Yesterday we reported that Bradley Manning, currently in jail while awaiting trial for having been accused of handing over 750,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks, had been named the grand marshal of 2013 San Francisco Pride. Today we’ve been informed that the announcement was inaccurate and due to the error of an over-eager SF Pride staff member.
Lisa L. Williams, the president of San Francisco’s Pride Board, released the following statement last night, to set the record straight:
Bradley Manning will not be a grand marshal in this year’s San Francisco Pride celebration. His nomination was a mistake and should never have been allowed to happen. A staff person at SF Pride, acting under his own initiative, prematurely contacted Bradley Manning based on internal conversations within the SF Pride organization. That was an error and that person has been disciplined. He does not now, nor did he at that time, speak for SF Pride.
Bradley Manning is facing the military justice system of this country. We all await the decision of that system. However, until that time, even the hint of support for actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform — and countless others, military and civilian alike — will not be tolerated by the leadership of San Francisco Pride. It is, and would be, an insult to every one, gay and straight, who has ever served in the military of this country. There are many, gay and straight, military and non-military, who believe Bradley Manning to be innocent. There are many who feel differently. Under the US Constitution, they have a first amendment right to show up, participate and voice their opinions at Pride this year.
Specifically, what these events have revealed is a system whereby a less-than-handful of people may decide who represents the LGBT community’s highest aspirations as grand marshals for SF Pride. This is a systemic failure that now has become apparent and will be rectified. In point of fact, less than 15 people actually cast votes for Bradley Manning. These 15 people are part of what is called the SF Pride Electoral College, comprised of former SF Pride Grand Marshals. However, as an organization with a responsibility to serve the broader community, SF Pride repudiates this vote. The Board of Directors for SF Pride never voted to support this nomination. Bradley Manning will have his day in court, but will not serve as an official participant in the SF Pride Parade.
Eric Auerbach
Thank God. This guy belongs in jail, nowhere else.
couchcritic
There is a lot of misinformation going on around this issue and a number of commenters asking for more info. B. Manning was acting as a whistleblower, he knowingly broke the law as an act of conscience, and his leaks have provided a treasure trove of information used by newspapers all around the world to shed light on the dark side of US foreign policy. The statement by the ED of SF Pride is shameful and regardless of what you think of Manning, the issues that are raised by his persecution and torture by the US Government should be at the forefront of LGBT media. Glenn Greenwald has a great piece in the Guardian (with sources hyperlinked) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/27/bradley-manning-sf-gay-pride
KWinDC
Can you say “Full speed back pedal?”
Eric Auerbach
@couchcritic: Manning is a traitor. Lock him up and throw away the key.
Dakotahgeo
Old news… I’m bored.
Lefty
@couchcritic: That is a great piece by Greenwald.
Shame on SFPride.
2eo
*Sigh*
A genuine American hero, really missed the chance to stand up for what is morally just, and absolutely 100% correct, shame on them or backing down, Manning is a hero, a genuine hero. No wonder he is loathed by those so pitifully small like Eric.
jeff4justice
The @SFPride / Bradley Manning debacle debacle is a perfect example of why I do not donate to LGBT mega groups who are often 1% corporate whores and blind Democrat supporters despite how Republican-like they’ve become.
Anyone remember the stories like this one “GLAAD Burned by Blogosphere in AT&T Scandal” http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/glaad-burned-blogosphere-att-scandal-284153
This incident also shows how the major LGBT media is just free PR for the mega groups and Democrats. The mega blogs repeat nearly all of the same headlines while ignoring voices outside the LGBT elite.
The so-called LGBT community is an illusion. It’s amazing how gay-oppression-empathy is at an all time high and milked for all it’s worth by LGBT mega groups who do not care about the poor and just act as a PR and funding tool for Democrat and corporate agenda.
And let’s not forget how LGBT media and mega groups totally ignore pro-equality alternative party options every election cycle.
The 2party system puts all of us in harms way with their lie-based wars, policies of pollution, poverty, and erosion of civil liberties and yet the LGBT mega groups and LGBT media continues to blindly kiss Democrat ass no matter how Republican-like they become. Pathetic.
This is a perfect example of why I cannot stand the so-called LGBT community, the elitist-profiteering-so-called nonprofit mega groups, and the pathetic LGBT media that blindly supports the Democrats.
