Gay Group Refuses Citation : Pomona: The city’s proclamation had been rewritten to remove references to homosexuals.

Having consigned Gay Pride Week to the closet, the City Council was rebuffed Monday night when it presented a Human Rights Week proclamation to the Pomona-San Gabriel Valley Gay and Lesbian Coalition.

“We really can’t in good conscience accept this proclamation as written,” said coalition Chairman Linda Berard, as she rejected the proclamation offered by Mayor Donna Smith on the steps of City Hall. Smith had interrupted the council meeting to present the proclamation at a ceremony attended by 75 gays, lesbians and their supporters.

Berard said the proclamation, which was first written as a salute to Gay Pride Week and then rewritten to remove all references to gays, was a product of homophobia.

The mayor took back the proclamation without comment and later received apologies from some members of the coalition who were angry with Berard for embarrassing Smith. Mary McDaniel, 73, said Smith had cooperated with the group and deserved better treatment. “I know she felt like a fool,” McDaniel said. “It made the rest of us want to cry for her.”

Smith said only that she was “a little surprised” by the rejection.

Leaders of the coalition announced Wednesday they will write the mayor apologizing for not telling her in advance that the proclamation would be rejected.

The proclamation ceremony began Pomona’s Human Rights Week, which is being celebrated almost exclusively by the gay and lesbian coalition.

Coalition members contributed the theme for the week, “Take Pride Pomona,” and bought banners and T-shirts with that slogan. In addition, Dwain Elliott, city community relations coordinator, said only gay and lesbian groups are lined up to participate in a Human Rights day festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Civic Center Plaza.

The effort to create a Gay Pride Week in Pomona began last January when Patrick Greene, the father of a gay man, asked the council to designate the last week in June. The council adopted Greene’s proclamation for a Gay and Human Rights Week.

“Pomona has had gay and lesbian citizens working as physicians, teachers, architects, nurses, police officers and civic leaders daily to make Pomona a city to be proud of,” the proclamation said. “Pomona recognizes that the gay and lesbian community has helped to show to everyone that all people can live and work together in harmony and still maintain a relationship of respect and trust.”

But after adoption, council members were inundated with complaints from clergymen and others accusing the city of condoning homosexuality.

Then-Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant, who had introduced the proclamation, moved to rescind it and to substitute a proclamation declaring Human Rights Week. Smith, too, withdrew her support, saying that, after prayer, she had concluded that singling out gays for recognition would lead to all sorts of requests, such as appeals for a Straight People’s Week or a Common-Law Marriage Week.

Council members Nell Soto and Tomas Ursua stood by the original proclamation, but they were outvoted by Smith, Bryant and Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer, a church pastor who had voted against the proclamation originally.

The substitute proclamation affirms “Pomona’s longstanding commitment to foster an environment that is free from all forms of discrimination and harassment” and advises “all citizens to reacquaint themselves with the Bill of Rights.”

Berard said removal of any reference to gays and lesbians caused pain. “I compare it to the feeling we have when our parents reject us,” she said.

Bill Gordon, vice chairman of the coalition, said the council’s retreat on Gay Pride angered so many people that the coalition increased its membership from 125 to 185. Gordon said he regretted causing any embarrassment to the mayor because “she has done so much to educate and enlighten herself.”

And, he said, the city is making progress in understanding the gay community. For example, he said, the Police Department has been receptive to an offer to provide sensitivity training to the police force.

Before the proclamation ceremony, the coalition held a memorial service at Ganesha Park for victims of violence against homosexuals. Then, the group came to City Hall with banners saying “Homophobia Kills” and “Stop Gay Bashing.”

At the proclamation ceremony, gays and lesbians spoke of the need to stop violence and chanted: “We’re here. We’re here. We will not disappear.”