A request that Downers Grove no longer proclaim June as Pride month in the village infuriated Commissioner Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt, who spent some time at Tuesday’s Village Council meeting explaining the significance of the celebration.
“I am upset, and I do think there were some inappropriate statements made,” Sadowski-Fugitt said during the segment of the Village Council meeting reserved for commissioner remarks.
“First, I don’t think there’s any reason to compare veterans and LGBTQ individuals. They’re both incredibly worthy groups of human beings who are deserving of respect and love and care.”
Sadowski-Fugitt was responding to remarks made earlier in the meeting that the village should discontinue the proclamation after four years.
The request was made by resident Eileen Bryner, who said the proclamation “caters to only one genre of thought on sexuality and gender.”
“Pride month is elevated, but [there is] no comparable month-long celebration for Christian perspectives on family, marriage or biological reality,” Bryner said.
“The village is, in effect, discriminating against most everyone else.”
“It selects one contested ideology for official honor and public prominence while leaving the beliefs of the broader population unrecognized.”
Sadowski-Fugitt said there’s a good reason why Pride month exists and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community.
“Calling someone out for just who they exist to be, that’s not an opinion. That is bigotry and the reason why we need [Pride month] and why it matters in this community. We have lost young people to suicide because of this rhetoric.”
“Because the rest of us don’t have to worry about any of this. Being non-LGBTQ is considered the norm. That’s why we don’t need our own little month because we have all of society,” she said.
“We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply, and that’s exactly the case here. Some of the things that were said today were atrocious, and there’s no place in decent society for saying cruel things about people, for implying that somehow an LGBTQ lifestyle is less-than.”
Sadowski-Fugutt offered some statistics from the Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People.
The report indicated, for example, that 39% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year.
“And we have absolutely had youth who have left schools in Downers Grove because of bullying. So this is something that is happening here and we need to address it. And part of Pride month is finding the joy in who you are,” Sadowski-Fugitt said.
She also debunked the belief that Pride celebrations are an attempt to indoctrinate young people.
“Who would like to walk into a room saying, ‘I want to make myself have a higher rate of mental health struggles and a higher likelihood that I’m going to attempt suicide.’ I don’t think that any of us are going do that and that’s quite frankly not what is happening.”
The suicide rate is not as high in communities that are accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, according to the Trevor Project’s survey.
“We need to be doubling down on the fact that we care about this community,” she said.
“And in some cases, if we make a mistake, we need to feel shame because we need to understand that the things we are saying are impacting our young people.