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Gay Pride goes off without a hitch, almost

By Walter G. Meyer

July 31, 2006

San Diego--As we stepped off to start walking in the gay pride parade, I had a brief wave of anxiety. The last year I had marched was in 1999 when a tear gas canister was lobbed into the parade. Of all of the units to target, it was thrown among children. Not that the leathermen or bears or dykes on bikes deserve to be attacked either, but at least they are adults and could take it better than little kids.

To this day no one has been charged in that attack. Given the hostile environment that is currently flowing down from the highest levels of our government, I was worried that the time was right for another despicable crime.

Mayor Jerry Sanders at Gay Pride last Saturday

My fears would later prove to be warranted, but the instant we made the turn from Normal Street onto University Avenue the outpouring of love and support in the form of cheers and applause chased my concerns away. All along the route there were happy people waving. I was walking amidst the East County Democrats and alongside Mark Hanson who is running for state senate against the biggest homophobe in Sacramento, Dennis Hollingsworth.

Each year the ranks of protestors thin to the point that now the riot police on horseback outnumber the disturbed few. The police keep their mounts facing the parade which means the zealots are, appropriately enough, facing horse’s asses.

The best T-shirt I saw, which drew a large cheer from the Democrats’ contingent was one that said, “Ban Republican Marriage.” Another T-shirt was less political: “Fuck milk. Got pot?” My favorite T-shirt from a past pride was: “I used to think I was popular, but it turns out I’m just a slut.”

As our group passed the reviewing stand MC’d by local drag queen Babette Schwartz, she saw the banner for the Santee Democrats and said, “The Santee Democrats. And, look, they’re both here!” A beautifully sarcastic reference to that area’s rightist leanings.

Being one of the first units in the parade, we got into the festival before everyone else. The number of booths and pavilions seemed to have grown since last year, perhaps too much so. The music venues were so numerous and close together that the music just melded into a cacophony. The dance tents offered so many choices that none achieved the critical mass necessary to have a good time.

There were a lot more tables to sit and eat at, which also made for social interaction. I met people from Mexico, Columbia and San Francisco all of whom had come to pride. Peter, from Denmark, said that pride this pride was different than the one he went to in Iceland. Over there, he said, it was much more wholesome and family-oriented. “Less slutty,” was the way he put it.

For all the expansion, the beer gardens were overcrowded and the lines on Saturday so long that only the neediest waited for a drink. But the crowd was in such a good mood that rather than grousing, the people in line introduced themselves and joked around.

For all its size and diversity, pride has remained very manageable. San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne told me that while Pride is by the largest civic event in San Diego, it also has the fewest problems. “I love it,” he said before the parade.

This year there was a new problem at Pride and one I’m sure Lansdowne didn’t love hearing about: a serious gay bashing. Unfortunately my feeling of foreboding was warranted. After the festival closed Saturday night, five men were attacked in Balboa Park by men wielding baseball bats. The attackers shouted gay slurs as they beat and stabbed their victims, and Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

I didn’t hear about it until Monday morning, so my warm fuzzy feeling at pride was not spoiled. It just reminded me of the need for Pride and why fighting for our rights and changing public attitudes is so necessary. It has been fifteen years since someone has been gay-bashed to death in Hillcrest—we have come so far in civil rights in that time, but apparently nowhere near far enough.

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