My chat with LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

I posted earlier today about the terrific garden party held yesterday at Getty House hosted by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The mayor has been a staunch LGBT ally for nearly two decades and been hosting the LA Pride party at the official residence for three years now.

I chatted with him briefly on his way into the bash:

‘I was supporting marriage equality in 1994 when I got elected to the California State Assembly.’ the mayor said. ‘I’ve felt very strongly for a long time that this is the last frontier of civil rights.’

‘We all have to stand up and say we won’t tolerate discrimination, we won’t allow one group of Americans to bw pitted against the other,’ he added. ‘We believe, in this town, that you ought to be able to get a job, buy a home, marry the person you love. My hope is that more people across the nation will agree with Angelinos on those points.’

The mayor’s second term ends in 2013 and he is ineligible to run for a third due to term limits. He is chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention and has made clear that he believes marriage equality should be part of the party’s official platform this year well before President Barack Obama said last month that he supports gay marriage.