I was an organizer of Philadelphia’s first Queer Pride march in 1972. Unexpectedly and to our absolute delight, ten thousand people showed up. We were a wild bunch. No beer companies sponsored us, no politicians joined us with their campaign signs and cheerleaders, no city hotel tax funds gave us money. We were free to do anything we wanted. And we did.

These days, Pride, especially here in San Francisco, is a huge commercial undertaking. There’s permits, insurance, and lots of rules about barricades and vehicles and just about anything else you can think of. There’s also corporate and other funding sources to underwrite the enterprise. That money doesn’t come without strings. Consider the $77,000 from the Grants for the Arts. Apparently, this year it could prevent queer supporters of Democrat Barack Obama from wearing “campaign-related materials” in their official contingent in the march.

That means one can wear a t-shirt of Senator Obama, but not one promoting him as a presidential candidate. Huh?

The parade, as Pride is now called, cannot directly push one candidate over another, is the rationale of organizers. Yet John McCain supporters (which unfortunately there are in the queer community) can also march with their candidate’s tshirts. “They have equal access to not campaign,” a Pride spokeswoman told the online Bay Guardian.

It’s all very disturbing.

It’s true that a nonprofit is limited in the amount of lobbying it can do (I know because I work for one), but it can’t tell participants at one of its events that they cannot wear a certain tshirt. The organization may be bound by certain rules; its employees may be too. But how can participants who are not affiliated in any way, shape or form with that group, be obligated to those restrictions?

BeyondChron publisher Randy Shaw, who founded the nonprofit Tenderloin Housing Clinic, explained: “Clearly, no public funds can go toward sponsoring a political activity. But funds are sponsoring security, bathrooms, publicity, insurance, etc. -- participants are not being ‘subsidized.’”

I’m not a big fan of politicians or political campaigns. I’m not fond of seeing all those candidate signs at Pride.

There’s a freedom of speech issue at stake here. I don’t care what Pride says, participants can wear whatever they damn well please. What can Pride do? Send out thugs to confiscate their tshirts? “Uh, sorry, that tshirt seems to be promoting Tom Ammiano for Fabulous Queen of the Universe. Take it off or lose it.”

If Grants for the Arts tried to deny Pride money because some Obama contingent member ran around in a campaign tshirt, the organization would, I hope, be raked over the coals.

It almost makes me want to walk around Pride in an Obama for president tshirt.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical southern Italian queer atheist with a website: www.avicollimecca.com.