Pride events are overrated anyway – unless you enjoy 100-degree porta potties full of diarrhea; crappy overpriced food which you can only use cash to pay for; a sea of people so thick you can barely move and certainly endangered if something bad happens; endless booths of LGBT so-called nonprofits with 6-figure earning executive directors that don’t do anything to help poor people and ignore most of the map not in big cities; and a parade of 1% corporations; a bunch of drunks throwing up; surrounding streets full of homeless people being walk over to get to the event; and a parade of elitist celebs and politicians.
Next, it’s sickening to see LGBT people reply abrasively towards Manning in the news reports about this. It’s just a reminder that LGBT people can be as dumb as awful as those who victimize them.
——–
2 must-see op-eds about the @SFPride / Bradley Manning debacle:
Bradley Manning, Bayard Rustin, and the perversion of Pride.
http://paper-bird.net/2013/04/27/bradley-manning-bayard-rustin-and-the-perversion-of-pride/#comment-1959
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/27/bradley-manning-sf-gay-pride?fb=native&commentpage=3
Eric Auerbach
@2eo: You’re not even American, so your opinion is worthless.
Dakotahgeo
@Eric Auerbach: 2eo and I don’t always agree, but he’s five times the person you’ll ever hope to be. Stick to the subject at hand and be thankful we even tolerate you as a humanoid!
viveutvivas
@Eric AuerbAch, go bully someone else. I am a U.S. citizen, and I fully agree with 2eo.
viveutvivas
Re: “Specifically, what these events have revealed is a system whereby a less-than-handful of people may decide who represents the LGBT community’s HIGHEST ASPIRATIONS as grand marshals for SF Pride.”
Oh PLEASE, spare us THAT bit of hypocrisy. Last year’s marshalls were Sarah Silverman, some drag queen nobody’s heard of, and another woman nobody’s heard of. Not that there was anything wrong with them, but the HIGHEST ASPIRATIONS. Bullsh*t.
Dakotahgeo
@viveutvivas: LOLOL… thank you, v!
Mofdgheb
~That’s it. Eric said it. All non-Americans should just leave this site now.
Fawkes
@Eric Auerbach: No, only someone like you who wishes to crush whistle-blowers and protect the government at all costs is the traitor, as you clearly know nothing of this great nation’s founding. You are un-American filth and are far more dangerous to liberty than any whistle-blower will ever be.
niles
At least someone has an ounce of sense in SF. But really, isn’t it time to realize that these groups have nothing to do with gay rights anymore? After all, they have even banned the word gay, and are now nothing more than another trans-jacked, ultra left wing farce that need to be forgotten in the mists of time.
Eric Auerbach
@Fawkes: Whistle-blowing =/= Treason. You are an idiot.
crowebobby
Apropos of nothing but a pleasant change of mood, click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmRpDvYRHzQ
Fawkes
@Eric Auerbach: Yet here you are calling Manning, a whistle-blower, a traitor. It’s clear you know nothing, as any sort of sentence for Manning would create a nightmarish precedent against whistle-blowers. Anyone with the slightest sense of history would know that. This is of course not to even mention the fact that Obama has already prosecuted more whistle-blowers than any administration in United States history. Or perhaps you are aware of what a conviction for Manning would mean and instead you’ve decided to eschew conscience and reason and bend over and grab your ankles for the police state. Based on your idiotic postings, either of those two are likely, if not certain.
Dakotahgeo
@crowebobby: THANK YOU!! Cool, cool video! Too bad the faux patriots won’t enjoy it.
Wilberforce
I’m so glad to see that the majority of gay folk support Manning. It shows we have a clear vision of American values and history. It also shows that we can look beyond our immediate interests and honor one of our own who acts nobly.
lab
and still the real war criminals…cheney and bush are free
Dakotahgeo
@lab: After reading about the Republican mosque built to honor GWBunnypants, I can only hope he and Cheneykov die from lack of sleep… not guilt or shame (although those would be nice touches!)… just not being able to catch even a wink!
Caleb in SC
Ok, I am going to “one-up” the rhetoric: I am American, gay and actually served in the military. None of you bitches can top that. Manning is a traitor. Pure and simple. Take his sexuality out of the equation and this is a non issue.
Eric Auerbach
@Caleb in SC: Thank you for your service, Caleb in SC.
Fawkes
@Caleb in SC: What does his sexuality have to do with him revealing that the United States government acted like the criminal organization that it is? And you got some nerve acting like you’re the only person here who served in the military. I was in the Air Force for seven years you schmuck! You say nothing of value whatsoever and expect us to drop to our knees and lick your boots just because you’re a veteran. What a pathetic coward you are. As a fellow veteran, you should know better than anyone that you took an oath to defend the Constitution. Clearly you’ve broken that oath, and the real traitor here is you.
