Bisexual activists were sorely disappointed by television coverage of the San Francisco Pride Parade this year after discovering they were edited out of the local television and cable broadcasts on KRON 4 and Comcast. Their disappointment grew when apparent biphobia raised its ugly head on the global webcast via a guest host, which ended up being the only visual representation of bisexuals in the parade.

On the webcast, shown at Clear Channel's http://www.ShakeRadio.com, the Chasing Amy Social Club and the Bay Area Bisexual Network were visible. During that portion of the webcast, guest commentator Ronn Vigh, a Bay Area gay comedian, commented something to the effect that "Bisexuals don't know what they want" as one of the contingents passed by. Valerie Klein, director of integrated media for Clear Channel, which owns ShakeRadio.com, confirmed that a remark similar to that was made.

Bisexuals were upset.

"This is not what I would call 'Pride Not Prejudice,' which was this year's theme," said Amy Larson, founder and organizer of the Chasing Amy Social Club, a Bay Area bisexual women's group. "It's funny that they pay this lip service. It comes across as condescending after a while when they say LGBT, but they aren't actually following up with representation of bisexuals."

Vigh, 28, a self-described "comedian who is gay," told the B.A.R. that "I consider myself bisexual" because he said that he's had relationships with both men and women.

According to Vigh, he told the joke, which also opens his comedy routine, "Oh, stand out, you all know who you are wait a minute you don't know who you are, but that's okay."

"If anybody took two seconds to learn about myself and my past I would be the furthest away from biphobia and promoting it," Vigh told the B.A.R. Tuesday, July 3.

This was the first year the Chasing Amy Social Club, which has over 500 members, participated in the Pride Parade, Larson said. The club decided to participate in this year's parade to promote bisexuals and women's visibility, according to Larson, in order "to let other bisexual people out there know there is a community and that there are bisexuals out there and that no one can tell you that you don't belong here."

Being a part of the commercial break wasn't anything new to the Bay Area Bisexual Network, which has been the sole bisexual contingent in the parade for many years.

"I can say that we are entirely used to being skipped by the television coverage," said Pepper Mint, co-organizer for the Bay Area Bisexual Network, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall. "The running joke is that the bisexual contingent is the commercial break."

Larson added, "We had a very positive response from the crowd along Market Street. People cheered and applauded when they saw us. A lot of women yelled from the crowd that they were bisexual, too, and they were happy to see us."

Larson told the B.A.R. that they "accomplished our goals by the end of the parade by promoting bi visibility, but unfortunately, it didn't get translated to the media representations."

The message wasn't transmitted on KRON 4's edited version of the parade. The Pride Committee strategically placed the Chasing Amy Social Club contingent in front of KRON 4 movie critic Jan Wahl, a celebrity grand marshal, because the film Chasing Amy, after which the club is named, is one of her favorite movies, Larson said.

Comcast's live coverage of the parade also didn't show the bisexual contingents because it used KRON 4's live feed, according to Andrew Johnson, regional vice president of communications of Comcast.

KRON 4 officials downplayed the decision not to show the bisexual groups.

"We want them to understand that we don't purposely exclude anyone," said Pat Patton, KRON 4 vice president and station manager. "It's simply the luck of the draw when we have to take a commercial break and that's really what it comes down to."

According to Mikayla Connell, president of the Pride Committee board of directors and who identifies as a bisexual transgender woman, the Chasing Amy Social Club group was featured in KRON's pre-parade "Float Designers Put on Finishing Touches Before the Pride Parade," show, which Connell hosted and was aired as part of the station's news coverage. The segment is still available on KRON 4's Web site.

Regarding Vigh's comment on the webcast, Clear Channel's Klein told the B.A.R. that ShakeRadio.com host Michelle Sinhbanth told her that she "paused and moved on to the next contingent in the parade" after the remark. Sinhbanth was unavailable for comment, according to Klein.

Klein said that Clear Channel received many positive e-mails from people and one e-mail that she's aware of regarding Vigh's comment. Klein told the B.A.R. that the comment doesn't reflect the way Clear Channel feels about the bisexual community.

"Bisexuals do know what they want," said Pride's Connell. "Although I think it's an unfortunate comment, it provides us an opportunity to educate our partners about our communities."

Pride Executive Director Lindsey Jones added, "It is unfortunate that the Clear Channel Radio's Shake channel guest commentator made this off-the-cuff comment in an attempt to be funny. It isn't funny."