(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Residents, commissioners decry Great Falls mayor not issuing Pride Month proclamation • Daily Montanan [1] ['Nicole Girten', 'Keila Szpaller', 'Blair Miller', 'Jennifer Shutt', 'More From Author', '- June', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline'] Date: 2024-06-05 A dozen people came to a meeting this week to protest Great Falls Mayor Corey Reeves’ decision not to issue a pride proclamation for the month of June. Reeves, who took the nonpartisan office in January, said on social media the government should not “condemn nor celebrate who should love who.” “While I firmly believe in equality for all individuals, I also believe that the government should not be involved in matters concerning personal and private relationships, whether they involve straight individuals or members of the LGBTQ+ community,” Reeves said in a Facebook post Monday. Two commissioners of the four total spoke to the importance of recognizing the LGBTQ community during Pride Month at the end of their meeting, with Susan Wolff saying she was “not complicit with that decision.” But another commissioner, Rick Tryon, said he supported Reeves’ post and said people saying the city was homophobic were “ignorant.” When reached for comment Wednesday, Reeves said his Facebook post spoke for itself. “I want government out of who we love,” Reeves said in an emailed response. Great Falls resident Stacy Kony’s voice quivered as she spoke through tears to city commissioners. “I don’t wear rainbow items to tell you who’s in my bed,” she said. “I wear rainbow and trans colors so the family across the street will feel a little safer in my neighborhood. So the couple in the restaurant knows they aren’t alone. So the boy who sees me notice him looking at dresses knows I won’t judge. “Right now, here in Great Falls, there is a young person who believes that they’d be better off dead than trans or gay. I wear my pride because you would have them hide.” President of the local LGBTQ+ Center Matt Pipinich said Reeves’ post was harmful, but he knew the mayor didn’t intend to be hurtful. “Cory, I’ve known you for a long time and I know you’re not homophobic, and I know that wasn’t your intent,” Pipinich said. “I would really like for you guys to reach out to the LGBTQ Center and see if we can be a part of the solution.” A handful of commenters spoke to how LGBTQ+ youth are more likely than their peers to commit suicide. “According to the Trevor Project, LGBTQ plus youth are at higher risk for suicide because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized by society,” said Rev. Lynne Spencer-Smith of United Church of Christ. “A Pride Month proclamation would be a message of hope and encouragement from the leadership of their community to those youth.” Local activist and former Democratic candidate Jasmine Taylor listed a series of atrocities the LGBTQ+ community have faced in the past century, from gas chambers in the Holocaust to last year’s incident in Great Falls where woman was killed, allegedly for her transgender identity. “There is not a straight pride month because people were never marched into gas chambers for being heterosexual. Straight people have never been beaten, tortured, tied to fences, run over or had their houses set on fire because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Taylor said. Taylor noted Reeves had issued proclamations for other groups in the community, but it was “discriminatory” not to include Pride among them. “You have singled out this specific minority group and decided we are not worthy of recognition,” she said. Tryon said he agreed with Reeve’s decision not to make the proclamation, but took umbrage with what he saw as the commenters accusing the city of being homophobic. “Implying that anybody on the City Commission or the mayor was doing something out of some homophobic or bigoted motivation is wrong,” Tryon said. “Nobody up here is homophobic or wants to see anybody, for any reason, commit suicide or to be hated on by anybody in this community.” Tryon went on to say there are “dark corners” of Great Falls, like in any other city, where people have hateful tendencies including against the LGBTQ+ community, “but that does not reflect on the official business or the official stance of this city or of the mayor.” The mayor has the sole discretion to issue proclamations, which are purely ceremonial and typically celebrate noteworthy events relevant to the community. According to the city’s proclamation guidelines proclamations are not issued for: Matters of political or religious nature or individual conviction Matters with potential political controversy or which may suggest an official City position on a matter whether or not under consideration or to be voted upon by the City Commission Events or organizations with no direct relationship to the city of Great Falls Commissioner Shannon Wilson, part of the progressive group Great Falls Rising, said not every group or cause can be recognized at commission meetings, “but we try and do our best.” “The LGBTQ community deserves our recognition as no other group receives more hate incidents and discrimination than their community,” Wilson said. “They aren’t looking for special rights. They’re just looking for equal rights.” Wolff said she felt the rest of the commission looked “complicit” in the mayor’s decision to not issue a proclamation, and said she was “not complicit.” “I’m not sure where the mayor may want to go with this, but it was upsetting to me for all the reasons that we heard tonight,” Wolff said. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/06/05/residents-commissioners-decry-great-falls-mayor-not-issuing-pride-month-proclamation/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/