City Council - Special Meeting

Okay, the time is now 2 p.m. We're here today for a special meeting, special workshop meeting for the City Council of Madison Heights. Let's see, can you please call the roll?

Councilwoman Aaron? Here. Councilman Fleming? Here. Councilor Gerald?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Meir?

Here.

Councilor Robach? Here. Councilor Wright? Here. And Mary Haynes.

I am here. Thank you. Can we get a motion to ex excuse, uh, councilman Sean Fleming as he did report and state that he is unable to get out of work. Yes.

Motion to excuse councilman Sean Fleming. Okay.

We have a motion. Do we have support? Yes. All right. We have motion support. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say no. The motion carries. Next up is the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Um, Oh, I missed the acting clerk. Sorry. The next agenda item is the appointment of the acting clerk. Can I get a motion for that? Yes. All right. Motion. We have a second. Yes. Motion in support. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed say no. The motion carries. Now up to the approval of the agenda. Are there any additions or deletions to today's agenda? Nothing. Okay. We can move on to meeting open to the public. Before I open the meeting to the public, I just want to give kind of an announcement that because some of us are short on time today, uh, we're going to stop public comment at about two 30 and then we will go to the next part of the agenda and then we will return to public comment at the end. I just want to make sure everybody aware of that because we do have Lamphere's graduation this evening, and we have people that have to get ready for that. So with that, I will open public comment. Please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, and limit your comments to three minutes, and please direct them to me.

Oh, and only on council do you get a good look at me. Look at me seriously. I'm not there.

You can't hear me, you need to hear me.

So, do you know the difference between me and a drag queen reading a book? They're usually prettier than I am. Okay? And humor is a lot about what drag queens bring in their art form. Now, I have known in my lifetime many cross-dressers. To a certain extent, I think I was one when I was like 18, 19. I was working for the State Department of Mental Health, and I was going camping by myself. And my landlady's son said, you can't go camping by yourself. You're a girl. I said, I put on overalls and a hoodie. Nobody will know it's a girl. Nobody will know I'm a girl. But as I aged, it's kind of like, OK, there are people who are different than us. And I went to a trans club once. Women that look like Bill here in a dress, they went to Lane Bryant, they got on a dress, and they're just people. And drag queens know how to be appropriate around children just like everybody else does. As a matter of fact, statistically, they are less likely to harm a child than half the people in this room who are male. Okay, so I appreciate the chance for the council to reconsider their egregious and discriminatory decision that violates the First Amendment rights of the people of this city. Now, on a percentage out of 30,000 people, about 2,700 of the citizens of this city are gay, transgender, LGBTQ, whatever. But the point of it is, I saw Geraldine when I was 13, Flip Wilson, Geraldine. Did it make me confused? Did it turn me gay? No. All I did was think, oh, that's funny. It's an actor. It's an actress. And that's all it is, is an art form. So this hand-wringing about, I don't want my children or my grandchildren to hear from a drag queen, that is absolutely utter nonsense. And for those of you who know me, I've cleaned this speech up a lot. So thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mary.

Hello. My name is Dr. Erin Baker-Giza. I'm a sociologist. I am deeply disheartened by the decision to cancel Drag Queen Storytime. And I have to ask for what true purpose. It's not really protecting children. And for those who I've seen online are invoking Christianity as justification for this decision, I would remind you of the words of Jesus in Matthew 22, 37 through 39. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. This decision does not reflect those values. Hatred, fear, and exclusion are not acts of faith. Ignorance is not righteousness. Don't cloak prejudice and religion and call it virtue. We've done that before in this country, and it has not gone well. And do not tell me this is about protecting children. You're not protecting children from anything. What you're doing is teaching them intolerance. You are showing them that people who are different should be feared, excluded, and silenced. You are teaching them that discrimination is acceptable when it is directed at the right target. As a parent, I would feel safer having my child surrounded by drag queens than by a group of adults driven by fear, intolerance, and hostility while claiming to act in his best interests. If you don't like drag performances, don't go. Don't take your children there. What gives you the right to make that choice for everyone else? You're taking away that decision from me as a parent. I choose what my child can see and what my child doesn't see. And by removing this program, you are making that decision for me. It's my responsibility to make these decisions for my children, nobody else's. Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and ideas are based in misogyny and white supremacy. And before you roll your eyes at me or argue with me, this is my area of expertise. And if you wanted to talk about it later or call an expert into the room the next time you have these conversations, I'm a citizen of Madison Heights, and you can find me anywhere. If this is what you want your legacy to be, so be it. But consider that when making this decision. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else wish to approach the podium?

