Rowlett residents spoke for several hours during a city council work session Tuesday night, with most expressing support for the city proclaiming June as “Pride Month” and lighting the water tower in alternating colors of the rainbow.
Several council members are considering ways to limit Mayor Tammy Dana-Bashian’s authority after they and other community members disagreed with her decision to issue the proclamation during a June 1 meeting.
“As a Councilmember, Bible-believing Christian and citizen of Rowlett, I cannot violate my deeply held religious beliefs and as such do not support Gay Pride Month nor do I support the LGBT, etc. lifestyle,” council member Martha Brown wrote in an email, which were first obtained by a resident in an open records request.
In a separate email, she wrote that she wasn’t asking to have the proclamation rescinded, but that she didn’t “want to be associated with it personally or as a councilmember.”
Brown and two other council members, Pam Bell and Brownie Sherrill, have said they want a majority approval vote before the mayor can proclaim the celebration of a holiday or special occasion or light the city’s water tower.
In an interview Wednesday, Dana-Bashian said the city is going to research how other municipalities issue proclamations. She also said they still plan to light the tower to recognize Pride Month, despite the opposition, though they’re not sure when. Pride Month is celebrated annually in June to honor participants of the 1969 Stonewall riots and give visibility to the LGBTQ community’s fight for equal rights.
Dana-Bashian said the intent of the proclamation is not to change anyone’s mind, but to recognize all members of the Rowlett community. Personal religious beliefs should not sway how someone governs, she said.
“Everybody’s entitled to their own opinions. Everybody’s entitled to their deep religious beliefs,” Dana-Bashian said. “But none of that should factor into appropriate city policy. … I’m trying to govern in a manner that is fair to all and inclusive to all.”
Residents and several local pastors emailed the mayor before and after the June 1 meeting to express their disappointment with the Pride Month proclamation, and one urged Dana-Bashian to resign, saying she was representing a “sick and harmful agenda.”
The mayor said she didn’t expect controversy over the proclamation, one of many the city has introduced.
“We’ve done many proclamations for marginalized groups, and this was just another one of them,” Dana-Bashian said.
At least three pastors attended the June 1 meeting to protest the proclamation.
“Our city does not need to encourage morals that contradict God and his Word,” said Pastor Cole Hedgecock of First Baptist Rowlett.
“To make it clear, I would oppose pornography pride month, adultery pride month, assault and battery pride month, Aryan Nation pride month or any other sin in opposition to God’s word,” he said.
Supporters of the proclamation have said the council members’ opposition is wasting taxpayer-funded time and resources, and they circulated a petition asking the city to light the water tower that had nearly 1,000 signatures around midday Wednesday.
Others said they feel offended that members of council and the community are trying to use religion to oppose including and celebrating the LGBTQ community.
“If … we call ourselves Christians, we truly have to be inclusive,” resident Katherine Rinz said during the meeting Tuesday. “But the thing is, that has no bearing on what we elected you to do. We elected you to represent everyone. And I don’t care who that person is, I want you to represent them.”
Council member Bell had asked pastors to circulate a competing petition that opposes lighting the tower, according to an email posted online. It was not clear how many people have signed.
The tower has displayed rainbow lights only one night this month because of technology malfunctions caused by rain, city manager Brian Funderburk said, and was not lit again because of the community backlash.
Dana-Bashian said Wednesday that she hopes members of the LGBTQ community are not discouraged by the opposition to Pride Month.
“Listen to all the love that was also presented last night, because you are loved,” she said of the several hours of public comment in which many residents spoke in support of their LGBTQ neighbors.
“You are accepted. You are part of our community, and there was an incredible outpouring of support for you.”
