News from

Interim Mayor Todd Gloria

City of San Diego
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: October 4, 2013 Contact: Katie Keach, 619-235-5268

Interim Mayor Gloria Continues Fight for Equality Gloria Joins Mayors for the Freedom to Marry
SAN DIEGO, CA (October 4, 2013) Interim Mayor Todd Gloria continued his advocacy for equality with two recent actions. Interim Mayor Gloria is now listed among Mayors for the Freedom to Marry. This is a broad-based and nonpartisan group of mayors who believe that all people should be able to share in the love and commitment of marriage. San Diego has continually spoken up to support equality, and Interim Mayor Gloria is proud to be among like-minded leaders. Learn more here: http://www.freedomtomarry.org/pages/mayors-for-the-freedom-to-marry. Interim Mayor Gloria has also written a letter to the mayor of San Diegos Russian sister city, Vladivostok, strongly encouraging him to reconsider his countrys recent legislation discriminating against LGBT citizens and visitors. Im realistic about my letters potential impact, but I cannot sit idly by when a sister city is obviously displaying values contrary to our own, said Interim Mayor Gloria. In part, Interim Mayor Glorias letter to Mayor Igor Pushkaryov states, The City of San Diego strongly opposes any legislation that is meant to intimidate or harm the LGBT community. This legislation not only dissolves a portion of the legal protection Russian citizens and visitors should be guaranteed, it creates an antagonizing, even hostile environment toward some Russian citizens, and sends the message that a large number of Russian citizens are less worthy of some standard rights than their neighbors. It extinguishes the hopes of many same-sex couples of ever raising children of their own. I sincerely hope that your city and country can see that this legislation works against respecting the lives of some of your citizens. Our country sees the protection of these rights as an irremovable tenet of a functioning society; I hope Russian may come to see the truth of this as well. I welcome the continuation of this conversation and the opportunity for me to share the value we have seen from embracing diversity of all kinds. ###