@Eric Auerbach: Enough with the false patriotism already. And it’s rather fishy that you just happen to reply to the only other troll who agrees with you fifteen minutes apart this late at night. You wouldn’t be so insecure that you’d create a second account to intimidate the rest of us, would you? No, a fine, upstanding coward such as yourself would never do a thing like that. Silly me to even think it!
Lefty
@Caleb in SC: That’s fascinating. The way you seem so certain that being a soldier once somehow makes your pronouncements on this more authoritative.
Doesn’t the fact you’ve been conditioned to “serve” make you more likely to unquestioningly accept the official line?
Doesn’t a soldier that thinks for him/herself and has a moral compass end up doing what Manning is alleged to have done, if they were in similar circumstances?
Isn’t the point of the severity of Manning’s punishment up to this point, even though he hasn’t had a trial yet, precisely because the military can’t afford to have people who think or feel for themselves and instead just “serve” (and value that very “service” as a thing of worth in and of itself, regardless of the quality or type of service in question).
Again, Manning hasn’t even had a trial yet. He’s been in prison for almost three years without trial, in conditions that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (who himself was denied an unmonitored meeting with Manning to investigate his well-being) reported “constitutes at a minimum cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of article 16 of the convention against torture”.
Now, I haven’t served in the military. Hell, I haven’t even killed innocent unarmed foreigners abroad. But those are the facts.
One wonders just what Manning is a “traitor” to by uncovering all this and exactly what it is people who try to condemn someone who has been imprisoned for three years without trial feel they are protecting.
It’s a curious idea of freedom and democracy.
Not much to be proud of, is it?
Lefty
Here’s a gay shame vomit bag from 2002 (may come in handy in SF again this year)…
“Put Patriotism back in the closet”
Thanks to Larry-Bob Roberts.
2eo
@Caleb in SC: You profess to stand up for your country yet do the dirty work of the black hats. People like you are what is wrong with our military machine, people like you are why good soldiers are left to die while you worm your way back on the backs of their corpses.
You don’t have the intelligence or bottle to be respected. Good soldiers have a conscience, heart and integrity, and fortunately they still outnumber people like you [just], you have nothing, just a brainless grunt and nothing more.
bledoutcolor
How cowardly. It was SFP’s decision to make, not AMPA’s and I’m disappointed they kowtowed to pressure from an outside group. Why not let the NRA have a say? Or better yet, why not. The AFA or FRC in whether we have pride at all? Pride is about standing up and ironically they failed to do so.
The only good thing about this is it wont serve as a distraction from the festivities or cause violence now. But I’m still disappointed in the organizers nit standing firm on their principles
Caleb in SC
@2eo: @Lefty: @Fawkes: Personal attacks? How classy.
Obviously, the tone of my post was completely lost. It was meant to be taken in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Regardless, the vociferousness of the personal attacks on me demonstrate the true, poor character of the people involved.
What makes Manning’s argument complete and utter bullshit — that he did it to protest DADT — was that DADT was already in the process of being repealed. How anyone can support this pathetic excuse of a human being is beyond me. He put other people’s lives at risk. As for the three years and no trial, even under military law, there is a right to a speedy trial. I’m sure the reason he hasn’t been to trial is that his own attorneys have asked for continuances to prepare their case.
Lefty
@Caleb in SC: I never made a personal attack; merely pointed out that you’re condemning someone who hasn’t been tried yet but imprisoned for three years in appalling conditions, regardless.
If you’d been following the case, you’d know that the reason for that delay without trial is not due to Manning’s defense attorneys; anymore than they can be blamed for the terrible conditions in which Manning was held.
You seem very sensitive to what you see as personal attacks against you, but go on to describe Manning as a “pathetic excuse of a human being”.
Again, this is someone who hasn’t been tried, let alone convicted yet; and someone who has exposed gross abuses of power and outright criminality as a matter of conscience.
Maybe you should reconsider who it is you “serve”?
AdamZZZ
Brilliantly sad and funny piece on this controversy by Scott Long at http://paper-bird.net/2013/04/27/bradley-manning-bayard-rustin-and-the-perversion-of-pride/
Lefty
Susie Bright:
“I’m a veteran SF Pride Grand Marshal. I was elated when I heard when Bradley Manning had been nominated.
