Kendall County Board member calls for county to recognize Pride Month

Kendall County Board member Brooke Shanley is disappointed the board has yet to adopt a resolution recognizing Pride Month.

“This is my third Pride month as a member of this board,” Shanley said during the June 17 Kendall County Board meeting. “And we have yet to officially highlight this month of recognition.”

Shanley has served on the Kendall County Board since December 2022. Pride Month is celebrated each year in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan.

“We, the LGBTQ+ community, bring diverse perspectives that enrich the very fabric of our county,” Shanley said. “We even serve on this county board.”

She said the county’s continued failure to recognize Pride Month “is disheartening at best.”

“We, each one of us here, swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, a document that provides protections to all peoples on U.S. soil independent of color, creed, sexual orientation, gender, identity, or immigration status,” Shanley said. “We pledge our allegiance at the beginning of every board meeting ending our pledge with the words with liberty and justice for all. And the last time I checked the word all does not allow for exceptions. All means all. Every single one of us.”

Shanley then read a resolution that she hopes will be adopted during her time on the Kendall County Board. The resolution in part states that Kendall County “denounces prejudice and discrimination based on gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, marital status, national origin, disability and/or any other classification protected under federal and state law.”

“Kendall County commits to protecting the civil rights of our LGBTQ+ residents and their ability to live openly, equally and without fear,” she said in reading the resolution.

Board member Elizabeth Flowers then made a motion to accept the resolution. In response, Kendall County Board Chairman Matt Kellogg said the board can’t vote on something that’s not on the agenda.

At a Kendall County Board meeting in June 2024, Shanley noted the board no longer passes resolutions to celebrate different groups of people.

Kellogg had said staff had been preparing such resolutions but that he took such proclamations off the county board agendas because it is not the responsibility of staff to recognize different groups. However, he said county board members are welcome to recognize different groups at board meetings.

Last year, Oswego recognized Pride Month for the first time in the village’s history.