By Linda Taaffe

The Los Altos City Council was scheduled to decide Tuesday night, after the Town Crier’s press deadline, whether Los Altos celebrated its first or final official Gay Pride Day last June. New guidelines put in place earlier this year prohibit the city from making proclamations that the council considers too politically divisive or that could promote racial, sexual or religious discrimination.

“We need to maintain proclamations to the relevancy of the council’s business,” Mayor David Casas said. “Residents and local events … that’s what proclamations should be about.”

Los Altos High School students say that’s exactly what Gay Pride Day is about - local residents. Students planned to fill council chambers Tuesday to convince the city to declare June 7 the second annual Gay Pride Day in Los Altos.

Key to Tuesday’s decision was whether the council viewed the request as a politically charged one or a human rights issue.

Casas said the intent of the new guidelines was to prevent exclusion or proclamations that promote intolerance. Even with the new guidelines, the council has continued to review each proclamation on an individual basis.

It depends on how a request is structured, Casas said.

Local parent Ruth Gibbs, who is an adviser for the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, said she viewed the students’ request as a human rights issue, not a politically motivated one.

“They are asking for one day out of 365 days in a year to be proud,” Gibbs said. Supporting such a day makes students feel valued, she added. “These kids deserve that.”

Proclamations are ceremonial documents, signed by the mayor, acknowledging a particular organization, event or person on a specific date that has citywide significance.

The mayor has the authority to pass proclamations without council approval unless the topic is controversial.

Gibbs said the students plan to celebrate gay pride every year.

“For us, June 7 will still feel like Gay Pride Day, with or without that (official city) piece of paper,” Gibbs said.