Thomasville City Council

Friday, Ocotober 20, 2006

Before I write today's BLOG...just a follow up to my entry of two day's prior...signs in hand, fully motivated, I attempted to protest the President in Greensboro, NC. I have not seen this many cops since the Washington D.C. protests in the very early '70's. There were literally one or two deputies every 20 feet for over 5 MILES. Each and every place I attempted to park...commercial, residential...I was told to "keep moving". I did hear that some protests HAD occurred but, for the life of me, I could not locate them nor make my voice heard. Total bummer!!!

Now for today's BLOG...the details of the City of Thomasville, NC City Council Meeting of Monday, Oct. 16, 2006.

I was the first person to show up and was handed a random number because the fire chief expected the attendance to overreach the council capacity and I was to give my number to someone else were I to leave. Sadly, the attendance never reached that proportion. In my estimation, there were not even 100 persons there, if there were even half that number. I signed the "public forum" which would enable me to take advantage of my allotted 2 minutes' speaking time. The format, unfortunately, was to hold the public forum BEFORE the proposal to sign , on behalf of the city, onto a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as "only between a man and a woman".

I had wondered to myself if I would be the only citizen in Thomasville who would speak out against this measure. Well...I was the only member of Thomasville's small and, for the most part, quiet and acquiescent, GLBT community. I was however, not alone. I was joined my three courageous and generally active and outspoken members of our community from Greensboro. I will add that one Thomasville citizen who self identified as heterosexual also stood up against this bigoted resolution. My two minutes were devoted to an appeal to the Consitution...the Establishment Clause, church/state separation, the fact that marriage belongs to the province of churches, not governments; the historical custom of amendments broadening civil rights; the existence of DOMA which federally stipulates marriage as a man/woman convention; and, furthermore, that this debate was a waste of taxpayer time and money. My three compatriots focused their two minutes on revelations of a more personal nature.

A local pastor spoke in favor of the resolution, availing himself of the usual fundamentalist and distorted rhetoric. He cited the Bible as a source condemning same sex marriages and asserted that old saw that such actions were blasphemous in the eyes of Jesus and GOD. He received a resounding applause from the citizenry gathered in the council chambers.

Shortly thereafter, the resolution itself was proposed by Raleigh York and Dwight Cornelison, but the specific language of the resolution was not articulated. It had been previously distributed to council members and was supposed that the citizens were not entitled to know the details nor entitled to express their sentiments subsequesnt to the introduction of the proposal. The resolution carried 5 to 1, with Marie Culbreth the lone dissenting vote. Upon chatting with Maire the following day, I learned that this resolution had no teeth...it merely suggested that council members, singularly or as a group, MAY sign on to an endorsement of an amendment to the NC consitutional, but that it would not be required of any single council member. As such, it was nothing but a political ploy to energize the base.

Given the fact that this IS Thomasville...a rather conservative and small town which has a mindset that one might have expected to encounter some 30 years ago...it is not surpising that this resolution passed nor that the one voice speaking in its favor was greeted with a resounding applause. However, in my humble estimation, it is a sad statement on rural America in the 21st century and is indicative of prevailing winds that dominate in such sections of the country. Furthermore, it seems to be a statement of bigotry that is endorsed by both the citizenry and the elected officials.

I am ashamed and embarrassed for the community in which I live. I am dismayed by the lack of support by local members of the GLBT community. I would again be living in denial if I did not state that such a state of affairs gives me pause...is this the kind of community where I want to reside? Conversely, I certainly understand that small communities like this are the places where the work is most needed. We can never expect things to change unless we are willing to work with these communities towards a revamping of those prevailing attitudes and misperceptions of what it means to be gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual.

More on this line of thinking tomorrow...

trickster108