My name is Alice McKaig. I've been a resident of the city for 27 years now. This week has felt like a real gut punch. I remember a time when the pride flag was raised out in front of City Hall, at least two years. I remember a time when the City Council issued a proclamation for June being Gay Pride Month. And this week felt like the welcome mat got yanked out from under our feet. And it made me feel very sad. I have to confess, when Mary said we need to go to this meeting, I really didn't want to go. I said, I already feel bad enough. But here I am, and I certainly urge you to reconsider what has happened. Because I think, sadly, the city of Madison Heights has gotten a real black eye from this. I go on my Facebook page, and I see that all the cities around us are issuing Pride proclamations, the police departments are welcoming people, and it feels like we've gone backwards. And I feel really bad about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Hello, my name's Robert Young. 15 year now resident, um, of Madison Heights.

I spoke at the Monday evening meeting. Um, just two quick observations. Um, we talked about the black guy for our community, which it absolutely is. This discussion vote, whatever we want to call it, has not only brought a black eye to our community, it has brought an incredible amount of anger and hatred. And we look like this is, our community, which it certainly is not. It is sad that it comes to that. It's sad that people feel the keyboard warrior syndrome where you can type whatever you want because no one's going to come after you. We're a very welcoming community. Having said that, we're a very tolerant and accepting community. I've noticed three things this week and they all happen to start with the letter P. So forgive me, I'm not alliterating pride. All of our community is pride. We're proud of our neighbors. We're proud of the people that we live with. We're proud of our community. The diversity is what makes it what it is and a good place to live, and it's why I think many of us are here. Proud. I'm very proud of my community with the response that I saw to stand up and say, no, that's not us. No, you don't get to say that about all of us. There may be people that think this way or that way, but you can think what you want, but you don't, again, get to take away other people's right to think the same way, to feel the same way, to be proud of what they are. And I think the final thing, The final P forgive me is privilege. I'm a straight white male. I have life about as easy as it gets when I look around and I see other people who have opportunities to stand up for their neighbors, for the members of their community and say, I don't need to necessarily think this is the best, but I'm going to stand up when people are picking on others. It makes me proud to be able to say that's my city. And I hope that we can look at the vote again today at the end of this and say, That's my city. It's very difficult to stand up and say, maybe we ought to take another look at this. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I wasn't informed. And I applaud you all for doing that. Regardless of the outcome, to be able to say, I should take another look at things is very difficult. But I want to remind all of us at the end of this, you want to stand up and say, that's my city. That's what we believe. That's what we represent. That's who we are.

Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Hello again. Hi. Um, those of you who know me, um, um, my name's Jennifer Nagel. Uh, I am, um, a volunteer and one of the organizers of arts and pride, uh, for the last couple of years. Uh, I wanted to thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you counselors for coming back and, uh, thinking again. And I also wanted to, I applaud my amazing volunteers for the event who took a real blow on their chin to have the event canceled. We pulled together, we had a little bit of a gripe fest, and a lot of the volunteers mobilized to get attention to this issue and to redouble our efforts in advertising and outreach and getting people to the event. Um, it's, it's, it can be a hard thing to come back and say, Hey, um, maybe I jumped to conclusions, but, um, that is part of being a strong principled adult, um, is being able to reevaluate. Um, and for those of us who've had a stressful week, me too, me too. Thank you for hanging in there and thank you for coming back and thank you for reaching out and talking to the community and talking to our friends who might have been more informed and thank you very much for coming out again.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Sandy Young. I have been a resident since 2011 here. I love my little city. I was here Monday for the meeting. When I left the meeting, I had the feeling that some members didn't really know what this performance was. They didn't know. There was the unknown. There was fear. You guys had a few days to look into it. And it didn't seem like that happened at all in the past few days. I hope those who weren't familiar with what this performance was maybe are just confused about it. I hope that you guys took us some time to research, to look into it, to figure out, hey, what's this really about? come here with the ability to make an informed decision and vote for the rest of us. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else wish to be heard? Okay. Seeing none, we'll close the public comment. We will move on to the boards and commissions discussion. First and foremost, what I want to say is, as the mayor, I cannot make motions. It's just part of the protocol and the rules that we follow. So I will be asking for motions, which is why you hear me asking for motions at the beginning of this meeting today. So first up is reconsideration of the Arts Board and HREC Arts and Pride event. And in this, oh yeah, hold on. For this particular motion, this has to come from, One of the members has to be supported by anyone, but it has to come from a member that voted to not have this event. It can't come from any other member. So we have to get a motion from one of the four of us that made that other than me. So one of the three. So I will open that up. And it also has to be, I guess, let me stop. It also has to be a supermajority vote. So it has to be five. We only have six of us here today, but it has to be five of us in order to open it up for reconsideration. Just want to make sure everybody's aware of that. So it's not confusing. Um, so with that, I will entertain a motion.

