From Bay Area Reporter: http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68734
by James Patterson
May 2, 2013
The board that oversees the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade is facing a backlash from community members after it rescinded a community grand marshal honor for Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, the gay man who leaked 700,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks.
Two days after releasing the list of grand marshals that included Manning, Lisa Williams, president of the board of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, issued a terse statement that said his selection had been a “mistake” and that he would not be a grand marshal.
Manning, 25, who is currently in a military prison awaiting a court-martial, has a wide group of supporters in the LGBT community and beyond. He confessed in open court earlier this year to providing the material to WikiLeaks and is facing at least 20 years in prison.
On Monday, April 29, a hastily arranged protest was held outside of the Pride Committee’s Market Street offices, where famed Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg said he would march in June’s Pride Parade in support of Manning.
An estimated 200 protesters were at the rally, expressing their frustration at Williams for rescinding the selection of Manning. Their anger was exacerbated by what they called “heavy-handed,” “arrogant,” “insulting,” and “unprofessional” communication from Williams about her decision to withdraw the honor.
Rally organizers, gay peace and social justice activists Lisa Geduldig, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, and Michael Petrelis had two objectives. One, they wanted Manning re-instated as grand marshal. Two, they wanted Williams removed from the Pride board.
“He’s an anti-war hero, a whistle-blower who is gay,” Geduldig said of Manning. “He was lip-synching to Lady Gaga while downloading classified documents. It doesn’t get more gay than that.”
In his comments, Ellsberg, who helped bring the Vietnam War to an end by releasing government documents known as the Pentagon papers to the New York Times, said he had hoped to be a substitute for Manning.
Continue reading at: http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68734
