By Tim Kingston

When KRON execs decided not to feature Sup. Tom Ammiano on television as the master of ceremonies for the Pride parade, they inadvertently illustrated the strength of the city's queer community. Not wanting its parade coverage to be too "political," KRON rejected the city's premier gay politician.

"I think it is about this particular politician," Ammiano told the Bay Guardian, adding that he's since withdrawn from the "unseemly" affair. But still, he says, "It is very lame to say, 'no city politician.' "

The station needed a new on-air master of ceremonies after Ms. Donna Sachet said she couldn't do her normal gig, so the KRON execs decided to go with Lenny Broberg, Mr. International Leather 1992, who is a San Francisco police officer. The irony of the situation is that KRON execs don't see having a well-known drag queen or a law-enforcing leatherman as a political act. Even in these days of corporate sponsorship, putting on Sachet and Broberg without a qualm is a political act that normalizes the queer life.

As Joey Cain, president of the Pride Committee board of directors, told us, "Their cluelessness is an indication of how successful we have been." Cain explained, "This is an indication of how far we have come, when a TV station does not notice that a drag queen or an openly gay cop is political. Ten years ago that would not have been the case."

The whole affair started as a communication snafu between KRON and the Pride Committee. First Broberg was suggested, then some committee members suggested Ammiano, and he became the preferred pick. But that idea was later nixed by KRON.

"It wasn't anything specific to him," insisted Pat Patton, vice president for programming at KRON. "We broadcast to the entire Bay Area, not just the city of San Francisco. It just doesn't make sense to have some elected official only from the city. We did not want a politician in any way, that is really the bottom line.... It is not a political event as far as we are concerned. It is a parade."

That assessment might surprise the founders of an event that has been political since its inception. It started as a celebration of the 1969 Stonewall riot, when drag queens battled New York City police. A subsequent parade protested the 1978 Briggs Initiative that would have banned gay teachers shortly after Harvey Milk was elected as San Francisco's first gay supervisor. Others opposed initiatives to quarantine people with AIDS.

"Anytime you get half a million queers in one place, it is political," Cain told us. "[KRON] kind of doesn't get that. They don't seem to get the fact they have had a drag queen as host for many years. That is political. This year they have a cohost who is a leader and activist in the leather community and is an openly gay police officer. That's political. They are being political without realizing it."

E-mail Tim Kingston at timk@sfbg.com.