2009 Pink Brick Recipient:
    Carrie Prejean

  2009 Pink Brick Runner-Up:
    Archbishop George Niederaruer

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee hurled a second Pink Brick at Archbishop George Niederauer. 

 

The Pink Brick is an annual 'award' given each year to a person or institution whose actions are deemed to have caused significant harm to the LGBT community.  Pride’s membership voted at their June meeting to throw a second Brick at Niederauer by awarding him the title of “Pink Brick Runner-Up.”

 

San Francisco Pride’s Board President Mikayla Connell:

“After the first Pink Brick, the Pride Committee received thoughtful feedback from the community that Archbishop Niederauer’s actions in support of Proposition 8 caused significant harm to the LGBT community.  We hope that with this Pink Brick, we can educate the community about Archbishop Niederauer’s work to deny LGBT couples equal protection under the law.  Archbishop Niederauer’s support of Proposition 8, which is not representative of all faith communities or even of all Catholics, has only served to harm LGBT families, many of whom are Catholic themselves.  We find it extremely disturbing that a Church leader in a country founded on the principles of freedom, including religious freedom, would use his position in the church to fight against the secular right of LGBT people to form legally recognized marriages.  No person’s religious faith should define the secular legal rights of other people in the community.  All faiths have the right to define what sacramental marriage is for their faithful – no church has the right to decide what secular marriage is for all other people.  LGBT Americans deserve the promise of America – the promise of equality.  And so today, we throw a metaphorical Pink Brick at Archbishop Niederauer for his attempts to deny us that secular equality.  However, we wouldn’t want the award to go to his head, so Pride’s membership has decided he is only the Runner-Up.  We sincerely hope that the Archbishop comes to embrace the LGBT community instead of work against it, and that we will never have to toss another metaphorical brick at him again – Pride would be happy to engage the Archbishop about how the Church and LGBT communities can support each other on behalf of all the faithful, be they straight or LGBT.”

 

2008 Pink Brick Recipient: Bill O'Reilly
Pink Brick Delivered!
Watch Board President Mikayla Connell deliver the Pink Brick to Bill O'Reilly in person on his show on June 4, 2008:

 

YOUR PINK BRICK MESSAGES TO BILL O'REILLY
At this year's 2008 San Francisco Pride Celebration, we collected hundreds upon hundreds of signatures on a statement that the Pride Celebration Committee will be sending to Bill O'Reilly as part of his Pink Brick recognition.  Here is the statement:

Bill O'Reilly Unlike past recipients, Bill O'Reilly's receipt of this award cannot be attributed to any one stance or event.  His consistent efforts to mislead his viewers and listeners about issues regarding the LGBT community and LGBT people does more than just leave a misleading impression—it reinforces ignorance about and hatred of our community.   While there are many instances to which we might refer, his lesbian gang segment on The O'Reilly Factor on June 21, 2007 epitomizes the way in which O'Reilly has discarded truth in favor of baseless slander and fear-mongering.

Not mentioned in this segment on "lesbian gangs" was the fact that there is no evidence that the women involved in the attack on Wayne Buckle were members of any criminal gang. Also unmentioned was the fact that the women were responding to Buckle's unwelcomed sexual advances which resulted in his flicking a cigarette at the women after one of them rebuffed his sexual overtures.. That segment also featured in the background a highly provocative, looped video of women fighting.

The insinuation was that these women represented the group Dykes Taking Over, which O'Reilly's segment indicated was an example of a lesbian gang.  Had the audio accompanied that video, which is widely available on internet video sites, it would have quickly revealed that these young women were fighting over a boy—so much for violent lesbians. 

Sensationalism trumped truth. The footage was provocative and meant to instill fear and in so doing, to drive up ratings by means of unabashed sensationalism.  It is extremely difficult to conclude from the available evidence that the purpose of the segment was to describe any real trends in gangs across the country when the evidence of which O'Reilly made use was faulty and misleading. (You can review the video with audio here)

ABOUT THE PINK BRICK
The Pink Brick recipient is a person or institution which has done significant harm to the interests of LGBT peoples to receive the Pink Brick. Usually, this person is selected by public vote for receipt of the Pink Brick, a faux “award” that represents the first brick hurled at the Stonewall Rebellion on June 27, 1969..

How the Prink Brick Recipient is Chosen
Typically, the general public nominates potential recipients for the Pink Brick in January. Public polling is conducted in March when anyone, anywhere can participate in the Pink Brick vote.

In 2008, the Brick went to Bill O'Reilly for his sensationalist reporting on the LGBT community.  George W. Bush received the Pink Brick in 2007 for his support of an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman and in 2006 Arnold Schwarzenegger had the Brick hurled his way for his veto of a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage in California.

In 2008, a majority of those community members polled elected to hurl the Pink Brick at Bill O'Reilly, beating out the Human Rights Campaign who came in second and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.