Gay Pride flies in MV Gay Pride flies in MV (June 10, 2005)

When it comes to understanding the highly charged topic of gay rights, Mountain View and Los Altos couldn't be more different.

Last week in neighboring Los Altos, the city council turned down a request by a group of high school students to proclaim June 7 as Gay Pride Day. The council voted 3-1, with one member absent, against the request, citing new guidelines passed in March that prohibit making a proclamation that promotes racial, sexual or religious discrimination or intolerance.

In contrast, the Mountain View council, with Mayor Matt Neely leading the way, issued a proclamation Tuesday night declaring June to be Gay Pride Month, repeating a similar action taken last year. Rather than making its gay and lesbian residents feel like second-class citizens, the Mountain View council simply passed the proclamation and moved on.

The action is in keeping with the city's history of supporting gay rights. In 2000, the council approved extending domestic partner benefits for city employees. And the city's equal opportunity law includes sexual orientation in its language outlining groups that cannot be discriminated against for a job.

Los Altos' treatment of the issue went off track about this time last year, when the council turned down a request from a Los Altos High School gay and lesbian group to approve a gay pride day. But after intense pressure from the gay community and others, the council changed its mind and declared a gay pride day, coupling it with a "tolerance day" for those who are not gay.

But earlier this year, knowing that they very likely would be approached again to declare a gay pride day, the council slyly adopted new guidelines on civic proclamations, saying that they could not specifically promote racial, sexual or religious discrimination or intolerance against a person, organization of event. The city's mayor, David Casas, said that proclamations should be about residents and local events.

We hope Los Altos rethinks this head-in-the-sand approach, and decides not to allow a small group of citizens who preach anti-gay rhetoric to steer its public policy. Declaring Gay Pride Day or Gay Pride Month doesn't mean the city endorses the gay lifestyle.

Los Altos should step up and follow Mountain View's lead. Tolerance is truly the best course, for many reasons, including giving high school students a taste of how adults operate in the real world.

On this issue Mayor Neely, whose other job is serving as a high school vice principal, gets a top grade, while the Los Altos council flunks. It sometimes takes courage and leadership to pass a simple resolution on Gay Pride Day or Gay Pride Month. Clearly, the Los Altos council lacks these qualities, at least as long as it continues to sidestep this very sensitive subject that is not going to go away anytime soon.

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