Minnesota mayor refuses to sign proclamation honoring Pride festival

Members of the LGBTQ community reportedly confronted a Minnesota mayor during a city council meeting on Monday night over her refusal to sign a proclamation honoring LGBTQ Awareness Day. 

Mayor Donna Schmitt of Columbia Heights said she would not recognize the proclamation ahead of the city’s first Pride festival because organizers did not follow guidelines necessary for ceremonial documents, KSTP reported.

“It is not about a group, it’s about ‘let’s follow the guidelines,’” Schmitt told the TV station. “They can go out and celebrate, they are more than welcome to rent our parks and have a family friendly event as they have requested.”

Schmitt, however, acknowledged that the guidelines were developed the same week organizers started asking about how to request a proclamation.

“Right now, the eye is on Columbia Heights that our city government is biased against the LGBTQ community,” Amada Marquez Simula, the festival’s organizer, told KSTP.

Others voiced their frustrations during Monday’s tense council meeting in the city, just north of Minneapolis, with Schmitt threatening to kick some protesters out, according to a Fox 9 report.

“I am standing here as a bisexual resident of our city and am confused as to why my existence is being deemed a political issue,” resident Lindsay Schell-Edwards said.

Schmitt denied that she was biased against individuals in the LGBTQ community and noted that her office had denied several other proclamations in recent months.

“I just hope they realize, they don’t represent everyone in the city either,” she said in an interview with KSTP. 

The station noted that just this year the mayor issued proclamations honoring a retiring city manager and National Library Week and declaring Feb. 25 as “Tibet Day.”