Board of Aldermen 04-13-2021 Page 18
O-21-057, AMENDED
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
PROVIDING FOR REPRESENTATION OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY ON THE CULTURAL
CONNECTIONS COMMITTEE
MOTION BY ALDERMAN LOPEZ TO AMEND O-21-057 BY REPLACING IT WITH THE GOLDENROD
COPY OF AMENDMENTS MADE AT THE PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, BY
ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Lopez
And I'd like to speak it.
President Wilshire
Alderman Lopez?
Alderman Lopez
So the amendments that we made, the initial Ordinance was enabling the addition of two representatives of the
LGBTQ+ Community for representation on the Cultural Connections Committee. The amendment allows for
two additional representatives to represent Deaf Culture. So a few years ago, | was actually Chairing the
Cultural Connections Committee at the time, we were having conversations about what our role was, what our
relevance was and how we could better engage the community and make minority populations in the City more
able to access City Government. We had chosen to change the name from Ethnic Awareness Committee to
Cultural Connections Committee to better reflect the intent of the Committee. It wasn’t just to raise awareness
it was actually to connect members of cultures together.
We had thought that in a City where you could have French Canadians who are a numerical minority but a
cultural majority. Greek populations, populations of people from India, Rohingya, Irish, many other different
cultural backgrounds on a level, you would have a more diverse opportunity for people to enjoy the merits of
those different cultures and the strengths that they offered. And we had been aware that there is definitely a
culture relative to the LGBTQ+ Community because for a long time they were stigmatized and isolated
culturally from others so that they developed their own internal cultures in a lot of ways, which we have found
to be enriching in our own Pride Festival and other examples. And likewise, we had also talked about the Deaf
Community where they have a language, they have ideas, they see things specific to people who view the
world without hearing as a primary sense and we wanted to make sure that they had inclusion in the Cultural
Connections Committee and in Government as well.
