San Diego Pride Will “Fully Display” Adult Porn Materials in “Freedom Zone”

Excerpted from James Hartline’s Action Alert dated Mar 7, 2007:

…The Gay and Lesbian Times is now reporting that the organizers of [San Diego Pride parade and festival] are actually planning to increase the amount of explicit adult entertainment that has been a staple of this annual anti-family carnival. This announcement follows on the heels of the Gay Pride organization’s recent press release that they will be hiring a high school teenager to recruit other minors to participate in this very vile party.

Here is what the March 1, 2007, Gay and Lesbian Times article stated about the increased porn industry presence for this year’s San Diego Gay Pride festival:

The Freedom Zone will be located at the south end, near the large beer garden. It will allow vendors with adult-oriented items and materials to fully display their merchandise. “Vendors who sell adult-oriented merchandise will be stationed in the Freedom Zone,” deHart said. “We’re also going to encourage special events such as autograph signings and contests and other events to take place in the Freedom Zone. It may be an opportunity to partner up with some of our local bars and clubs to do fun events and activities inside the Freedom Zone.”

The Freedom Zone was created to serve the percentage of the adult GLBT population who want to see more adult-themed booths. “The Freedom Zone will appeal to a segment of the population that hasn’t had their own space for a while,” said Philip Princetta, Pride co-chair.

…One carryover from last year will be the Youth Express Entrance, which offers 16- and 17- year-olds free entrance to the festival in exchange for participation in a brief orientation. The program was an experiment last year, partially in response to the 2005 Pride scandal, in which three Pride volunteers and one Pride employee were discovered to be registered sex offenders.

Rather than ban youth as a result of the scandal, the organization is educating them with regard to participating safely.