Protesting at a Vigil? LGBT Activists to Turn Backs on San Antonio Mayor at Orlando Remembrance

Mayor Ivy Taylor, Who Voted Against Nondiscrimination Ordinance, To Appear at LGBT Event for 1st Time

Is it appropriate to protest at a vigil for victims of the Orlando terror attack if an elected official with an anti-LGBT record is speaking? 

That question has become the subject of debate among LGBT activists in San Antonio, the nation’s sixth-largest city, where Mayor Ivy Taylor is set to appear Thursday night at the Pride Center San Antonio Vigil to Honor Lives of Orlando Shooting Victims. According to OutinSA, it will mark the first time in her political career that Taylor has appeared at an LGBT event. 

Taylor voted against San Antonio’s LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination as a member of the City Council in 2013. After becoming mayor, Taylor referred to the ordinance as “a waste of time.” Taylor later apologized for the comment, but the Human Rights Campaign called her apology “incredibly weak.” 

Since then, Taylor has created a Department of Diversity and Inclusion and appointed a mayoral LGBT advisory committee, OutinSA reports. However, she continues to oppose expanding the nondiscrimination ordinance — which currently covers city employees and contractors, housing and public accommodations – to include private employers. 

Now, some LGBT activists in San Antonio are planning to turn their backs on Taylor when she speaks Thursday night. From the private Facebook page for the protest, called You Have Our Backs, Ivy Taylor:

Mayor Ivy Taylor has NEVER had the backs of the LGBT community. She was one of 3 council member who opposed the non-discrimination ordinance, along with Carlton Soules and Elisa Chan. She said that she could not support us and she also said that we had the wrong sister in the seat for LGBT equality. She has NEVER accepted an invitation to speak or march in previous LGBT Pride events.

However, when 49 of our brothers and sisters are slaughtered in Orlando, she finally accepts an invitation to speak (an invitation that many in our community oppose} at a vigil to honor and remember those 49 LGBT souls. To Ivy Taylor; we say NO! Not now! This is not the time or place for you to be reachng out to OUR community. You have had your chance. 

My Brothers and sisters, when Ivy Taylor speaks, we encourage you to turn your backs to her; just as she turned her back on us. Attend the Thursday night candlelight vigil at 7:00 pm and honor those who perished, but turn your backs on IVY. She should not even be speaking on behalf of our community or those 49 souls. Stand up against political opportunism in OUR time of mourning.

Plans for the protest have met with mixed reactions on social media. 

“I am shocked and appalled that this event was created,” one person wrote in the FB group. “I cannot condone this kind of behavior and am embarrassed by this kind of acting out. Truly in poor taste at a time where we should be trying to build bridges rather than expanding the gulf between us and others.”

Robert Salcido, who serves as board chairman for the Pride Center, which is organizing the vigil, said he feels Taylor “is meeting us on our side.” 

“How can we change the hearts and minds of people, if we don’t even take the time to try to educate and sit with them to find a mutual understanding in hopes that we can create change?” Salcido said, according to OutinSA. “I’ve never been happy with the mayor’s vote, but I respect her because she is my mayor. I’ve gotten to know her over the last 18 months, and she’s an intelligent and compassionate person who happens not to see eye to eye on our issues. This isn’t a reason to shut her out but more of a reason to embrace her and find common ground. This is the only way to build allies and we must realize that it takes time.”

 

Image via Facebook