The City of West Hollywood will honor
the marriages of gay and lesbian couples with a plaque inscribed with
a quote from Nelson Mandela, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The rectangular plaque will be
permanently installed at West Hollywood Park, the site of many gay
marriages during the brief June to November window when it was legal
in the Golden State.
“It happened on a single day but it
went on for months,” openly gay Jeffrey Prang, a former West
Hollywood mayor and current councilman who sponsored the idea, told
the paper. “And it meant something much bigger than that.”
Inscribed on the rectangular plaque
will be a quote from former South African president Nelson Mandela:
“I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom,
just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me.
The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.”
The state Supreme Court struck down a
gay marriage ban in the spring of 2008 but by the fall voters had
reeled in the decision with Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that
placed a gay marriage ban in the state's constitution. The high
court ruled the ban constitutional this year.
During the six month window of legal
gay marriage, the city of West Hollywood issued more than 1,000
marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Some of the first
ceremonies took place in the West Hollywood Park.
City Council is set to unveil the
plaque at its September 8 meeting.
Opponents of the plan called the marker
a bad idea.
“If you support what is healthy and
natural, you can't support this marker,” Randy Thomasson, founder
and president of SaveCalifornia.com, told the Times.
The socially conservative group is also
heading the fight against a proposed bill that would set aside a day
to recognize slain San Francisco politician and gay activist Harvey
Milk.