome a stranger on a day of personal exploration and involvement in a community that is often new and overwhelming? Let teens go with trusted friends or family, or even by themselves to test the waters of the LGBT community but still feel safe and secure.

Instead of putting up unrealistic hurdles and blockades to what should be a joyous day of discovering oneself and the LGBT community, SD Pride should be welcoming the youth that are so vital to the community. This new anti-youth policy is sending the message that Pride, and the entire LGBT community, is something shameful, dirty, and unacceptable to the general public. There is no “adult required” policy at Earthfair or similar events. Yes, require proper ID for areas with alcohol, but a policy that effectively bars LGBT youth from attending Pride is unfair and stigmatizes both Pride and all LGBT people.

I struggled with the idea of not volunteering at this year’s Pride - after all, I always enjoyed it and liked giving back to the community and to the event that meant so much to me. But I cannot support a Pride that is basically saying that Pride is for adults, and the youth be damned. The Pride board should be ashamed of themselves for turning their backs on our youth.

I encourage all other LGBT people (and allies!) to write the Pride board, GLT, and whoever else will listen to tell them that you cannot support a Pride that has such a hostile attitude toward youth. Pride relies on volunteers, and the volunteers come from the community. Send a message that the community WILL NOT ACCEPT the Pride board’s idea that the only LGBT people that matter are adults.

Kristi Espinoza

Dear Editor:

Unlike many cities across the country that host public non-ticketed events, the San Diego Pride Festival is a private ticketed event. As such, providing a safe and secure environment for all those attending especially the 100 or so underage youth is our personal responsibility and part of our mission statement. We therefore did not take the challenge of creating a “youth policy” lightly. Protecting our youth, while at the same time serving their needs, was our primary focus. We did our homework by meeting with numerous professional and community organizations but most importantly we met with the youth groups themselves. We brought as many people to the table as we could so as to ensure that we would understand all aspects of this situation before acting upon it. We left our emotions and personal feelings at the door and made what we felt was a decision that in the long run would be in the best interest of our community, the livelihood of this organization and most importantly our youth.

The San Diego Pride celebration is a month long, multi-event activity attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees to our community and the streets of Hillcrest and Balboa Park. Youth may participate in all public events during the San Diego Pride Celebration. The Pride parade provides an unequaled opportunity for young people to interact with our community and is the largest civic event in the city of San Diego drawing over 150,000 spectators. Another powerful event is a celebration of our history and our community – The Spirit of Stonewall Rally which takes place on Friday, July 28th and features homohop founder Juba Kalamka.

The Pride Festival will continue to offer a safe and secure place created by youth for youth called the Xone. Admittance will be closely monitored in this “youth only” area. Youth participating in the youth only zone will be admitted free of charge.

San Diego LGBTQI Youth Pride will take place on October 6th & 7th. Youth from throughout the community meet on a regular basis at the Pride office to plan, brainstorm and create their event. All LGBTQI youth are encouraged to attend these meetings and help make it happen. Dates and times appear on our website.

We wholeheartedly ask San Diego’s LGBTQI Youth to participate in the Pride activities that are planned in July and the LGBTQI Youth Pride event in October.

SD LGBT Pride is and always will be committed to LGBTQI youth. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. We know the future when we see it!

SDLGBT Pride Board of Directors

Dear Editor:

I am shocked and dismayed to know that if my partner and I want to bring our two year old daughters to the pride festival that we will have to sign a waiver before we are allowed to enter the grounds to document that we are responsible for our girls’ well being. What... the... hell... are... they... THINKING!!! We have been looking forward to this year’s festival since it’s the first time our girls will be old enough to enjoy it, and now we will be faced with this misguided and offensive policy at the gate. The irony is we would be welcome with open arms at any right-wing Christian gathering and not have to sign anything, yet at the festival that is supposedly an event to celebrate our family we will be faced with pen-and-form-weilding fascists at the gate forcing us to sign some sort of “good parenting” oath simply to cover Ron deHarte’s ass. I will never, ever sign such a document, particularly in front of my children. The last thing I want to teach them is to relinquish their freedom and rights to a kiss-ass, weak, ineffective, irrelevant group like the pride board. Keep your glorified swap-meet festival. I will never be coerced into signing anything like this for anyone and will never attend an event of any kind where such a mean-spirited, cowardly policy is in place. I encourage other parents to scratch the pride parade and festival from their calendars too.

Jim Krupiarz

Dear Editor:

As a member of the San Diego Democratic Club I am responding to Nicole Murray-Ramirez’s remarks about our endorsement in District 2 of the City Council. In his column of 6-8-06, he states that “ Kevin Faulconer should have been endorsed”. I would like to remind Nicole of several things. First, we are the San Diego Democratic Club. Our primary purpose is to elect Democrats to office. Mr. Faulconer is a Republican. It is true that over the years we have rated a very, very few Republicans “acceptable” (and some times I have regretted it), but I certainly do not consider Kevin Faulconer “acceptable”. Second, we don’t support candidates who oppose our rights. Mr. Faulconer repeated his approval of the Boy Scouts’ free lease in the use of Balboa Park in his recent special election. Perhaps Nicole does not recall that this is a priority issue in our LGBT community. And finally, Kennan Keader is a long time active member, friend and supporter of the San Diego Democratic Club. Kennan frequently attends meetings and works with us on Club projects. Of, course we will continue our endorsement of him. And I was still hoping that he would still win the election.

Gloria Johnson

Dear Editor:

A friend told me your current issue of the GLT has voting recommendations. So I went to the GLT website, hoping to find the same recommendations. I was surprised not to find them.

The GLT is not always easy for me to find, and I would think such an critical matter as elections would be important enough to the GLT that it would have been posted on your website.

Dennis Byrne