'We're not wavering in our commitment to inclusion,' says Alta. mayor after passing of bylaw banning Pride crosswalks, flags
'We're not wavering in our commitment to inclusion,' says Alta. mayor after passing of bylaw banning Pride crosswalks, flags
Westlock, a town of about 5,000 people north of Edmonton, voted Thursday to implement a bylaw that prohibits rainbow crosswalks and restricts the town to flying only government flags.
You know, the kinds of people who have strong negative feelings towards a rainbow crosswalk are, in my experience, not committed to inclusion. Most normal people are going to not care or not notice. So when a whole town gets a bug up their ass about it, well, I'm going to make some assumptions about the town.
Please read the whole article, not just the headline.
Council, including the mayor, claim to have been against this bylaw and supposedly supported rejecting it.
It seems that they made a tactical error in not allowing it the full three readings in council. Since it was a motion brought forward by the community, refusing to give it the full three readings in council meant that it had to go to plebiscite (a binding referendum) under provincial legislation.
Yea this was the town that rather than actually deal with it was like "oh golly gee, let's let the idiots of the town decide"
They did this to themselves to try and make themselves look neutral but instead just looked stupid. We can't have an inclusive world when cowards like them refuse to fight.
Honestly, better to know as a queer person that you have a better than 50/50 chance of meeting a raging homophobe in the town.
Council did visitors a favour. They just don't seem to know it.
As long as we're spinning things, maybe they chose to follow the will of the people rather than imposing their own views.
At this point, we don't and can't know whether letting it go to plebiscite was deliberately choosing to follow the will of the people, hoping to distance themselves no matter the outcome or a tactical error that led to a result they claim to be disappointed with.
The MAGAs are winning, even here.
These people certainly seem to have interesting priorities.
Between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday, 1,306 Westlock residents – or 33.5 per cent of eligible voters – reported to a community hall to vote either yes or no to the following question:
"Do you agree that: only federal, provincial and municipal flags may be flown on flagpoles on Town of Westlock municipal property; all crosswalks in the Town of Westlock must be the standard white striped pattern between two parallel white lines; and the existing rainbow coloured crosswalk in the Town of Westlock be removed."
The yes contingent won by 24 votes: 663 in favour to 639 opposed. Four ballots were rejected during counting, the town said.
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Voter turnout on Thursday was higher than both the January byelection (1,271) and the 2021 municipal general election (1,221) when Westlock had 370 more eligible voters.
My feeling is that a town that bans pride flags should not have pride flags. Imo it's dangerous to minorities to tell them they're welcome when they are not.
