February 26, 2006
For background on this issue, see yesterday’s post, Los Altos, CA: Red Island in the Middle of a Blue Sea.
“Gay Pride Day” rebuff engenders divisiveness
[snip]
…[T]he [Los Altos High School] Gay-Straight Alliance that [Ruth] Gibbs serves as adviser is alive and feisty. And the 20 or so kids in the club are at the center of a controversy that has put the Los Altos City Council on the defensive.
Nearly two weeks ago, on Valentine’s Day, the council rebuffed an attempt from the alliance to name June 7 “Gay Pride Day” — the kind of proclamation that goes almost unremarked in San Jose or even Mountain View.
In fact, the council went one step further: In the name of not raising false expectations, it voted 3-2 to change its rules to ban any proclamations about sexual orientation. Zip, nada. Go home, kids. We’ve got garage additions to consider.
[snip]
In the council’s defense, it would probably not consider such contentious issues as abortion or the Iraq war.
That’s not entirely true. In October, 2001, the council delivered a proclamation honoring victims of the September 11th attacks. While not a proclamation specifically supporting the Iraq debacle war (we didn’t yet know there were already plans in place to hit Iraq), one line of the proclamation is highly political in nature, bordering on blatant partisanship (emphasis mine): “We support our president’s efforts to bring those responsible to justice for these terrorist attacks…”
Similarly, the council proclaimed July 4, 2004, “Ken Ballard Day,” in honor of Lt. Ken Ballard, a local killed in Najaf. Nothing wrong there; it’s good and right to honor the memory of every person who died believing he or she was serving a good cause for the United States, and Ken Ballard deserves a day of his own as much as anybody. In light of this event, however, the council cannot possibly claim with any degree of credibility that it does not involve itself in “divisive” or “contentious” issues — nor that its official proclamations are limited to “city business.”
I’d also like to know how past proclamations by the council honoring the virulently anti-gay Boy Scouts of America has anything to do with “city business,” and how the council can possibly defend its proclamation of November 23-29, 2003, as “Family Week” — to which Los Altos resident Ray Schuster responded: “I recall an objection to the Gay Pride Day resolution along the lines of, ‘What about married couples’ Pride Day?’ So now, with the mayor’s action, we actually have something close to that. … As an aside, [a Los Altos Town Crier article] article mentioned the tie-in with President Bush’s ‘National Family Week’ proclamation. Some would connect this with the religious right-wing agenda which opposes a host of behaviors, including contraception, women’s choice, unmarried sex and same-sex marriage.”
Is it any surprise that the proclamation for “Family Week” appears to have been spearheaded by the Los Altos Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints? Does the irony of this smack you like a brick in the head? You see, the Los Altos LDS Stake is the Mormon church where Stuart Matis shot himself. And it just happens to be longtime councilmember and current Mayor Ron Packard’s church.
Getting back to the Mercury News piece:
The difference is that it hasn’t passed a rule specifically banning those topics from even being discussed.
And that has upset the kids in the Gay-Straight Alliance. “Now they’re mad,” says Gibbs, a soft-spoken Los Altos resident who has gay relatives. “They don’t understand why they’re being treated this way.”
[snip]
The irony is that the Los Altos council has created more divisiveness in town by denying the kids’ petition than it would have by granting it in the first place.
Face it: The kids weren’t asking for much. Essentially, they wanted a piece of paper that acknowledges that they exist.
[snip]
I couldn’t reach Packard to tell me what he considered divisive about a Gay Pride proclamation. But the mayor has tried to recoup by offering to proclaim June 7 as a Day of Tolerance and Respect.
The problem with this idea, Gibbs says, is that the kids don’t want to be tolerated. They want the same pride and recognition as anyone else. She says they won’t be thrown a bone so they can go away.
Gibbs has pulled the papers for a gay pride parade permit June 7, which has to be approved by the police. Usually, these are very small affairs. This time is different. Unless the council changes its mind, anyone who cares about equal treatment regardless of sexual orientation ought to consider marching.
I know I’ll be marching.
Meanwhile, the good Texans at Left of the Rainbow heard about the hypocritical homophobes of Los Altos, and created a whole bunch of T-shirts and other wonderful gear that looks like this:
As of this writing, LOTR also has some Bigotville gear for Kanab, Utah. (What
lovely company Los Altos keeps, eh?)
Bravo, LOTR!
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: California, Civil Rights, Education/Schools, Free Speech, Homophobia, LDS/Mormons, Radical Religious Right, Youth
February 25, 2006
This has what’s been going on in this backwards, hypocritical, biogoted, stupid town I live in (and would gladly leave if I could — but that’s a long story we won’t get into today).
In a nutshell:
Los Altos pre-empts Gay Pride Day debate
After two years of uncomfortable debate about declaring a “Gay Pride Day” in Los Altos, the city council changed its rules this week to ban proclamations about sexual orientation altogether.
