Well, the big Pride scandal Town Hall Meeting has come and gone, and despite an overwhelming vote of the assembled masses for the current board to step down, the 3-man board which caused the current controversy has officially thumbed it’s nose, and refused to resign.

So, what to do now?

Unfortunately, the community’s options at this point appear to be very limited. According to the bylaws of San Diego Pride (of which pertinent sections where read aloud at the Meeting), the organization is essentially a self-perpetuating oligarchy: The only people who can remove the Board is the Board; and the only people who can fill the Board is the Board. In other words, all power lies with the Board…on paper, anyways.

The only real bargaining chip the community has in this situation is the natural unwritten power it has as a consumer…the credible threat of a boycott. And that’s about it, really.

Everyone needs to understand what this means. It means not working with a San Diego Pride, as a volunteer or otherwise. And encouraging your friends not to collaborate with them as well.

It means for our community businesses and organizations not to work with Pride this year. Imagine a parade with no floats or entries…or a festival with no boothes. That’s what we’re talking about here.

And there have already been calls at the Meeting for both of the above:

“Said longtime San Diego Pride volunteer and SDGLN Higher Education and Non-profit Liaison Benny Cartwright, “Pride’s many volunteers and its community ambassadors are standing up. The workforce volunteers and ambassadors make Pride what it is. We can’t, and won’t, work for an organization that is misallocating funds for the personal benefit of the Board. We can’t, and won’t, continue to fundraise without knowing if money is going to Pride or of it will pad the pockets of board members. The entire Board must resign and those who have been terminated or who have resigned as a result of their decision to misallocate funds to Dr. Princetta must be reinstated.””

“Some in attendance at the meeting called for an altogether boycott of the parade and festival. Others called for the pulling of financial plugs. “The Board was shameful in their actions, violated their fiscal duties and violated the trust of the community,” said local business owner Nick Moede. “As a business owner, in the past year [my business] donated approximately $10k in contributions to Pride, and as long as the Board stays we will not support Pride any longer. Without community contributions this organization can’t survive. Without volunteers it can’t survive. The Board has to go.””

So, that’s the next step at this point, for those with the guts to take it: A full-on boycott of San Diego Pride. Basically, we as a community uniting to turn July 16, 17, and 18 of 2010 into just another relaxing San Diego summer weekend.

I know there will be those out there who’ll find this course of action too tragic too contemplate (and truth be told, it would indeed be a tragedy). I recall at least one speaker going up to the microphone at the Meeting that night, and while calling for the Board to resign, urged that no action be taken that would “damage” Pride.

Sadly (as I noted above) the community really has no weapon in it’s arsenal other than the admittedly inelegant “nuclear option” of a boycott. It’s literally the only tangible leverage we have (all those strongly-worded Town Hall speeches obviously had no effect), and thus to say we’ll do everything short of a boycott is basically broadcasting to the opposition that we’re not willing to use the only real power we have. And to a Board of this mindset, that would be in effect a capitulation.

Jim Winsor (jim@sdpix.com)
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