San Diego Gay Pride: Pedophiles on Parade (and In Charge) - Cops, Sponsors & Politicians Must Boycott

by: Steve Yuhas

Most gay pride parades and festivals are full of decadent behavior and it has become something that people expect and either excuse or ignore.  This year in San Diego is no different than years past except this year indecency has gone to a whole new level.  In a parade of shame to celebrate private behavior, even supposedly Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter giving “best wishes for every continued success” in the celebration of gayness.  What is not known is if the Governor knew he was sending best wishes to an organization that allowed sexual predators to volunteer because he will not answer the question.

Two sex offenders (registered under Megan’s Law) are supervisors of the gay pride event that takes place the last weekend of July: Warren Derichsweiler, a demonically tattooed predator who was convicted for “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years w/ force” (who lives about three blocks from an elementary school) and Daniel Reiger, convicted of "oral copulation with person under 16" (address not listed).

Organizers of San Diego gay pride told me that volunteering and participation is not limited to adults only and that it is a “parents’ responsibility” to make sure they know what their children are doing.  I agree, but it is gay pride organizer responsibility to know whether or not they are empowering sexual predators to have access and control over children or youth that they would otherwise not have access to.

One week before the gay pride event little has been said by politicians pandering to the gay vote; especially the gay ones who take out ads in the same brochure that extols the virtues of these criminals.  In freakish irony, Councilperson (and acting mayor pro tem) Toni Atkins, says in her ad (p43) that she will continue to work to “further our community’s quest for full and equal civil rights.” 

Neither Ms. Atkins nor her staff had any comment when I asked if she meant pedophiles should have more rights or if she only meant the porn dealers and bathhouses that she shares advertising space with.

The San Diego gay pride committee has a lot of corporate sponsors: Budweiser, Wells Fargo Bank, Hewlett-Packard and Domino’s Pizza (among others) and one has to ask if they knew that the San Diego Pride Festival was allowing criminals access to children?

If they did not know then the sponsors should pull their funding until such time as the San Diego pride committee explains how at least two documented sex offenders were able to become part of the supervisory process that does not distinguish between children and adults.  If they did know, then anyone who does business with these companies should look elsewhere for their beer, banking and other needs. 

Calls to the San Diego gay pride committee leaders continue to go unreturned, but I was lucky enough to get an obviously flustered receptionist on the phone who said that the committee was “proud of all” of their volunteers and asked who I was to “judge others” when I do so much damage to the gay community. 

I guess that speaking out against the misuse of public funds, extolling the virtues of traditional marriage and not thinking in liberal lock step with gay activists is damaging to the gay community, but when I asked if that really equated to raping children, I was hung up on.

The molesters must simply be misunderstood and conservative gays like me must be the culprits.

We may never know what creates lust for children in people like Reiger and Derichsweiler, but we do know that keeping them away from those that they prey on is not only common sense, but the law.  These two animals broke the lives of at least two children and only they and G-d know how many others so it is not only unconscionable, but criminal, that the San Diego gay pride organizers allowed sexual offenders access to even more kids.

As of this writing there is still no word on whether or not these two predators have been removed from their duties at San Diego gay pride or if the police officers and politicians marching in the parade and sponsors paying the bills will bow out if the pride committee does not come clean about them. 

Some politicians have agreed not to march if Reiger and Derichsweiler are not removed, but the pride committee is not responding to calls nor is the mainstream media, outside of talk radio and blogs, talking about this issue so the pressure may simply be not great enough. 

Protecting children is just not the newsmaker that it used to be; meanwhile, an anti-war rally with a dozen people or drizzle in southern California receives team media coverage.  If, G-d forbid, something did happen to any children, I bet it will be a story then, but by then it will be too late and the media partially to blame for giving a pass to the San Diego gay pride committee.

It is time for law enforcement and any decent person or group to take a stand and say they will not march with pedophiles.  If gays put as much zeal behind kicking pedophiles out of their parades as they did kicking Boy Scouts out of parks – maybe we’d be looked at more favorably.  Governor Schwarzenegger should renounce his best wishes to this group and sponsors should pull their money from an event that cares more about child abusers than it does children (unless they are children holding political signs that say “I love my two mommies” or “Bush lied” – those are always in high demand at gay parades. 

This event has put pedophiles on pedestals and now it is time for officials to put these same pedophiles back behind bars.

Instead of marching in the parade the police should be looking out for children and making sure these and other predators are only not a part of the gay festival, but in custody as soon as possible for violating a simple statute:

Sex offender registrants whose sex crime was against a victim under age 16 are prohibited from working, as an employee or volunteer, with minors, if the registrant would be working with minors directly and in an unaccompanied setting on more than incident or occasional basis or would have supervisory or disciplinary power over the child.

Marching as gay cops is fine, but your first duty is to protect the public and the most vulnerable among us.  Since gay pride did not do it – it is up to the police to do it now.  There is sufficient cause to investigate the involvement of sexual predators Warren Derichsweiler and Daniel Reiger in San Diego gay pride and that investigation should begin before the event - not after it.

Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO AM 600 based in San Diego.  He may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com