Knoxville Mayor Declines Proclamation For Gay Rally

Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam won't be speaking at a gay rally and festival this month and declined to issue a city proclamation recognizing the event.
But he will send a representative to the event and organizers say that's OK.Haslam was invited by the Rainbow Community Awareness Project to speak at the October 15th event being held in downtown Knoxville.Organizers say they were disappointed with the mayor's decision not to speak and officially support the event, but called the fact he was sending aide Bill Lyons "progress."Lyons told The Knoxville News Sentinel the city had received some negative comments about the festival, but had also received comments in support of it.
from Washington Blade