City Council meeting 6/23/26 Pride Proclamation

Lady Whistledale confesses, I do happen to have the acquaintance of the result from a certain moment of indiscretion between these two naughty kids.

And while I would never spill the details of that consequence, I am happy to have her thoughts on this year's Pride Proclamation show at Glendale City Council this past week. Take it away, dear!

Oh Poppets, and what a night it was! As in, it was literally almost night by the time the Council got around to us Alphabet people and our rainbows. First, we had to sit through the fawning appointment of our new Chief of Police - and trust, darlings, there will be plenty more to say about him soon.

But there we all were! What a fine looking group of folx, if I do say so myself.

The mayor handed out several copies of the Proclamation recognizing LGBTQIA+ Pride month, to organizations like PFLAG Glendale, glendaleOUT, student representatives from several schools’ GSA’s, Glendale's Teacher of the Year, Junior High Los Angeles, and more. Councilman-Elect Alek Bartrosouf, our first openly gay elected official (in the year of Beyonce’s internet 2026!!) gave a lovely speech about how the city continues to make progress toward being tolerant and inclusive. And then this humble correspondent took a closer look at the Commemorative Photo and noticed The Conspicuous Absence of A Certain Someone.

Front and center are all of the lovely citizens who came to show the City and its loud, pathetic Homophobe Constituency that they are, in fact, losing badly. Mayor Ardy and Councilman-Elect Alek are standing in the front, while Councilmembers Brotman & Asatryan are standing in the rear (tee hee!) You can even see the freshly-dyed pate of Councilman Gharpetian juuust peeking over the shoulders of the back row center-right. (Maybe he’s born with it, maybe a Sharpie lost its cap under his hat. Who’s to say?) But … whither the Fifth Beatle? The very dishonorable Former Mayor CryBaby (™) IS MISSING!!!

The current mayor was overheard saying that “some of [his] fellow council people are ill and don’t want to spread their germs.” How kind! How thoughtful! How downright ecumenical of FMCB (™)! Until I put on my Thinking Cap (rainbow-striped for Pride, natch) and replayed the evening’s events in my mind. I had just watched FMCB (™) squeeze his way into the chamber through a truly packed standing-room only crowd. I’d watched him pontificate about the new Chief’s many high-quality Qualities from the dais with nary a cough or sniffle. But somehow, just in time for the Pride Proclamation and photo, FMCB (™) was overcome by the need to protect his fellow citizens. A good start? Better than last two years?

ALMOST! The moment the next agenda item was up, FMCB (™) not only returned but was magically A-OK the remaining four hours of the meeting! The room had emptied out, rebalanced to accommodate the non-LGBTQIA+ world a dishonorable Crybaby prefers. Even Mohill wasn't there!