Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford won't sign a proclamation for the city's annual gay pride celebration or allow banners on city property. This act alone would not prevent a celebration of gay pride in Birmingham, but Langford took the extra step of rejecting Central Alabama Pride's permit application for a pride parade.
The salient quote from Langford:
I don't think I'm intolerant, I just don't condone the lifestyle. Your personal lifestyle should be nobody's issue but yours. It's not a civil rights issue, it's a personal choice issue.
If pride parade permits have been issued by the Mayor's administration since 1989, I find it unbelievebly disingenuous to claim this is not a civil rights issue. There is some animus at work here.
But don't fret. According to Central Alabama Pride's website, it looks like a state legislator was able to persuade Mayor Langford to issue the parade permit after all.
I'm curious to know what sort of opposition gay pride organizations encounter from their local goverments elsewhere in the South.
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