Spartanburg signs LGBT proclamation
Some council members, residents say he shouldn't have done it
JUNE 3, 2010 9:15 a.m. 
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Civil rights are not just a racial issue, Spartanburg Mayor Junie White said.
That why White signed a proclamation making June 19 Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Day.
“Everybody should have the right to be with whatever partner they choose,” White said. “Everybody should have civil rights. And I was happy to sign (the proclamation).”
Council member Joe Spigner is not as happy. The city shouldn’t be in the business of endorsing any lifestyle or behavior, Spigner said.
“And as a follower of Christ, I cannot go along or condone the lifestyle or behavior,” he said.
The council member said proclamations do not have to be approved by the council but he would have appreciated advance notice due to the sensitive nature of the matter.
Spigner said he found out about the proclamation when he picked up a newspaper at 5:30 a.m. last week.
“The way it was handled has kind of added to the controversy,” he said.
The mayor, who said he has close gay friends and that about five percent of the city’s staff is gay or lesbian, drew a correlation between the discussion of gay and lesbian equality and racial integration in the South.
“It’s going to be a controversy, but it will blow over,” White said.
In one day, the mayor received about 100 e-mails pertaining to the proclamation, most of them from angry constituents. He said it appears as though the e-mails are part of an e-mail campaign because they were all identical messages.
Some e-mails told White he was going to burn in Hell for his actions. One person accused White of being gay.
The mayor, who has been married to the same woman for 48 years, said he had no idea there was “so much hatred out there.”
“There was probably something more appropriate I could have done here in the Bible Belt,” White said. “But I know I did the right thing.”
Days after signing the document, White did amend the proclamation.
He said at least two members of city council told him they did not support making June 19 LGBT Pride Day. Given some council members’ concerns, White opted to take out a phrase that stated the proclamation was on behalf of city council.
The change was necessary, White said, because everyone is “entitled to their opinion.”
“I have been asked by some people to rescind the proclamation, but I will not be doing that,” he said.
Despite the angry e-mails and controversy surrounding his decision, White said he is not concerned about losing votes if he runs for another term.
“(Gay and lesbian people) are citizens,” he said. “They are taxpayers. They contribute to the economy just like anyone else.”
The announcement does not actually grant any new rights to gay or lesbian people, but states that Spartanburg “supports efforts to ensure that everyone has the right to live in conditions of dignity, respect and peace.”
Members of Upstate Pride, a non-profit group that strives for equality for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people, are “beside themselves with excitement,” the organization’s president said.
“I simply asked and received (the proclamation),” Joey Geier said. “I thought I would at least have to cite other mayors who have done this. Or, maybe he’d call me in to have a conversation about it.”
The city receives requests for about 10 to 15 proclamations a week, the mayor said.
The date is significant because Upstate Pride has organized its second annual parade and festival on June 19.
The group has its foundation in Spartanburg’s Unitarian Universalist Church. Geier said the church is a “welcoming congregation.”
Spartanburg City Council members Renee Cariveau and Cate Ryba support the mayor’s proclamation.
“As a public body, I believe it is our responsibility to be inclusive and promote diversity,” Cariveau said. “Discrimination is not acceptable.”
Ryba said a proclamation of this sort is good for attracting business.
“There are correlations between having an open, inclusive and diverse place and economic success,” she said.
She cited researcher Richard Florida’s “Gay Index” as proof of the correlation between inclusiveness and economic prosperity.
Florida’s book, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” maintains that cities, such as Charlotte, thrive financially because of a class of people who are diverse and individualistic.
Ryba said she had only received one negative response in reaction to her supportive position of the Pride Day proclamation.
Some Spartanburg residents have responded to the proclamation by saying it’s not the mayor’s right to enact such a measure, Geier said.
“But I think (negative comments) are coming from a hateful place,” Geier said. “Not from a place that says, ‘it’s not the mayor’s place.’”
White said much of the opposition has been from “right-wing Christians.”
But not all religious groups are out to get gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people, Geier said.
“We are in the Bible Belt,” he said. “But there are plenty of people who are religious, who consider themselves Christian, and do not think that way.”
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