Your honor.

Yes.

Motion for reconsideration of the action to disapprove the pro and prohibit the proposed drag queen storytime program at the arts and pride event.

Okay. We have a motion on the floor. Do we have support?

Your honor.

Right. We have a motion support any discussion.

Your honor.

Yes.

I want to thank this council for even considering the reconsideration of the arts and pride event for the drag queen story time. A couple of things I want to say, there was a, in the press is stating that we banned the event. Then there's a difference between the words and the terminology band and council. The event was not banned to say that the event was banned me that we're saying we would never, entertain this. And that is not what was said. It was canceled. I want to also say that after speaking with residents and citizens of the city, I understand that our meeting on Monday appear to be haphazardly proposed. I understand that there was some concern that perhaps we were hiding an agenda because it was not filmed. It was in that in the public space. So I want to go on record to make certain that everyone, has the time and be able to acknowledge each of our decisions. I want to also go on record and state, though I hate using disclaimers, and I mentioned that on Monday, saying I have a gay friend or I have this or that, to me, that's a disclaimer. It's almost as bad as saying I have a black friend. I don't like using disclaimers. However, over the past week, I have been accused of being homophobic, a Bible-toting homophobe. I have been called out of my name more times than I ever have in my 56 years of living. And those that have known me know that that is not my character. That is not who I am. I received a phone call from a couple of friends stating, oh my God, they said this about you. So when I use disclaimers, My goddaughter is gay. My goddaughter came out when she was 12 years old. My goddaughter is married to a woman. My stepdaughter is gay. My stepdaughter is married to a woman. I have counseled several people that are looking to have gender reassignment surgery. I have written recommendations for those surgeries because I understand that sometimes you may be born in the wrong body. Members of my community and of my church are gay. I perform marriages for a same-sex couple. The first time I was introduced, I spoke. People need to understand my decision to cancel drag queen story time was not because I feared sexuality was going to be forced upon our children. I mentioned that on Monday. I never said one time that it was because we were sexualizing him or them. And I apologize to Mr. Black because I'm not sure of the pronouns that they use. So I don't want to misspeak. But that was not my intent. And I apologize to any person in this room or in the community that feel that I slandered the LGBTQ community because I did not. And that was not my intent. Terminology and words can be twisted because this was not filmed. Every person left the room with their own perception of what was said. Every person had their own definition of how things went. So on record, I would like to say I support the LGBTQ community. cold 100% for every child has ever been to my home that has been non-binary and I have wiped their tears. I have fed them. I have hung, I have hugged them for every child that has ever spoken to me in a private session and did not know their sexuality or was confused about what was going on. I have supported them. So the narrative that I am a Bible toting homophobe is false misinformation. So to say that I love the Lord, I am unapologetically Christian, but I am also unapologetically supportive of the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Council owner. Anyone else wish to be heard at this time regarding this motion?

Your Honor, I'm sorry. I'm going to say something. Okay. I was deciding. You know, I'm glad we are having this conversation. I'm glad that, you know, the conversation and the public outrage made it to the ears of the people that needed to hear it. And I appreciate the advocacy of people in the community who came out and said, We need this to be reconsidered. We need to be heard and understood. And I am very happy that we have this opportunity to right a wrong, because I believe it was wrong.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to be heard?

Yes, please.

Go ahead.

