Gays don't need mayor's approval
City proclamations are a joke
Colorado Springs needs a proclamation from City Hall, signed by Mayor Lionel Rivera, praising The Gazette’s opinion section for defending freedom. Gazette editorial writers and their legions of enthusiastic fans are desperate for the city’s official approval. We crave it and we will not rest until we get our way. We may throw a Freedom Festival, celebrating the merits of low taxes, free speech, limited government, minimal regulation, gun rights, religious liberty and the rights of consenting adults to contract for the kinds of marriages they desire. The city should endorse our event with an official proclamation, because these basic freedoms are righteous. They are the Constitution, mom and apple pie all bundled together.
City officials, of course, will declare support of The Gazette’s editorial philosophy the day man-made climate change freezes hell. Fundamental principles of freedom are too radical for contemporary politicos.
In all seriousness, The Gazette’s opinion staff would never seek the endorsement of City Hall. We don’t care whether city leaders like us, or approve of the Freedom Philosophy or any party we might throw. Our enjoyment of the Freedom Philosophy requires precisely nothing from local government. We’d prefer city officials fix potholes, unlock toilets and find a way to police Fourth of July parties, just as they’ve managed to fund six-figure wages for some city staffers. We care only about freedom, and care nothing about government approval.
Organizers of PrideFest, a celebration of freedom for gays and lesbians, should suspend their strange obsession with obtaining the city’s approval. The need for approval, or popularity, is a source of weakness and path to failure. No gay or lesbian individual or couple needs the city’s cooperation or endorsement in order to enjoy a relationship, or to celebrate a sexual orientation, or to contract with another person for a life of commitment. In matters of love, city government is 100 percent irrelevant.
Yet the Pikes Peak Gay & Lesbian Community Center, which hosts PrideFest, has created an annual ritual in which organizers seek the mayor’s proclamation for their event in order to get his rejection. The event stages same-sex commitment ceremonies, and Rivera reportedly opposes same-sex marriage. Promotion of Rivera’s rejection provides an unbecoming faux victim card for an event that is supposed to stand for individual strength and pride.
Rivera has every right to oppose same-sex marriage, heterosexual marriage, the works of Mother Teresa, or Gerber babies. Who cares what the mayor thinks about matters beyond potholes, park toilets and basic public safety?
The only issue that could possibly be less interesting than the mayor’s opinion of gays would be the vice mayor’s view. Vice Mayor Larry Small officially supports PrideFest, and organizers act as if it matters. It does not. The vice mayor is not in your bedroom. The ability of two people to love does not require Small’s approval.
Brave men and women founded this country for individuals to flourish freely while seeking happiness, prosperity and love. City government has no role in these pursuits, beyond managing our fundamental infrastructure and the backup protection from criminals and fire we pay them to provide. City government, mercifully, is an itsy-bitsy, teensy-weensy part of any person’s life. By seeking proclamations for good causes, celebrations and relationships, we indulge an unhealthy fantasy in which city officials are serious players in our lives. PrideFest is a celebration of independence, freedom, courage and pride. These characteristics of individual strength require no city approval.
