Marching to more than one beat

If the goal of lesbians is to persuade society to like and accept

them, they got about it in a very strange way.

Right now, I am furious with them and the American Civil Liberties

Union for suing my city over legitimate, common-sense restrictions

placed on them for this Saturday’s “Dyke March.” The money required

to address any lawsuit is significant, and that money should go for

more important civic matters instead.

MARIA SANCHEZ

Costa Mesa

Need a little incredulity to start your day? How about the Gay &

Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County’s plan to continue

pressing its lawsuit against Costa Mesa? This, despite the fact the

city backed off several of the permitting requirements for the

group’s Orange County Dyke March event. But hey, we’ve learned this

much at least: Idiocy, spite, mean-spiritedness and an utter lack of

grace are not exclusive to the heterosexual community.

BYRON DE ARAKAL

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Byron de Arakal is a Costa Mesa Parks and

Recreation commissioner and a former Daily Pilot columnist.

The city needs to adopt a comprehensive policy that is applicable

to all marches, parades and rally’s. The city of Costa Mesa should

not be intimidated by the threat of a lawsuit when the safety of the

taxpaying citizens is in question.

STEPHEN B. MADER

Costa Mesa

What is a “lesbian pride” parade all about? To many like myself,

it is a distasteful display of one’s sexual preference, which is not

a reason to gather a group of exhibitionists and parade themselves in

public. Unless, of course, they have a deeper agenda: In this case to

shock the mainstream family community of Costa Mesa and Newport

Beach.

I would suspect that by using the ACLU ‘s muscle in obtaining

their “rights,” the agenda is more to gather momentum and proselytize

a lifestyle, rather than about “gay pride.” In the past, we have

witnessed an attitude and dress of a lascivious nature accompanied

with a display of angry jeering usually associated with these

parades. “Gay pride” simply means standing out and thumbing their

nose at the society they live in, instead of joining in and becoming

productive members of a community. I think any “sexual preference”

parade is inappropriate.

So in answer to your question: No, the city did not make the right

decision in dropping restrictions on this Saturday’s march.

LIZ BROEDLOW

Newport Beach

I began my day angry early this morning as I read the banner

headline in The Daily Pilot, “ACLU sues city on behalf of march” and

the accompanying article about how the organizers of the Orange

County Dyke March are not happy with the terms the city has imposed

on them for their march this month. I was really ticked off, with

phrases such as “Just who do they think they are?” and “How dare

they?” running through my head. My blood was boiling.

Then it hit me. This is just what they want. If they had not

threatened a lawsuit at the most recent City Council meeting, and if

the ACLU had not followed up by filing one, this “event” would be

getting no publicity at all. How clever of them, just as they did a

year ago, to create the proverbial “much ado about nothing” to whip

up interest in this “event” which otherwise would have very limited

appeal in the community . How else could they generate interest in an

“event” that, if memory serves, was sparsely attended last year? How

else could they expect to attract people to this “event” intended to

“promote visibility, empowerment and equality for lesbian, bisexual

and transgender women in the county”? Without this free publicity, I

suspect the “Nehi Bottle Cap Collectors of Orange County” would draw

a larger crowd.

So, I guess we can thank the news media -- and those of us who

react to it -- for providing them the notoriety they need to pull

this thing off. What a gullible bunch we are.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa