The District of Houston will fly a flag recognizing June as Pride month and place one rainbow-coloured bench in the downtown area but only after a vigorous debate that ended when Mayor Shane Brienen broke a tie among council members present at council’s June 20 meeting.
The debate was sparked by a senior staffer memo indicating a flag to fly from the District’s pole set aside for specific occasions and a rainbow bench would cost less than $3,000 and be covered within the District’s existing budget for downtown beautification.
Councillor Jonathan Van Barneveld began the debate by wondering if the school district would share the cost of a second rainbow bench with the District for placing on school district property.
“I’m happy with one. If you want to entertain one and a half benches in partnership with the school district, that’s fine with me,” he said.
The second council member to speak, Tom Euverman, said he could not support any purchase of a flag or bench.
“This is one of the issues that I wished would just be flushed down the toilet to tell you personally,” he said.
Euverman recognized the expansion of human rights but said “this does not mean that we, some of us anyway, the public, must be proud.”
“I think there’s a difference between accepting and being proud and I personally don’t have it …. in my inner being to be proud. I just cannot be proud of that. So they have the right to be where they are by law. I have the right not to agree with not being proud,” he said.
Councillor Troy Reitsma followed Euverman, saying the flag and bench means “that we are accepting of everybody and if putting this out means that one person in our community says ‘you know what, Houston is a great community to be part of and they accept me for who I am,’ [then] this is money well spent.”
“We need to just accept everybody for how they are. We need to stop judging people because at the end of the day, if we start judging everybody we’re going to be judged ourselves,” said Reitsma.
Councillor Rebecca Hougen, who joined with Euverman in opposing the purchases, said it would create a precedent in recalling a person in the community 15 years ago who had “only Jesus saves” embroidered on the back of his jacket.
Council would also have to respect his wish to be recognized if he asked, she said.
“If we are going to make it so that we are going to hold this special thing, we are going to be duty bound to also hold it for other groups that come, so that includes the ‘only Jesus saves’ guy,” she said.
Hougen broadened the debate by saying the government should stay out of the bedrooms of the nation.
“This is orientation,” she said. “It’s actually none of anybody’s business. The government should not be in anybody’s bedroom. It’s none of their business. It’s none of our business.”
Reitsma countered by saying there are many existing examples of groups being separate and being celebrated.
“If you are against that, then I’m going to assume that you were against churches not paying property taxes, because that is holding them separate,” he said.
Van Barneveld rejoined the debate, noting that was Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau who first said the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.
“It’s about supporting a marginalized group of the community, much in the same way that we are going down a path of reconciliation with our indigenous partners,” he continued of the flag and bench purchase.
“We also continue to have a portion of our community of our community that is also marginalized and needs to have the support in feeling that they’re welcome.”
Van Barneveld reminded council of a person who wanted to run for council a number of years ago but who did not because of the hate mail she received in her job owing to her orientation.
“That’s a shameful example of a community not being inclusive,” he said.
Hougen then expanded on her opposition, singling out the ‘T’ in LGBTQIA2S+ as standing for ‘transgender’.
“The trans agenda is for the destruction of women and as a self-proclaimed feminist, a women, a mother, a wife — the trans agenda is harming women,” she said.
“The transgender [agenda is] also pushing the mutilation of children. The mutilation of their genitalia as well as abuse to their minds in this push to become gender equal or gender satisfy,” Hougen added.
“Because the ‘T’ is on that flag, It’s considered part of this flat. I cannot and I will not support it.”
Mayor Shane Brienen joined the debate for the first time, saying he sense a split among council members.
He said he wanted an inclusive community but also wanted to know if the motion to be voted upon included Van Barneveld’s suggestion that the District seek to split the cost of a second bench with the school district for placement on school district property.
“That’s up to the school board and the school district in my opinion,” he said.
Van Barneveld said his suggestion was not meant to be part of the motion to buy a flag and bench.
Brienen, in breaking a tie, voted for the purchase as did Van Barneveld and Reitsma. Hougen and Euverman were opposed. Councillors Tom Stringfellow and Lisa Mueller were not at the meeting.
A member of the public also expressed an opinion about the purchase of a flag and bench.
It is council’s practice to permit public comment at the start of every meeting and Houston resident Marcel Dallaire was one of two people to speak June 20.
He told council it needed to do a far better job of dealing with the potholes on the Buck Flats Road, saying it is ignoring the problem.
But he also called the idea of buying a rainbow bench a waste of tax dollars.
“We get it thrown in our kids at school and everything else just because it’s Trudeau. I’m not for that shit. It’s garbage,” he said.