I was shocked and sick to my stomach to hear this statement that his place had been “revoked.”
Are you kidding? All kinds of controversial and cutting edge activists have been Grand Marshals— it’s not the Pentagon’s choice. It’s not about picking some namby-pamby whom everyone agrees is irrelevant and bland.
SF Pride recognizes people who’ve MADE A SACRIFICE for social justice— and if Bradley Manning isn’t that kind of hero, I don’t know who is.”
https://www.facebook.com/susieness/posts/10151387056471641
Fawkes
@Caleb in SC: Bullshit. Dizzy from that quick little back-pedal, are you? You’re just not used to people standing up to you when you play that little military card. You’re used to being the big bully on the playground and getting away with it. I stand by my calling you a coward, for you have demonstrated once again that you (as well as the rest of the chicken-necked little quislings who share your same big government ideology) are exactly that.
2eo
@Fawkes: He is a coward, he backed down as soon as his little napoleon card didn’t work, the problem with a lot of military men [the shit ones] is they think they demand awe-inspired respect when they still earn it through their actions and bravery, Caleb has never done anything beyond being a bully and useless statistic.
If I can argue and win with a field-marshall at uni, I can school someone without an iota of that mans ability or intelligence.
They’ll never give Manning his fair day, they’ve decided he is going to be executed, and it is all an utter joke, the American machine is proving itself no different than Iran, Afghanistan or Russia and their kangaroo show trials. America is letting itself down with how it’s handling itself here.
Freddie27
I’ve read about when Gay Pride parades were radical events, one big FU to heteronormative society and a statement for justice for all, including queer people. Now they’re little more than an opportunity for corporate shills, hook-ups and people who desperately want the straights to like us so please oh please don’t do anything crazy like stand up for an American hero who exposed war crimes and the covert, evil actions of the US government and military abroad. The early leaders of the Gay Liberation movement are turning in their graves at what Pride has become…
MarkH
Good. Manning is a despicable traitor. His name belongs nowhere near anything to do with gay pride.
Fawkes
@MarkH: Considering most gay pride events are nothing but government and corporate shills, you’re right, a hero like Manning should have nothing to do with them.
miagoodguy
A coward and a traitor is exactly who should be the grand marshall.
2eo
@miagoodguy: The log cabin republicans won’t be interested in helping our community though will they.
hephaestion
Bradley Manning is a hero. Everyone who has seen the video he exposed understands this.
Dakotahgeo
@Lefty: Whoaaaa!!! Thank you x 100!!! Right on the mark!
Dakotahgeo
@Lefty: @Caleb in SC:That is a great idea Caleb… I will grant you that only if you’ll re-up for the next 20 years in Afghanistan or Iran. I want MY heroes to earn their awards, not just “talk” about the wonders of their “country”! If you support it so vehemently, let’s see continuous actions. How ’bout it? Pretty please?
Caleb in SC
@Fawkes: “Arm chair patriots” are the death of the US. LMFAO!!! If you are not from the US, STFU. If you have never served in the military STFU! Very simple. Don’t judge unless you have walked a mile in my shoes.
Fawkes
@Caleb in SC: Not only am I an American, if you bothered to actually read my earlier response to your trolling, you would have learned that I am a seven year military veteran. Not that any of that matters anyway, as all that matters here is a basic understanding of our Republic and its history, which you very clearly don’t have. All you can do is be derisive, ignorant and foolish, offering nothing to defend your ridiculous positions. What an arrogant piece of crap you are, and your last post illustrates that exactly. I have no intention of understanding you, just as I have no intention of understanding Al Qaeda, skinheads, or Klansmen before judging them. Evil is evil, no matter what the shoes they’re wearing, so save your nonsense.
Fawkes
Crickets from the Liliputian in SC.
tchuy03
SF Pride had to safe face and not endorses a Traitor. PVT Manning is a crinimal that has no business in the Gay Agenda. As an Active Duty Gay man, I want no relation to Manning. For the Gay Community to embrace this piece of trash is embarrassing!
Dakotahgeo
@tchuy03: By all means, you are free to leave this blog and the GLBT Community any time you wish! Don’t waste time and don’t let the door hit you where…!!!
Dakotahgeo
@Fawkes: Ah yes, the King of KP!!! No thanks for YOUR service… and this from a History/Political Science major. You came back alive… try not to be a drain on our country’s economy or a PITA!!!