Wake Forest residents have recently started celebrating Pride Month in their town in October, and at a town board of commissioners work session earlier this month, mayor Vivian Jones looked poised to support their efforts.
“We’re going to have a proclamation proclaiming October as Pride Month in Wake Forest,” Jones said toward the end of the 45-minute-long meeting on September 2 during the commissioners reports portion of the session.
“The proclamation that you just mentioned is not one that I would be supportive of,” said commissioner Faith Cross when it was her turn to speak. No one else addressed the proclamation and the meeting went into closed session.
Then, in a social media post a week later, Jones said she had mixed up Pride Month, which traditionally happens in June, with LGBTQ History Month, which “is observed in October in cities and towns throughout the United States,” Jones wrote. But, she added, she came to the decision that Wake Forest will not recognize LGBTQ History Month at all.
“I apologize for confusing the two observances, but more importantly, I am terribly sorry for the discord it has generated in our community,” Jones wrote in a September 9 post on Facebook.
Jones said that since the September 2 meeting, she had heard from several people in the community “expressing strong feelings on both sides of the issue.” She explained that her willingness to recognize Pride Month was motivated by a commitment to the town’s strategic plan goal of “Fostering a Safe, Diverse and Welcoming Community.”
“I now realize that by expressing support for our LGBTQ community I may have unintentionally suggested the Town’s official support for one set of deeply held beliefs over another set just as deeply rooted,” Jones wrote. “Therefore, after careful consideration and as an acknowledgement of the diversity of convictions throughout our community, I have decided not to proceed with issuing any proclamation related to LGBTQ History Month.”
Jones did not immediately respond to the INDY‘s request for further comment, but we will update the story when we hear back.
In October 2021, Wake Forest adopted a nondiscrimination policy that protects residents from discrimination including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. But the town has not signed onto Wake County’s nondiscrimination ordinance—which provides explicit protections for the LGBTQ community—as Raleigh, Cary, Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Wendell, and Apex have.
Last year, the nonprofit Wake Forest Pride, which works to create safe spaces and promote equality in the town, hosted its first Pride event in downtown Wake Forest. The nonprofit addressed Jones’s decision in a social media post of its own. The group says it plans to host its second festival celebrating Pride in Wake Forest on October 11, which is National Coming Out Day.
“Every human being deserves to live authentically,” the post states. “Every person deserves to be welcomed fully into their community. And every voice, especially those too often pushed aside, deserves to be heard.”
Jones has served as mayor of Wake Forest since 2001 and is up for reelection this year. Wake Forest commissioner Ben Clapsaddle is challenging Jones in the municipal election this fall for the town’s top seat. The race is officially nonpartisan, but Clapsaddle is a registered Democrat while Jones is unaffiliated.
Clapsaddle was absent from last week’s work session but says when he reviewed the video of the meeting, he was happy Jones decided to make the proclamation publicly, and “very disappointed” when she decided to rescind it, especially without having spoken to other commissioners first and giving them a chance to weigh in.
“It’s a shame, I think it’s a disservice to all of our citizens, not just the LGBTQ community alone, but all of us,” Clapsaddle says. “If we truly believe, and I do, that we’re a welcoming and diverse community, and that we respect everybody and treat everybody with dignity and honor, I don’t understand why you would back out from some political pressure. I’m very sad for that part … we, as a community, are better than that.”
Nearly a thousand comments came in response to Jones’s Facebook post and it has so far been shared more than 100 times. Comments conveyed a mix of viewpoints but most expressed disappointment in the decision.
“So the lesson here is that intolerance, ignorance, and divisiveness is okay as long as it’s coming from the dominant, white, straight, and Christian culture,” wrote Facebook user Ricky Shmaters Gee. “Thank you Mayor for clarifying that.”
“As a new resident of Wake Forest, this is very disheartening,” wrote Facebook user Amy Lynn. “I would have been proud to live in a town that officially recognizes and celebrates LGBTQ history, but it seems like maybe Wake Forest is the type of place that capitulates to homophobia? Really not cool, not welcoming.”
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