West Hollywood’s City Council voted unanimously Monday night to support a proclamation declaring June as LGBT Pride month in a California town in the San Joaquin Valley.
In early June, the mayor of Porterville, a town of 54,000 people located about halfway between Bakersfield and Fresno, signed a proclamation declaring June LGBT pride month. The rest of the Porterville City Council declined to sign that proclamation. In July, the Porterville City Council then voted 3-2 to rescind the proclamation saying the LGBT community should not get “special consideration.” Instead, the council voted to replace the gay pride proclamation with a resolution declaring June 2013 “a month of community charity and goodwill to all in Porterville.”
West Hollywood’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board urged the City Council to pass the resolution endorsing Porterville Mayor Virginia Gurrola’s original proclamation. The resolution states, “West Hollywood supports those who lead the way to end discrimination, promote fairness for all and establish equality.”
In 2008, the Porterville City Council was the only Council in the state to pass a resolution supporting Prop 8, the voter initiative changing the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Councilmember John Duran commented that Visit West Hollywood, the city’s recently renamed marketing and visitors bureau, should advertise West Hollywood as a destination for gays in Tulare County, the county in which Porterville is located.
