By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

The flier mailed to The Advertiser newsroom had as a return address the fourth floor of City Hall.

This same flier was included in the agenda of every O'ahu neighborhood board.

On the flier was the official seal of the City and County of Honolulu next to "Mayor Jeremy Harris," the city's main phone number for the information office and the Web address of an info site all about the event: www.co.honolulu.his.us/mayor/familyday/htm.

(Notice this is not only a page of the city's Web site, but a page off the mayor's page on the Web site, www.co.honolulu.hi.us/.)

There were lots of other things on the flier, like information on the city's Sunset on the Beach show and movie event, which were included as part of the day's activities.

The one thing that did not appear on the flier for this past Saturday's Family Day in Waikiki were the words "Hawai'i Christian Coalition."

The Waikiki Improvement Association also had a logo on the flier. On the association's calender of events, the Wiki Wiki Wire, the listing for July 5 reads, "The City is planning a family fun day for the fourth of July weekend on Saturday July 5 at Kapi'olani Park."

Yet the city argued, and a court ruled last week, that the city was not a sponsor of the Kid's Parade held in conjunction with the city's Family Day.

Guess all that mailing and official sealing and Web-siting and calendar listing business was all just an illusion. The city was all over it, but it wasn't really a city event. Oh, no. Because if it was, there could be no discrimination. No exclusion. And then everybody would have to be included. And we can't have that.

So whose parade was it?

The only thing that's clear is whose parade it wasn't.

The Hawai'i Christian Coalition went to court to keep gay and lesbian groups out of Family Day.

"Family Day has always been for the children and shouldn't be a stage for political or social statements," said Garret Hashimoto, state director of the Christian Coalition.

What bigger political or social statement than to exclude a group of people?

Said Mayor Jeremy Harris, "The children of Hawai'i are the ultimate winners."

Well, not all the children. The homosexual children, they didn't win (and don't bother arguing that there are no homosexual children because there just are). The children of gay parents didn't win (sorry if you don't like it, but there are children with gay parents. There just are.). The families who accept and love all their 'ohana, gay, straight or whatever, they got told loud and clear that they don't fit in to what the city sees as a family.

To that, I ask, WWJD?

If the "J" is Jeremy, the answer to what he would do is to quickly get that Family Day Web page offa' his site and get the controversy offa' his back. The Web address listed on all those fliers no longer works.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Correction: The city argued, and a court ruled last week, that the city was not a sponsor of the Kid's Parade held in conjunction with the city's Family Day in Waikiki. A previous version of this column was not clear on the court ruling.