Gay Event May Be Inappropriate for Park, Mayor Says

A gay pride festival scheduled for next fall in a Santa Ana park is eliciting an outcry of protest from fundamentalist Christian and other church groups, and may be an “inappropriate” use of the park, the city’s mayor said Thursday.

A group called Orange County Cultural Pride already has tentative approval from the city’s recreation department to hold the event, which organizers are touting as the county’s first-ever gay pride festival, in Centennial Park on Sept. 9 and 10.

But letters and phone calls from residents opposing the event have prompted Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young to wonder if the city should allow the festival to be held.

“I’m real unhappy about the parks that are there for quiet time and recreation becoming a focal point for controversial issues,” Young said. “The issue is the health and welfare of our community. . . . That park happens to be in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood.”

Young said he is concerned that the city’s police and fire departments might not be able to control a confrontation between those attending the event and those who might come to protest it.

“From the publicity that I’m seeing, there might be hundreds and hundreds of people protesting on both sides,” he said. “If that kind of activity is taking place, it shouldn’t be taking place in a community park.”

Packed Chambers

Fundamentalist Christian and other church groups plan to pack City Council chambers Monday night to protest Recreation and Community Services Agency Director Allen Doby’s tentative approval of the event last February, said the Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Anaheim-based California Coalition for Traditional Values.

“We’re sending the word out . . . through our regular network of churches,” Sheldon said. “We have grass-roots support . . . mostly from Santa Ana, some from outside Santa Ana.”

The matter will probably not be decided Monday because it is not on the council agenda. But the church groups wanted to make their views known and force the council to decide, rather than leave it in the hands of the recreation department, Sheldon said.

The groups oppose the event because gays are trying to make homosexuality an accepted, “viable life alternative” in Orange County, Sheldon said. “We’re talking about a deviant life style that wants to flaunt itself as being viable.”

Janet Avery, a Laguna Beach data processor who is president of Orange County Cultural Pride, said the group would have been surprised if the event had not met with opposition from fundamentalists.

“It’s all anticipated,” she said. “We’ll have people there (at the City Council meeting) too. . . . We need to rebut what’s going to go on there Monday night.”

Centennial Park was chosen as the site for the festival because of its central location and ample facilities for a planned parade and musical and dance performances, as well as its room for food booths and parking, Avery said.

Avery said similar festivals in Los Angeles--some drawing far more people than the 6,000 expected to attend Orange County’s--have attracted only a few dozen protesters and have been peaceful.

“They’re there to express their opinion,” Avery said. “We certainly don’t see it as a confrontational event. We see it as a festival, as a party . . . as a cultural exposition for the gay and lesbian community and for the rest of the community.”

Avery said she did not yet know what the group might do if the council decides not to lease out the park. “The city is treating us like any other group at this time,” she said.

While Young said he would examine the city’s policy on park use to see what discretion the council might have in granting or withholding permission, another council member said she saw no reason to stop the event.

“I don’t feel we have any right to ban people from our parks because we don’t agree with their philosophy,” said Councilwoman Patricia A. McGuigan. “I don’t think a festival such as this . . . is going to be a detriment.”