An injunction has been filed in an attempt to force the city of San Francisco to shutter its Civic Center Pride festival, a free event attended by upwards of one million people each year. The reason, however, may not be what you’d expect.
There’s a cold, hard truth to San Francisco Pride that at some point during the weekend’s festivities, a senseless act of violence can cast a shadow over the revelry. Now two victims who were injured during a 2013 shooting at the festival have joined a suit to put an end to the upcoming June 2016 gathering.
The action was announced in a release by the Beverly Hills firm of Rosenfeld, Meyer, and Susman — the same firm that represented Trevor Gardner, an LA man who was also shot at the 2013 festival. Gardner sued SF Pride and its Celebration Committee for $10 million, saying the injury hurt his prospects at a career as a physical trainer. His lawyers argued that the committee had been negligent in controlling security in and around the festival, and in 2015, Gardner reached an undisclosed settlement with the organization.
The new complaint references incidents of gunfire at Pride events each year since 2011, and makes note of the fact that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence decided to walk away from hosting the Pink Saturday street party in the Castro in part because a Sister was attacked in an alleged hate crime at the event in 2014. Pink Saturday has been canceled altogether in 2016 for security reasons.
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Also mentioned are internal emails form SF Pride that discuss the impossibility of fully securing the massive street festival, and promote alcohol sales at the event.
If successful, the suit would claim another beloved SF Pride tradition. While the parade would still take place, it would be a major loss for the 99.999% of nonviolent participants who plan to attend the Civic Center celebration.
What do you think — do a few rotten apples spoil the barrel, or should the city do what it can to offer security, cross its fingers and hope for the best?
h/t SFist
jdboston617
This makes zero sense. The shooter(s) are responsible for the violence, not the Pride Committees. It is a public outdoor event with hundreds of thousands of people. The lawsuit does not seem valid in this case.
ingyaom
What can they do, pat down/strip-search a million people? Not going to happen.
Uncle Mark
@jdboston617: True, it makes little sense, but in the event this suit does not get thrown out of court, the Pride Committees might be willing to settle for some amount of money. It makes me wonder why the city isn’t being sued as well…except that the city already has their own team of lawyers on staff to handle such cases.
redcarpet30
Why aren’t they suing to stop, oh say, the NY St. Patricks Day Parade???
I’m sorry he was harmed, but its a possibility any time you have an event in the city. Especially one as world renowned as SF pride.
strix1
Crazy talk…if they shut down the SF Pride Fest then they should shut down the Boston Marathon, they should definitely close all schools (kids can home school) and to be safe, close down all the malls (people can shop on ebay). Violence is going to happen everywhere.
Gourmandises
Wow! I was planning on going to this year’s Pride festival in SF since I had such a good time last year for Pride in the Castro. I did notice quite a few straight male thug wannabes who looked like they were there to pick up girls. But that’s what happens when you take the “gay” out of Pride and turn into a simple party. Too many of our straight friends and fellow queers are there just because it’s an excuse to drink. They couldn’t care less about the point of the event. Last year at Pink Saturday there were definitely quite a few times where I had to question if I was at a gay event. Perhaps we should make all the guys give a bj at the entrance just to keep the straight troublemakers out.
GC1985
Sue to shut an event of freedom and liberation down? That’s makes as much sense as the Republican party. Why shut something down and ruin it for everyone else? I deplore senseless acts of violence, but preventing others from being who they are is equally terrible. You can be a victim of violence anywhere. So what else do we need to shut down? Whole cities and deploy national guardsmen at every corner with tanks? They do that in some countries… None of them democratic.
How about Singapore where they have policemen in ski mask wielding assault results at every block?
Maleko
Ambulance chasers? They settled once, why not ‘blackmail’ the parade for more money since it worked once and you know the Parade likely has deep pockets. If someone got shot during an NFL, NBA of MLB gate, would they sue to stop that kind of event? If they could, they would according to Shakespeare; the major sports interests have army’s of lawyers that would just love to take on these types of nuisance actions.
robco
The people shot likely have lots of debt piled up as a consequence of their injuries. It’s doubtful they could get any money from the perpetrator, so they go with the deeper pockets. I suppose they’ll need to make everyone sign waivers before entering the festival.
joeyty
@Gourmandises: “I did notice quite a few straight male thug wannabes” Are they from Oakland ? (I know so little about san francisco these days).
GC1985
@joeyty: You know so little about everything really. Even New York City. The city you claim to live in.
Sluggo2007
There must be a way to keep the thugs out. Maybe charge $10.00 to get in.
Kaaper
This is ridiculous. I remember my first Pride parade in San Francisco in 1975. I was an 18 year old Navy sailor, deeply in the closet. I will never forget what that parade made me feel. That I was not alone.
