Facing angry residents, the mayor of Columbia Heights, Minnesota defended her decision to not sign a proclamation supporting the city’s upcoming Saturday’s LGBTQ Awareness Day and Pride festival, citing policies that suspiciously were developed the same week LGBTQ groups began inquiring about the proclamation.
FOX9 reports: “Members of the Columbia Heights Pride Organization and other partners say they reached out to the city’s mayor a few weeks ago to inquire about the process of having her sign a proclamation to officially recognize Saturday as an LGBTQ Awareness Day in Columbia Heights. They say their emails and phone calls went unanswered until last week when they finally met with Donna Schmitt. Schmitt apparently told them they had not followed the guidelines when it comes to proclamations and therefore she was unable to sign anything.”
Slamming her gavel on the desk, Schmitt lashed out at constituents angry about her refusal: “I will be asking some of you to leave if you do not stop.”
Said Mayor Donna Schmitt, claiming that residents did not follow proper protocol when requesting the proclamation: “You do not need a piece of paper from me to do this. … Nowhere does it state or has been implied that I’m against individuals in the LGBTQ community. We have denied three other proclamations in the last couple of months.”
