The nominating period has ended, and above are the finalists to serve as male and female grand marshals of the 2013 Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade. Notice that the list includes two Dallas city council members — Scott Griggs and Pauline Medrano — who were involved in trying to push through an LGBT equality resolution earlier this month. My question is, given the fallout over the council’s ultimate failure to take up the resolution, if Griggs is named grand marshal, how many council members will be left to ride on the official city float? Of course that’s no reason not to vote for Griggs or Medrano, who are both deserving — although we can’t help but wonder why Angela Hunt’s name doesn’t appear, too. Who knows, perhaps Hunt will agree to fill one of the empty seats on the city float even though she’ll no longer be in office. But anyhow, it’s also good to see some racial diversity, with two leaders in the black LGBT community, Harold Steward and Felicia Porter, appearing as grand marshal finalists. Let’s hope one or both of them wins. Let’s also hope that in future years we will see more transgender names on the list. In any case, congrats to all of this year’s finalists, and good luck! The deadline to vote is July 5. Do so now by going here.