QJ201
Well when thugs of all colors show up and play out their street justice gamesmanship in the middle of gay pride… what options do we have?
joeyty
@GC1985: I know everything about NYC. So…are they from Oakland ? (Because Oakland always ranks high in the worst cities for crime).
Patrick
I to feel it would be a huge lose to the global community if this event was anything but expanded!! I am a 50 something gay man who lives in Vancouver BC Canada. I have been fortunate enough to attend the SF Pride festival and it is something I will never forget!!
I actually use to prefer the Halloween festivities on the Castro until they were cancelled for this very reason 🙁
ChuckF
For the last forty years we have dealt with opposition to who we are, what we do in bed, and what we think. Someone who’s been injured is a horrible thing,and that should be recognized but suing is nasty business. People die in car crashed every day, but they don’t sue the city for the street. Life is violent and as they say, we will overcome this attempt, too.
joeyty
So…are they from Oakland or doesn’t anybody know ?
Brian
SF Pride used to have so much meaning to it. Today, it’s become a colorful event of transgenders and drag queens along with gym bunnies who treat the event as an opportunity to show off.
Male homosexual desire has effectively been sidelined in the process.
GC1985
@Brian: Drag queens have been part of the movement since the 60s and even earlier. They were the ones on the front lines you ignoramus. You are in such denial like Bernie Sanders.
@joeyty: You don’t know anything as expected. And your question shows how ignorant you are. The cities with the highest crime rates are in the Rustbelt.
onthemark
@joeyty: So where are you going with this? Suppose they were from Oakland, what’s your solution – card everyone and don’t let anyone with an Oakland ID in? Obviously that wouldn’t be legal.
joeyty
@onthemark: It’s not for me to do anything. Not my cities or state. I’m just asking for general knowledge. If they’re not from Oakland, are they from San Francisco itself ?
joeyty
@GC1985: Birmingham (Alabama); St. Louis ; Detroit ; Stockton; Baltimore ; Memphis. Generally, the cities that hit the top ten, per capta, murder cities in the U.S,. every year. And Oakland is always in there too.
GC1985
@joeyty: Moronic response from the biggest fool on this site! Most of those cities are in the rustbelt. You can’t even make a statement without sounding stupid.
GC1985
@joeyty: Why do you ask stupid things about where they are from? Are you just this thick in the skull? You don’t even know your own city. Without sounding like a right wing conservative Trump supporter, try to ask a question that makes sense!
joeyty
@GC1985: I’m just asking if the troublemakers are from Oakland or is there a crimey section of San Francisco itself….? Or is there another nearby high crime area? I think it’s important enough to know since we’re discussing the closure of the San Francisco gay pride event.
joeyty
@GC1985: “Most of those cities are in the rustbelt.” And they all have a large percentage of…………Japanese.
onthemark
@joeyty: Why is it important to know? But okay since you’re so desperate to know, there is a somewhat “crimey” area in SF itself (Hunters Point). Did you really think SF had no downscale neighborhoods at all? And believe it or not Oakland has some well-to-do neighborhoods. Sorry if this upsets your stereotypes!
joeyty
@onthemark: I don’t have any preconceived stereotypes about crime rates in areas of San Francisco. I just never go there and don’t know much about it. So all the gay guys talking about keeping the B&T (bridge-&-tunnel) people out of San Francisco for this event don’t really know what they’re talking about ?
GC1985
@joeyty: They could be from Timbuktu. Or from Kentucky. Or from Bakersfield, CA. Or from Lubbock, TX. Who cares? Your question is as random and stupid as ever.
@joeyty: You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just dumb.
Oakland has a higher standard of living than the redneck county you’re from in Kentucky. Are you upset ACA is gone?
GC1985
Well your governor Matt Bevin is trying to get rid of the state’s ACA. It must be a huge blow for you joey. That was they only way you get your meds.
joeyty
@GC1985: So the gay guys screeching that out-of-towners should be banned from San Francisco Pride have a good idea or not ?
joeyty
@GC1985: Some of us in the equestrian world can fall into too much Rx use from the pressure, yes, but…….gotta learn other ways to deal with it.
GC1985
@joeyty: You seem to be suffering from delusions. You of course can’t address anything I said.
@joeyty: You deal with it by injecting yourself with heroin.
joeyty
@GC1985: No..but I admittedly use opium. In my library.
onthemark
@joeyty: Oh, right… it all makes sense now… Mrs. Peac0ck, Colonel Mustard and Professor Plum were using opium in the library. No wonder they couldn’t figure out who committed the f @g-bashing! One of the smarter “Clue” characters had to figure it out.
joeyty
@onthemark: I’m Mr. Orange Opium.