KYLE — Kyle City Council members passed an item to designate a Pride-themed market day in June at its March 7 meeting.
“This was something that the public has been asking for, for many, many years and given that we as a council, we’re going through this growth, we want our city to be as inclusive and welcoming as possible for everybody who wants to move here or is thinking about moving here,” explained council member Bear Heiser, who sponsored the agenda item. “It’s an issue of quality of life in creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable being themselves. That’s what home should feel like; home should feel like a place where you feel safe and if people are going to call the city of Kyle home, that’s the environment that, at least I believe, that I was elected to help create.”
The council meeting began with a passion-filled citizen comment period, in which six residents spoke to council about their opposition to the item.
John Carter began his comment with a Bible scripture and followed by stating that “The idea of celebrating a gay agenda is disgusting. It’s a violation of God's will and I hope that the body will dismiss it.”
Helen Sue Carter and Armando Escalante both cited that, politically, this should be discouraged due to the recently signed Senate Bill 12, which states that government entities can be fined $10,000 for hosting a Pride event, and that this would be “municipal suicide.”
Eileen Escalante said “We have had the best country with the most freedom in the world. Nobody’s being oppressed in the United States. We have special interest groups who are trying to take over and oppress the Christians and it’s not right. Sexuality belongs in the home, not in the public square and the government should not be spending money, our tax money, to promote this type of event. That’s all I have to say, but it's oppressive to the rest of us and it's wrong.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, Michael McDonald agreed that Market Days should not be an event which elevates one group above another.
“My best friend, my baby sister. She is gay and she has my full support and I love her to death,” council member Daniela Parsley said.” What I don’t believe is that there needs to be a market days or a theme that celebrates — I don’t want to sound harsh — who she decides to have sex with. That’s my opinion … We don’t have a straight people market days.”
“I’ve always been of the opinion that these types of things should not be a part of government. That’s no secret, but that cuts both ways. I didn’t like the Menorah [lighting] … I was against adding an invocation to start every meeting just because of the dynamics of it. I think generally we should be sort of vanilla and focused on roads and infrastructure,” said Mayor Travis Mitchell. “But I will support it because I think that’s the direction that the city wants to go.”
Council member Robert Rizo explained that as someone who wears his faith on his sleeve, he felt hurt by the comments. According to him, his faith taught him to love everyone.
After citing the many groups that have been discriminated against, council member Lauralee Harris explained that she wouldn’t want to encourage that, so she has no trouble recognizing the community.
Other citizens, such as Ashlee Spring and Katie Slaughter, were vocal in their support for the item “I love the idea of celebrating all people. Themed market days are great,” Spring said. “I absolutely love this! Can’t wait,” said Slaughter.
Tessa Lawrence expressed her immense support for the event, but posed the question whether there will be increased security measures, due to individuals who “hate what they don’t understand.” This is an aspect that will be decided by the city manager and staff as more details are configured, explained Heiser. Although, the Kyle Police Department already holds a strong presence at Market Days, so this would be no different. If staff feels as though there needs to be more precautions, he is confident that it will be implemented.
Rizo stated that he would be in support of a Pride parade in the future, but, according to Heiser, incremental growth is what he aims for.
“It’s not about labeling things, like if everyone just woke up one day and was like, 'We are going to vow to one another to treat each other equally, to treat each other respectfully and to love one another,' would we necessarily need to do things like this? Probably not because we could live in a label-less world, but we don’t and it’s because people choose to hammer against those that they don’t agree with. Unfortunately, it’s a human issue. It’s not an ideological issue,” Heiser said.
“We cannot use the six people here showing up tonight and use them as the rule and not the exception to a town of almost 70,000 people,” stated Heiser.
The item passed 5-1, with Parsley dissenting. Later, council member Miguel Zuniga attempted to rescind his vote to no avail as the motion to reopen the item failed.
To listen to the full discussion, visit bit.ly/3wFgTZO.
