California Catholic Daily exclusive:

On November 16, the Sacramento Bee reported: “A Sacramento area teacher who made national news nearly two decades ago when ‘she’ (quotation marks around ‘she’ added) tried to retain her job at a Sacramento high school while undergoing a sex change, has been charged in an Oakland triple homicide.

“Dana Rivers, 61, was arrested in Oakland on Friday, Nov. 11, on suspicion of killing Patricia Wright, 57, Charlotte Reed, 56, and 19-year-old Toto Diambu.

“Police said Rivers was arrested by officers in the early morning hours Friday. ‘She’ was booked into Alameda County Jail on three counts of murder, arson and possession of metal knuckles.”

The next 10 paragraphs of the Bee’s story were a biography of the alleged perpetrator. NBC Bay Area’s coverage had more details of the crime: “Oakland police officer Hector Jimenez wrote in a probable cause statement that officers who went to a residence in the 9400 block of Dunbar Drive at 12:21 a.m. on Friday to investigate a report of gunshots found a man, identified in court documents as Toto M. Diambu, lying in front of the residence suffering from an apparent stab wound.

“Jimenez said that as the officers were providing aid to Diambu they heard a loud bang coming from the garage and then saw Rivers walking out of the residence covered in blood… As officers were detaining Rivers she began making spontaneous statements about her involvement in the murders, Jimenez said.”

The Bee article does not mention that Rivers had parlayed his ‘transition’ into appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show, Good Morning America, and a seat as Honorary Grand Marshal at San Francisco’s 2001 Gay Pride Parade. Grand marshals at San Francisco’s Pride Parade are quite the collection. As grand marshal, Rivers joined such luminaries as convicted child molester Larry Brinkin, convicted traitor Bradley Manning, and NAMBLA founder Harry Hay, all of whom have served as parade grand marshals.

In January of 2012, Brinkin was arrested on charges of child pornography. The SF Bay Citizen reported at the time: “One photo shows a child about 2 to 3 years old being sexually abused, according to the search warrant. Another shows an adult male attempting to receive oral sex from a small child… Brinkin’s account was linked to several Yahoo discussion groups on the sexual exploitation of children, according to the search warrant. Emails from Brinkin’s account to other users contained stories police suspect were fictional accounts written by Brinkin. The stories describe the rape and torture of African American children, according to the search warrant. One of the emails contained the words ‘White Power! White Supremacy!’”

On January 28, 2014, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Brinkin pleaded guilty to charges of possessing child pornography.

A May 1, 2013 CalCatholic article stated: “In 1999 the parade’s grand marshal was Harry Hay, who had defended NAMBLA, the National Man Boy Love Association. In a 1983 New York University forum, Hay had said “[I]f the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world.”

Other notable past grand marshals include US Senator-elect Kamala Harris, and state Senator Mark Leno. Other notable attendees at the Gay Pride Parade include Jesuits Fr. Donal Godfrey, currently serving as an associate director for staff/faculty spirituality at USF, and Fr. Paul Fitzgerald, currently serving as president of the University of San Francisco.