LAGUNA BEACH : Council Refuses Gay Festival Endorsement

City Council this week refused to endorse a gay and lesbian festival scheduled for next month, saying that to do so would be inappropriate.

By withholding the endorsement sought by Douglas C. Reilly, organizer of Laguna Pride Weekend, the council highlighted its differences from the city’s previous leadership. When the event was held for the first time last year, the council then in power endorsed it wholeheartedly.

“I am astonished by their vote tonight,” Reilly said after the council meeting. “There’s no question this is a backward step.”

Council members, however, emphasized that the festival, set for May 5, 6 and 7 on the Festival of Arts grounds, is welcome in Laguna Beach and that their decision is in no way discriminatory.

“We should just stay out of the endorsement business,” Mayor Kathleen Blackburn said.

Most who spoke at the meeting took a similar stand.

“There’s not a homophobic bone in the collective body of this City Council,” said Alex Wentzel, founding president of the Orange County Log Cabin Club, a gay Republican group.

Joseph Amster, co-chair of the gay and lesbian group Laguna Outreach, said later that organizers of the event don’t need the city’s sanction anyway.

“It’s kind of like going hat in hand and saying, ‘Please say our festival’s OK,’ ” he said. “We don’t have to do that.”