NORMAN — Even though they are usually minor items taken up during Norman City Council meetings, a proclamation became the main event Tuesday evening as a hot-button issue reared its head when it came time to vote on Item 32.
Councilman Hal Ezzell, Ward 3, said the typical proclamation usually eats up about 90 seconds of a typical council meeting.
Item 32, which called for Mayor Cindy Rosenthal to proclaim October as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month, took about four hours.
Just before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, council voted 7 to 1 in favor of the proclamation. Only Councilman Dan Quinn, who said he had to listen to his constituents, voted against the proclamation.
“This strikes a nerve,” one man said at the end of public comment.
He was right.
Many of the speakers who addressed council Tuesday evening were opposed to the proclamation, for varying reasons. And most council members said that most of the e-mails and phone calls they took on the proclamation were opposed to making October Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.
Keith Steincamp said he opposed the proclamation because he felt like it would lead to the GLBT agenda being taught in school and that children would be recruited into the “lifestyle.”
“It’s a slippery slope that will lead to many other things,” Steincamp said.
Steincamp wasn’t the only one who felt this way, with numerous members of the audience calling the gay lifestyle destructive and disease-ridden.
Others not supporting the proclamation felt like it afforded the GLBT community special treatment.
Eve Spaulding was one of those.
“Equal rights for all, special privileges for none,” Spaulding said, noting that straight people or traditional married couples don’t have a month dedicated to them. “This proclamation is anything but inclusive.”
Many of those opposing the proclamation were angry because they felt the proclamation was tantamount to an city-backed endorsement. Or they felt like the city should be worrying about more serious problems, like roads and bridges.
Supporters of the proclamation seemed to take it for what it is. A proclamation.
“I don’t think this proclamation is going to lead to the destruction of Norman … of our value systems,” Ezzell said.
One student at the University of Oklahoma claimed that not issuing the proclamation could send the wrong message to those thinking of choosing Norman as their next place to live.
Allison Gale, who moved to Norman from Detroit to attend OU, said she supports the proclamation because she sees discrimination on a regular basis in Oklahoma. A journalism student, she said what she has seen so far in Oklahoma has made her doubt whether she could start a family in Norman.
“It really does turn me off,” she said of the discriminatory behavior.
Councilman Tom Kovach, Ward 2, said he believes the proclamation was necessary simply because it was requested in the first place.
“If there were equal rights for homosexuals, we wouldn’t be having this proclamation,” Kovach said.
But it was one man’s comments as he walked away from the podium during public comment that seemed most accurate once the meeting was over. After countless comments mumbled and after countless exasperated sighs.
“Everyone that walks out that door tonight is going to feel the same way they did when they came in,” he said.
Andrew Knittle 366-3540 aknittle@normantranscript.com
