Pomona : Gay Pride, Rights Week Set

The City Council by a 4-1 vote has designated the last week in June as Gay Pride and Human Rights Week, adopting a proclamation that says the city intends “to promote the spirit of non-discrimination in all areas of life.”

Members of the San Gabriel Valley Gay and Lesbian Coalition and the Metropolitan Community Church in Pomona attended Monday’s meeting to speak for the proclamation, but council members passed it without comment. Afterward, Marianne Van Fossen, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church, thanked the council, saying the group was “asking only for the respect and dignity that is the right of all men.”

The proclamation, which was written and submitted to the council by a Pomona resident, declares that the city “has had gay and lesbian citizens working as physicians, teachers, architects, nurses, police officers and civic leaders, daily and unselfishly, to make Pomona a city to be proud of.”

Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer voted against the resolution without comment. Later, he said he has a “lot of problems with the impact of the gay and lesbian life style on our society,” and “I don’t personally feel we ought to declare a week to be proud” of any particular sexual orientation.

Bill Gordon, vice chairman of the gay and lesbian coalition, said the group has not yet planned an observance for Gay Pride and Human Rights Week. “We will do something,” he said. “We have no idea what.”