Mayor Ron Packard said the change spares the city council from “issuing proclamations on issues I consider divisive and not appropriate for our community.”
The debate has grown bitter since high school students first requested the council declare a citywide Gay Pride Day in 2004. Charges of homophobia are flying — as well as eggs at a council member’s home.
Yet this is the same city whose Rotary Club spearheaded an AIDS project in 1989 — groundbreaking for its time — and produced an award-winning documentary on the issue.
I spoke at that meeting, and here’s what I said:
Good evening, and Happy Valentine’s Day. I wish I could say it’s a good Valentine’s Day for me.
I once believed, that in the quarter-century since I was a student at Los Altos High, we would live in an enlightened age where no gay teenager would ever feel the pain and fear of being ostracized, the way I was.
I was wrong.
Nearly a year ago in this chamber, Mayor Casas stated: “Residents and local events … that’s what proclamations should be about.”
Are the gay youth of Los Altos no longer counted as “residents”?
Is the celebration of individual freedom and equality — the most American of American values — for just one day a year, not considered an “event”?
You are telling these teenagers that they are not as deserving of the same recognition you so freely grant to everyone from Boy Scouts to barbers to the wife of the outgoing mayor.
You’re telling them they’re not as good as everyone else.
I wonder if any of you remembers Stuart Matis. At 33 years old, after a lifetime of anguish over being gay, the passage of California’s anti-gay Proposition 22 finally pushed him over the edge, and in March of 2000, he shot himself in the head, right on the steps of the Mormon Church, right here in Los Altos.
Do I think any of these kids you see here tonight will kill themselves if you fail to support them? No. But I do know that every message they receive that they are not good enough pushes each and every one of them that much closer to the edge.
I, for one, don’t want to pick up the newspaper 17 years from today and read about another Stuart Matis. Take a good look at these teenagers tonight; there may just be another Stuart among them.
And if there is, you will have directly contributed to a lifetime of insults and outrages that pushed him — or her — over the edge.
Thank you.
I had much, much more to say, but I was certain Mayor Packard would not allow any of his nemeses to go much over the standard two-minute time limit. So I slammed through it, and probably had 15 or so seconds to spare.
I wish I had a transcript of all the other statements, from Leslie Bulbuk, and Ruth Gibbs, and Jamie McLeod, and some ten other supporters of the Los Altos High School Gay-Straight Alliance, which brought this issue to the forefront in 2004. Still, you can read some fantastic quotes from each of them (and many other supporters) through the links below.
In the meantime, Leslie phoned me yesterday to say that Saturday, February 25th, would be the sixth anniversary of Stuart Matis’ death — and what did I think about writing a LTTE (letter to the editor) of the Palo Alto Daily?
The easy part was writing the letter; the hard part was scaling it down to the 250-word limit. But I did it, and the PA Daily was most accommodating in running it in today’s edition (and without any edits!):
Today marks the sixth anniversary of another casualty in the culture wars.
Recently, the Los Altos City Council passed an amendment prohibiting proclamations “promoting sexual orientation.” The intent was to quash the Los Altos High School Gay-Straight Alliance’s petition for a Gay Pride Day.
I reminded the council of Stuart Matis, driven to self-destruction by his beloved LDS church’s aggressive support of California’s anti-gay Proposition 22.
On February 25, 2000, Stuart, 32, shot himself on the steps of the Mormon Church in Los Altos.
Stuart once wrote: “I simply refuse to acknowledge that God in any way desires that his gay children are marginalized, treated as second-class citizens, and denied equal benefits simply because of a society-believed character flaw.”
LDS President Gordon Hinckley once said gay rights were not a matter of civil rights, but “morality,” quickly adding that the church’s actions “should never be interpreted as justification for hatred, intolerance, or abuse of [homosexuals].”
Hinckley’s words foreshadowed those of Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard, who claims the council merely wants to avoid “supporting divisive agendas,” and is “absolutely opposed to any form of discrimination.”
In the wake of Los Altos’ decision to codify the second-class citizenship of its gay youth, I urge everyone to consider the far-reaching impact of such publicly-sanctioned homophobia.
“The Church,” Stuart concluded, “does not operate in a vacuum, and its message does plant seeds in people’s hearts.”
Were Stuart alive today, he might say the same thing about city governments.
Ironically — and tragically — what makes Packard’s stance even more glaringly hypocritical is a fact I learned only recently: That Mormon church where Matis killed himself? It’s Mayor Packard’s church.
This battle isn’t over by a long shot, folks.
