Gene Elder Is Persona Non Grata at San Antonio City Hall

BY Neal Broverman

July 23 2012 4:54 PM ET

Gene Elder

A gay rights activist has been barred from emailing San Antonio city officials after he inundated them with everything from development complaints to suggestions for sensitivity training to movie recommendations.

Gene Elder doesn't own a computer, instead sending missives through his neighbor's computer or computers at churches or universities. His messages have been so voluminous, city leaders said they needed to take action by barring him from sending any to an address ending with @sanantonio.gov.

“There does come a point where someone who sends such a high volume of emails that it hinders your ability to focus on other issues,” Councilman Diego Bernal told mysanantonio.com.

Elder says he was never informed he was blocked, so he continued sending messages to city officials and was flummoxed when he didn't receive responses. The city says Elder has other options for reaching city officials — through written letters or attending City Council meetings — but that his emails were so frequent that when printed out they totaled 625 pages, and that doesn't include messages deleted by city staff.