San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Pride uniform dispute a step backward for LGBTQ rights
I was the first openly lesbian officer in the San Francisco Police Department. I was sworn in in 1975 and had to hide my gender preference; homosexuality between consenting adults even in private was illegal. It was quite a few years before LGB (as it was called back in the day) officers were accepted and recruited. We fought hard for that, and for the LGBTQ Pride organizers to not allow uniformed LGBTQ+ cops and sworn supporters to march in the parade is hypocritical.
If we are pitted against each other, we allow the anti-gay coalition to divide and conquer us.
Must we hide again? We are a community of many different stripes but united in the belief that we celebrate loving whomever we choose. To disenfranchise LGBTQ+ cops from Pride defeats the purpose of the parade. If Pride organizers have a problem with police, they should take that up at a more appropriate time and place. Do not paint all cops with the same brush. We are all individuals with that one thing in common — loving who we choose.
Kudos to Mayor London Breed and other city officials for standing up against this ridiculous development.
Louette Colombano, Mill Valley
Background checks flop
In his recent anti-gun diatribe, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, laments the recent Texas school shooting. Problem is, Kerr offers no effective policy prescriptions or recommendations. He supports universal background checks, but ignores that the Texas shooter passed a background check.
In fact, the recent Buffalo, N.Y., shooter also passed the required background check.
In fact, Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland, Fla., shooter passed a background check.
In fact, Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas festival shooter, passed background checks.
In fact, Elliott Rodger, the UC Santa Barbara area shooter, passed background checks.
In fact, Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, passed a background check, too.
And on and on it goes.
There is no evidence that background checks stop gun violence. There never has been and there never will be.
Mike Schleeter, San Jose in the 1990s. The camp lasted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day for a week. I had worked other camps, and what was usually the case was, the NBA player would show up for the first couple of hours the first day and the last hour on Friday. Not Kerr, he was there every minute of the camp teaching skill development drills and coaching teams. That told me all I needed to know about him. He didn’t have to be there but went way above and beyond to create some really special memories for his campers.
The real hypocrites are the conservatives who say they are pro-life but do absolutely nothing as children die every day from gun violence in our nation. I am proud to know Steve Kerr not because he is an NBA coach, but because he is a fantastic human being.
Michael Esposito, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Fix Second Amendment
A decade has passed between Sandy Hook and Uvalde. In the aftermath of another string of mass shootings, our nation asks once again what can be done to try to bring an end to the seemingly endless cycle of firearm violence?
Perhaps the answer is for our nation to act as a whole and pass a new Constitutional amendment to reform the Second Amendment? The Founding Fathers had anticipated that the Constitution would need to be rewritten long ago, as the world evolved.
While an amendment may take a decade to be completed, it might be the best way to honor the young victims of Sandy Hook and Uvalde.