Supporters of the LGBTQ+ community packed Tuesday’s Downers Grove Village Council meeting to voice support for a proclamation declaring June Pride Month in the village.
Mayor Bob Barnett was asked at the May 5 council meeting to discontinue the proclamation after four years.
The request came from longtime Downers Grove resident Ilene Briner, who repeated her request at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Personal lifestyle choices are not typically the subject of official villagewide celebrations. No other sexual orientation receives this level of government recognition,” Briner said.
The LGBTQ+ community does not enjoy full community support, and the village should not issue proclamations that support one side of a contested issue, she said.
Other people who addressed the council favored the proclamation.
Jodi Harap, a Downers Grove ressident and EQuality Downers Grove board member, said much of the language used by proclamation opponents is strategic.
She said using terminology such as a “genre of thought” or “contested ideology,” for example, invalidates and dehumanizes members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“That framing is deeply misleading. LGBTQ people are not taught an ideology. They are not a theory to argue into or out of existence. They are human beings,” Harap said.
Harap said fear mongering is another tactic employed by opponents of the LGBTQ+ community and can include portraying marginalized groups as dangerous, threatening, corrupting or predatory.
Resident Robin Tryloff said Pride Month is not threatening.
“Recognition of Pride Month does not diminish anyone else’s rights or beliefs. It simply acknowledges that these residents also belong and deserve to feel safe and respected in their own community,” she said.
Tryloff also criticized the belief that Pride Month is harmful to children. Rather, she said, children benefit from communities that teach respect for others and foster an environment where all young people feel accepted.
“Our village is strongest when every person knows they belong here,” Tryloff said.
Commissioner Chris Gilmartin criticized the individuals who asked Barnett to reconsider the proclamation.
“I also want to be direct about who is making this request. These are the same voices who have spent the last several years pressuring our library board to restrict books and limit library programming. That is a pattern, and the residents of Downers Grove see it clearly,” Gilmartin said.
“This small group does not represent Downers Grove. They represent a small minority, many of whom, we’ve learned, don’t even live in this village, who have convinced themselves that their views are not just correct but righteous, and that anyone who disagrees is not just wrong but morally suspect.”
“They cloak themselves in the First Amendment while working to strip rights and recognition from their neighbors. They invoke parental rights while telling other parents what their children may read. They demand respect for their beliefs while denying the basic dignity of people whose lives they don’t approve of.
“Pride proclamations exist because LGBTQ+ Americans have been historically marginalized,” Gilmartin said.
“Recognition from local government is one of the ways a community says: not here. Not in this village.”
Martin Tully also criticized the proclamation opponents.
“The whole thing was disingenious political theater in the first place. Let’s just call it what it is,” Tully said.
Barnett said he takes the mayoral proclamations and the groups they recognize very serious.
“I can’t make anybody be nice. But I can sit here week after week and say what I think is right and highlight the behaviors I think we should all try and embrace and all find in ourselves,” Barnett said.