======== Subject: 24 July Gay Pride Day in San Diego From: barb Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 15:06:02 -0700 Message-ID: <379CDBCA.F34DDEF0@pacbell.net> 25th Anniversary,Gay Pride Day, San Diego, 1999 Any time one can find 60,000+ people in one area, it would seem a good day to distribute entheta to the masses, and the Gay Pride Parade is no exception. When I heard Thursday that the San Diego parade was scheduled for Saturday the 24th, I contacted the handful of Suppressive Persons in my area and arranged a field exercise. Benwog happened to be in town and free that day, so XenuTV was on the scene. The omnipresent Zinjifar also agreed to come on down. Using parts of Arnie Lerma's Victoria flyer, and parts of text from Dave Bird, I put together a piece targeting the gay community. One side had Arnie's graphic and some tasty quotes by L. Ron Hubbard; "Societies that permit homosexuality don't deserve to survive." -L. Ron Hubbard, Founder, $cientology The other side had a brief description of the 'Church' and it's admitted goal of 'clearing the planet,' as well as a paragraph about Hubbard's gay sons and Quentin Hubbard's suicide. The title was, "SCIENTOLOGY HATES GAYS, BUT LOVES THEIR MONEY." I printed them doublesided, and unfortunately could not afford the bright pink paper they deserved Nonetheless,500 white flyers is quite a bit of entheta to spread! We met here at my place around 9:00 a.m. and headed up to the parade staging area. My plan was to arrive and start flyering before the parade began, as the streets are already lined with festival goers and blocked off to traffic. We made two circuits of the main street where the crowds were heaviest, and I would say we had about a 50/50 response from people who were offered flyers. My approach, as I offered a flyer, was, "Care to find out how Scientology abuses the gay community?" Many people took them, some even approached us to obtain a flyer. Of the negative, some people thought we we're Scientologists, even though Zinj was wearing a 'Scientology Kills' tee shirt! After explaining our position, they'd take one. Some refused fliers because, as they said, "Scientology Sucks!" or knew enough about the cult to where they'd be unlikely to join up. As we worked the crowd, XenuTV was busy taping the diverse people assembled there. At one point, Zinj distributed fliers to a couple of women at an outdoor restaurant patio under the watchful eye of XenuTV. "Look at my girlfriend!" one woman said, yanking up her girlfriend's shirt to display a nipple ring! Benwog liked that a lot! It seemed there were 'pockets' of people willing to take fliers, and stretches where we got nothing but refusals, which I thought was interesting. Crowd dynamics...go figure! At the end of one block, we met Jandar, who occasionally appears on ARS. We handed him a stack to disseminate and kept on. I got to a point where I could hardly say 'FindouthowthegaycommunityisabusedbyScientology?' TinkyWinky was capering around in the street, so we prevailed upon him to say, "I want my XenuTV" to the camera! Benwog was also able to find a few critics willing to say, "Scientology sucks!" on camera, although many people did not wish to be filmed. One parade-goer was an ex-Sea Org member, Joe from Brooklyn, and he gave a cracking good 10 minute interview about his history in the cult, and the problems he had when he decided to blow. He was 'stationed' at the Celebrity Center, and claims to still be friends with Lisa Marie Presley. One rather large, tattooed woman thought I was distributing hate literature against gays, had had quite a bit to drink, and was belligerent until I clarified our position for her, whereupon she took a flier and gave me a big, "Right On! You go girl!" As we worked one group into discussion, all the people within earshot then accepted fliers. When the parade began, it was kicked off by the ever-popular favorite,Dykes on Bikes, so we decided to quit working and enjoy the parade for a while. I'm sure Benwog got some great footage, including some incredible baton twirlers and marching bands. Ellen Degeneres' mom was the parade marshall,and there were several processions from liberal churches in the community. Oddly, Scientology did NOT have a float! We decided to leave when there was a hang-up in the parade procession. I found out later that someone had lobbed a tear gas canister into the crowd by the grandstand! That meant it was back to my place to regroup for the picket of the San Diego org. By now, we were hungry and thirsty, so we went down to the Kansas City Barbeque, notable for the bar scene in Top Gun. Yep, Tom Cruise ate there! Clams are not featured on the menu. San Diego org was bringing in drywall with a skiploader, so the sidewalk was blocked off out front. Apparently they are 'expanding' by adding in more cubicles upstairs. We shuffled around out front for a bit, White Polo Shirt guy came out but didn't confront. I had thought there would be more traffic coming in from the parade. Zinj had a sign that said, 'Quit Hurting People,' and mine said, 'Omigod, Scientology Killed Kenny!. Zinj handed one flyer to a passerby. I hit up a guy waiting for the light with, "Do you know anything about Scientology?" to which he replied, "I am a Scientologist." Oh. It was a short picket. Benwog got to chase a clam with the Mintoncam, but he scuttled back to the org, and all was peaceful, so we left before OSA could show up. Overall, we handed out around 250 fliers total, and spent two hours working the crowd. It was all great fun on top of it, beautiful day, not too hot, lots of friendly people. There are gay pride days in cities across the United States; it's a circuit such that people can follow them and attend every one. If anyone is interested in the gay-oriented flyer I passed out, feel free to contact me and I'll email you a copy. I think the Pride Day is a perfect opportunity to spread the word about the Kult! Next: Veteran's Day Parades!