Here are all the online articles (and a few blog entries) I’ve found so far on this travesty — which, if nothing else, are finally exposing Los Altos as the backwater bastion of bigotry it’s been for far too long:
In chronological order, oldest to newest:
Los Altos council rejects Gay Pride Day — again
Luke Stangel, Knight Ridder, Feb. 15, 2006
SF Neighbor Bans Gay Pride
365Gay.com, Feb. 16, 2006
Short, but 365gay.com is an important online news source. Also links to story of Tampa, Florida, county commissioners pulling the same stunt in 2005.
BAYMEC Decries Los Altos City Council Discriminatory Policy Change
BAYMEC, Feb. 16, 2006
Reprinted by numerous other outlets, including GayWired.com
Los Altos rejects Pride; Los Sopranos and Los Tenors do not
Good As You, Feb. 16, 2006
Short, half-satirical, but pointed.
“Not In Our Town” project
San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 17, 2006
LTTE from Laurie Carter, President, PFLAG San Jose/Peninsula, San Carlos
BAYMEC press release with reader comments
Connexion, Feb. 17, 2006
In Los Altos, cancer awareness, yes; gay pride, no
The Advocate, Feb. 18, 2006
Not much new here, but important; there’s no bigger national LGBT newsmagazine than The Advocate.
Los Altos council bans proclamations on sexual orientation
Kim Vo, Knight Ridder, Feb. 19, 2006
Long story; appeared in the SJ Mercury & numerous other KR papers. This is the one where Packard complains about getting egged, and one Los Altos resident asks “Gay children? Are there gay children in the high school?” Also, a good quote from Alyssa Smyth.
Los Altos’ decision on gay pride is a step in the wrong direction
San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 20, 2006
Jamie McLeod’s excellent op/ed in the Merc.
Los Altos leaders set bad example
San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 20, 2006 (online only?)
LTTE from Mountain View resident Elizabeth Gardner
National Roundup
Windy City Times, Feb. 22, 2006
Very brief mention citing 365gay.com article.
Today I am embarrassed to live in Los Altos…
San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 22, 2006 (online only?)
LTTE from Los Altos resident Liz Fiorentino
Gay Pride Day in Los Altos deflected by new policy
Los Altos Town Crier, Feb. 22, 2006
A surprisingly un-bigoted report, from the far-right-wing rag that serves as my hometown’s weekly paper. Some good quotes from the council meeting (Mary Prochnow, Ruth Gibbs, Curtis Cole). Also quotes revised amendment verbatim: “Proclamations specifically promoting religious, racial, ethnic or sexual discrimination, or pertaining to sexual orientation (such as Gay Pride Day, or similar occasions), will not be considered.”
Mayor defends council position on tolerance
Los Altos Town Crier, Feb. 22, 2006
Packard’s LTTE. Interesting his LTTE was printed the same day as the article above; i.e., he’s responding pre-emptively to the well-deserved criticism he knows he’s got coming. Also note how he publicly admonishes former councilmember King Lear, who wasn’t even at the meeting, and had nothing to do with this latest battle. Shameful.
Los Altos council bans gay proclamations
Bay Area Reporter, Feb. 23, 2006
Excellent article; this is the one with reactions from Tom Ammiano and Jimmer Cassiol (SF Mayor Newsom’s LGBT liaison). Great quotes from Leslie Bulbuk.
Legislative Briefs
Southern Voice (Georgia), Feb. 23, 2006
Short but good blurb, duplicated in the Southern Voice, the New York Blade, the Houston Voice, and the Washington Blade.
Los Altos council is being divisive
San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 23, 2006
LTTE from Sanjeev Bery, San Jose director, ACLU of Northern California.
Also, various blog entries and comments:
Los Altos is evil
aoshi_sama, Feb. 14, 2006
Short, hostile jab at LACC, but notable because LiveJournal blogs have a huge audience. Read the comments so far (e.g., “They are all pretty much a tight-knit well-to-do do-not-upset-the-Lord community”), and consider city’s reputation among the (mostly) teenagers (soon to be home-buying adults) who read LJ blogs.
Los Altos, CA council cans Gay Pride Day — again
Gay News Blog, Feb. 15, 2006
Lifts most text from SJ Merc, but adds, “You can tell the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce how much you will patronize their member businesses by writing them @ info@losaltoschamber.org.” Bingo, GBN!
Queer Rage
Feb. 17, 2006
Probably the most thoughtful of the LiveJournal entries, from a college freshman who hails from Los Altos. (”It hurts to see my town brought up and derided by non-residents for something like this, though Los Altos has certainly earned it. But I don’t want Los Altos to become one of those towns, memorable nationwide only for its homophobic actions. But maybe we deserve it. …”)
Not Cool, Los Altos
Pinkrabbitsays, Feb. 20, 2006
Short but pointed commentary highlighting LACC “shooting down [teenagers] trying to engage with their city government.”
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: California, Civil Rights, Education/Schools, Free Speech, HIV/AIDS, Homophobia, LDS/Mormons, Radical Religious Right, Youth
