Mayor Commission Meeting
The Athens Community Rallies to make Athens a ‘Safe Haven’ as Commissioners debate Resolution 22.
Many people attended the Mayor and Commission Regular Meeting On Dec. 3, 2024, at Athens City Hall where many topics were discussed, the most heavily debated was Resolution 22 which passed with a 6-2 vote.
Resolution 22, is a Resolution that aims to “support the LGBTQIA+ community and to proclaim Athens-Clarke County a Safe Haven for LGBTQIA+ individuals,” according to the resolution provided by the Athens-Clarke County Government.
During this meeting there was over two hours of public comment, the majority of the public comment was in favor of Resolution 22. A few members of the community expressed that they were there to comment on other issues at hand but that they felt as though they needed to use their time to also support Resolution 22.
The push for this resolution comes over a month after the murder of Santonio Coleman, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. This case is still active and on-going.
This resolution carries no legal power, but the community emphasized that the symbolic act would help make them feel safe in the Athens community.
“Yeah these are words, words matter and the words in this resolution are both aspirational and meaningful, in a practical sense and in a tangible way,” District 6 Commissioner Jesse Houle, one of the drafters of this resolution stated.
Commissioner Houle went on to discuss how this is practical by encouraging members of the Government, specifically Law Enforcement, to undergo a specific type of training to address the concerns of the LGBTQIA+ community outlined in item 2e of the resolution.
A local Drag Queen, Zizi Foxx, spoke on how she has an entirely different wardrobe in her hometown than she does here in Athens. “I have to walk a certain way, talk a certain way,” stated Foxx.
Many members of the LGBTQIA+ community shared their personal stories, expressing how they felt as though their very existence was under attack.
When District seven commissioner, John Culpepper, voted against the resolution, a member of the community stood up and made an obscene gesture towards Culpepper and then sat back down. This seemed to be the only disturbance during voting.
With six voting yes and two voting no, the motion for Resolution 22 carries. The community responded with applause in city hall.
“We’ve come through a holiday and we’ve got another coming up,” said Mayor Kelly Girtz. “Sometimes you look around the table at those you love and care about, and sometimes you know someone at the table has been through a particularly challenging time, and you hold them a little bit tighter. That’s what we are doing tonight.”
Why I wrote the Story
Reporting on Government is not something that I am too familiar with, so this presented unique challenges for me as a reporter. I learned how to take relative notes on something that wasn’t an interview, we were used to conducting interviews so this was more blatant in terms of note taking, where you could not ask a follow up when you normally would.
