"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." -- San Diego GLBT Times April 13 Issue
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.
Sign the Petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/...