Columbia Heights, Minnesota Mayor Donna
Schmitt has refused to sign a proclamation recognizing Saturday as
LGBT Pride day as the city prepares for its first Pride festival.
According to Fox 9, Schmitt, whose
LinkedIn profile lists her as a member of the Republican Liberty
Caucus from 2010 to 2014, was confronted during a city council
meeting held on Monday.
“I'm standing here as a bisexual
resident of our city and confused as to why my existence is being
deemed a political issue,” Lindsay Schell-Edwards told the mayor
during the public meeting.
“You don't need a piece of paper from
me to do this,” Schmitt
responded, referring to the activists' plans for Saturday's LGBTQ
Awareness Day and Pride festival.
She said that she was unable to sign a
proclamation because organizers did not follow proper guidelines.
Activists said that those guidelines were only recently created.
“The mayor has continued to claim
that we did not follow a process when there is no way to follow a
process,” the group's Amada Marquez Simula told the outlet. “Seems
very unfair.”
Frost Simula said during Monday's
meeting that the mayor's actions were “discriminatory” against
the LGBT community.
“By creating a policy that denies
this proclamation request, the city of Columbia Heights is actively
discriminating against the LGBTQIA+ community,” Frost Simula said
during Monday's meeting.
Schmitt insisted that she is not
opposed to LGBT individuals.