American Mayors Pass Resolution Supporting All Things Gay, China’s Pride, HRC Points Out The Obvious To Obama, LA Lakers, LA Pride W/Blake Lewis

The United States Conference of Mayors have passed a resolution titled Equality and Civil Rights for Gay and Lesbian Americans that supports ending excluding gay couples from being legally married. The resolution also endorses the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, and the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The President of the Conference, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, said that the “nation’s mayors are proud to take the lead in recognizing the importance of protecting all our citizens equally,” adding that it is time for “state legislatures and our federal government to enact the same protections.”

Despite the censorship, albeit unexplained, of two films and a performance of The Laramie Project, Pride festivities currently entering their second week in China is a pretty extraordinary sight, for a country that tends to ask for social conformity and that only in the last twelve years de-criminalized homosexuality.

Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, sent a letter Monday morning to President Obama, outlining the obvious, namely the profound disappointment felt by most gay men and women not only in the United States, but around the world, who wrongly thought the change he promised, would include homosexuals. The letter also underlines that the Defense of Marriage Act is not neutral law, and that arguments supporting said legislation by the Obama Administration are fallacious at best. A copy of the letter, in its entirety, is here.

By now you might have heard that the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic 99-86 Sunday night in game five of the NBA Finals to win the title, their fifteenth, in something that supposedly resembled an actual series, but did fell far short, although the accomplishment is impressive. Not impressive, not at all, the “fans” reaction in the City of Angeles, which turned predictably ugly and sent a number of police to the hospital.

Unlike the city’s heterosexuals, Los Angeles’s Gay Pride Festivities were handled impressively, with the right amount of the serious
and the skin.

Pride also included a number of performances, including one from American Idol cuteness and runner up to winner Jordan Sparks. Nowhere in sight, however, was this year’s runner up and current "I’m coming out" cover boy for Rolling Stone,
Adam Lambert.