We may have another SF Pride controversy like the Chelsea Manning grand marshal fiasco in 2013, as some activists say they’re being denied requests to make deported makeup artist Andry Jose Hernández Romero this year’s honorary grand marshal. Of the 238 Venezuelan migrants that President Trump has had shipped off to a Salvadoran prison (most of them with no criminal records), a few of them have become particularly newsworthy. There’s the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported by accident, and the administration is refusing to bring him back. And there’s also a lot of outcry about Andry Jose Hernández Romero, an out gay makeup artist who was accused of being a gang member on the flimsy excuse that the crown tattoos on his arms were interpreted as gang tattoos.  Governor Gavin Newsom has called for Hernández Romero’s release, and other local activists are taking up the young man’s cause as well. Last week, the Bay Area reporter noted that AIDS Memorial Quilt co-founder Cleve Jones was lobbying SF Pride to make Hernández Romero an honorary grand marshal this year, an honor often extended to well-known community advocates.  “Something about this young man’s situation brings home to me something about the brutality and horror of what we are facing,” Jones told the Bay Area Reporter last week. “People should not dismiss this as a purely symbolic effort – I absolutely believe that this young man's life is in grave danger, and perhaps the only thing that can save him is public attention and outcry.” But now, five days later, the Bay Area Reporter has the news that SF Pride is turning down the request. Jones claims SF Pride executive director Suzanne Ford told him (and these are his words) that “There was pushback about grand marshal being used that way.” “I am very disappointed that SF Pride has chosen to take no substantive action to try to save this man’s life,” Jones said. “It’s shameful and sad.”But after the Bay Area Reporter’s article was published, Ford gave an official statement on the record.“After receiving a text from a community member demanding SF Pride name José an honorary grand marshal, I shared that request with our board president,” Ford said in her statement. “We deeply honor the sentiment behind that call. At the time, we felt the best thing we could do was issue a public statement calling for his release.”Ford adds that SF Pride “consulted with members of our board, including those from queer migrant communities. We also reached out to other queer leaders of migrant organizations here in the Bay Area. What we heard was clear: the issue deserves more attention than a symbolic gesture – it requires deep, sustained action and input from those living this reality every day.”The statement also says that SF Pride will “dedicate a significant portion of the Human Rights Summit on Thursday of Pride Week to highlight this important issue and center the voices of impacted communities,” which sure seems like a half-measure.Jones and other activists have asked Pride organizations in other cities to make Hernández Romero their honorary grand marshals too, though those other organizations have not responded.And there does some to be a fair amount of behind-the-scenes drama here, locally, with Ford posting to Facebook last week, "I am fucking exhausted. The outrage that we have the audacity to not agree with someone’s preferred method of protest. Where was all of your methods and outrage when trans people were being killed? Will anyone be calling me tonight telling me how to resond [sic] to that?"This whole thing is reminiscent of the 2013 Chelsea Manning controversy, in which SF Pride first declared the Wikileaks leaker an honorary grand marshal, only to backtrack on that offer. That whole dust-up led to the resignation of SF Pride’s then-CEO, so these clashes over honorary titles have a history of boiling into significant fights. Related: Several Big Corporate Sponsors Decline to Participate In SF Pride This Year, Because Trump [SFist]Image: Andry José Hernández Romero via Facebook ...read more read less