AL Mayor Denies Permit for Gay Pride Parade

The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, has refused to sign a proclamation for an annual gay pride celebration in the city.

Mayor Larry Langford has also denied the group a parade permit, The Birmingham News reports.

Langford says he turned down the requests, because it's inappropriate for government to endorse a lifestyle.

"I don't think I'm intolerant, I just don't condone the lifestyle," Langford told The Birmingham News. "Your personal lifestyle should be nobody's issue but yours. It's not a civil rights issue; it's a personal issue."

This is the same Larry Langford that called Birmingham to repent with sack cloth and ashes over their murder rate in April. Langford called on Birmingham residents to turn to God and to seek peace when the city's murder rate soared.

More than a thousand people turned out for the mayor's family summit where every one received a free Bible.

The big attraction Friday night at the Birmingham, Ala., Boutwell Auditorium was not the usual fair for a venue known for hosting concerts and special events.

It was a prayer rally for the city, called for by Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and organized with the help of area pastors and other city leaders.

The Magic City had already had 27 murders in 2008 (in April), compared to 19 in April of last year. Mayor Larry Langford wanted to see his city turn to God for help.

At a recent city council meeting, Langford introduced the idea of praying in "sack cloth and ashes."

"When cities in the early part of this nation's history and the world's history... when they had gotten so far from God, begun idol worship and all kinds of crazy stuff that we are even doing today... that community came to its senses," Langford said.

"The Bible tells us that they put on sack cloth and ashes on their face and they prayed and God heard their prayer," he added.

He purchased 2,000 sack-cloths without using city funds and will hand them out at the event.

Several area ministers, as well as some nationally known ones, joined together to lead the prayer rally. Two members of the Georgia legislature attended, in a show of support for the mayor's call to prayer.

Langford is working what he calls "Plan 10/30," which is based on the fact that most of the city's crimes are committed by African-Americans ages 10 to 30 against that same age group.

He has also held a series of summits as part of the project - the first one for men, another for women, and the last with families. After reporting to city leaders on the summit, Langford said there was only one thing left to do.

"To get this community back on the right track, we need to understand the power of prayer."

I say, "Hats off to you, Mayor Langford!"

(2008 April Lorier | Related Posts
(Source Birmingham News)

APRIL LORIER - So. California. An award-winning poet, inspirational author and speaker. A survivor of both child abuse and adult domestic abuse, April inspires women to be all that God designed them to be! She first gained recognition as a children's rights crusader while successfully fighting for the passage of the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA), which was signed into law by Ronald Reagan.