Outpost, just like last year, did not intend on consuming or promoting alcohol at the Pride festival. initially reached out to the San Mateo County Health System and asked why Outpost was rejected, its communication specialist, Preston Merchant, said in an email: "It's Health System policy that events must be drug- and alcohol-free, so any group that wished to serve or promote alcohol or other drugs at the event would not be allowed to participate." "Basically they are saying we can't have a presence in this event because of that so-called association with alcohol. Woodmansee questioned the ambiguity by which the Pride co-chairs were choosing who was in and who was out. He explained in an email to Johnson that the group was not involved with alcohol or drugs and ensured the acceptance and the comfort of its sober members.īut after more email correspondence between Woodmansee and Johnson, it was a no-go Outpost would not be allowed a booth. When Woodmansee submitted Outpost's booth application this year and received the rejection email from Johnson, he thought it was a mistake. The only thing that's changed about the group since last year is its meeting location, which actually went from a bar to a restaurant that serves alcohol. Outpost, which has more than 300 members, had a booth last year at the Pride festival under the name "RAC" and had no problems. Everyone in our group complied with it being a sober event." "No one is saying we want to drink alcohol at the event. "Yes, some members choose to drink, but that doesn't mean our group is associated with alcohol," Woodmansee, a gay man, told the B.A.R. To Woodmansee, the group's meeting place at a restaurant that happens to serve beer - and yes, some members order alcohol at the group's meet-ups - does not mean it promotes alcohol and should have been allowed a booth from the start. "I apologize, however, we are not going to be able to provide your organization with a booth due to your meeting location being in a bar, the bar affiliates with alcohol," Johnson wrote in an email to Travis Woodmansee, a Peninsula psychotherapist and organizer of Outpost. It promotes the Pride festival as being a "sober space" and does not allow organizations affiliated with or that promote alcohol or drugs to be involved in the festival. Since its inception in 2012, San Mateo Pride has been overseen by San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. To Dana Johnson and Regina Moreno, co-chairs of the San Mateo Initiative, which organizes the Pride festival, Outpost's weekly meeting place at Steelhead Brewing Company, a restaurant and brewery in Burlingame that serves alcohol, was enough to disqualify the social group from having a booth. Pride officials blamed the situation on a "misunderstanding." Members of a San Mateo LGBT social group called Outpost, who were initially rejected from having a booth at the upcoming San Mateo Pride Celebration because of an "affiliation with alcohol," were given a reprieve this week and will be allowed to be at the festival.Īfter the Bay Area Reporter contacted officials from the San Mateo County Health System, the umbrella agency that oversees the festival, Outpost will have a booth.
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