Um, I would just like to say that this has, um, in a totally different way than those of the community has been breaking my heart since Monday as well. Um, so I'm glad that we're back here to revisit this. I would like to personally acknowledge the words of Quinn Wright and Mark Bliss that they shared on Facebook this week because they summarized beautiful comments that I didn't know how to put there. So thank you for that. And also to, we received a letter today from the ACLU and very nice summary of why we shouldn't be doing this. And as much as I'm sad that we got to this point and as far as how far the reach worse, it doesn't surprise me. And I'm glad that there are groups that are reaching out to give us some of the information that we need for this. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Your Honor, I just wanted to add on to that and just first thank everyone who took time to come out on a Friday on such short notice and join us and also to support Councilwoman Aaron and her words of understanding. So what we saw through this whole thing, the response to it is something I've experienced personally over the past couple of months and even prior to that and it's just this undertone of negativity and it I just want to encourage us to not wait until it bites us personally to speak up, to stand up, to say something, because that's when it's too late. I'm very happy everyone came out, but I want to encourage you, keep speaking up before you're upset, before you're offended, before it touches someone you care about, because that undertone is still there and it's going to be there after this meeting. And I want to encourage you to be curious about our neighbors, their experience, them as human beings, beyond what you see on a day-to-day basis. So just remember to be kind. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Since I always get to go last in comments as well, I'm going to save most of my comments for the end of the meeting after we have gotten through this for our roundtable comments. But I do want to say and I do want to echo what councilwoman Aaron said and what all the other council members have said is There's no room for hate By anybody and we need to be better all the way along so Like I said, I'm gonna reserve the comments, but at this time I will take the vote so all those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye aye Opposed say no The motion carries for reconsideration. Is there a motion on the, is there someone who wants to make a motion moving forward?

Yeah, your honor. Just a point of clarification. Are we making a motion to move forward with the reading or is there a specific language that's already been laid out?

Uh, there's, there's some specific language that I came up with, so. Okay.

Your honor.

Yes.

Motion to approve the drag queen storytime programming held in the JC building as part of the arts and pride event.

Okay, we have motion on the floor. Do we have support?

Your Honor, I'll support.

Okay, we have motion to support. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed say no. The motion carries. All right. We're up to the point of council comments, so I will start with Councilwoman.

No comments, I believe. Oh, I'm sorry.

We were done with public comment, yeah. I'm going to start with Councilwoman Aaron.

No comments. I believe I gave my closing comments during the motion time. I have a graduation. Go class of 2026. All right.

Mayor Pro Tem, before I have you make comments, we did miss a public comment that came in, so I'm going to reopen public comment, allow the city clerk to summarize the comment that was sent in.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm reading into record an email from Miss Katie Chase regarding her support for the drag queen story time, which will be made part of the official meeting record. Thank you. I'm reading into record an email from Miss Katie Chase regarding her support for the drag queen story time, which will be made part of the official meeting record. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I'll close public comment again and move on to comments from Mayor Protembeer.

Thank you, Your Honor. I really just want to reiterate to anyone who actually knows me, knows that I am very supportive of the entire community of Madison Heights, have been for 37 years now. The vote I gave on Monday has nothing to do against any people who are of the LBGTQ or QT community. It was strictly to do with the drag queen portion of it, and I am perfectly fine with the drag queen performance continuing on in the JC building. Perfectly happy with that decision. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Wright.

Yes, as the rep for the Human Relations and Equity Commission, I want to invite all of you fun folks to come out on Sunday from 1 to 5. Come support. Tell your friends to come support. Let's make sure that this is a fantastic time. Help us to be good stewards to the park, to the city. And I just want to thank my fellow council members for being open, Mayor, for being open to reconsidering this. I think we all left that meeting, and we all had conversations with folks. We all had people who had questions. For me, the first conversation I had to have was with my wife, which wasn't a fun one. But I supported this. She's a strong-willed lady. I supported this because I think that we don't always need to understand the nuances of each other we just need to see each other and that's what we're supporting here is not completely get in LGBTQIA plus or the understanding which all letters to say or you know how to say people's name but just to say hey I see you I love you I respect you so just remember to be kind thank you City Attorney Burns nothing to add at this time City Manager no comment okay

City Clerk no comment.

Thank you As I said before, you know It's it's it's hard to change your mind. It's hard to revisit and admit when things mistakes were made so I appreciate us being here today and Making this choice to change the ruling of the council I think the advocacy of this community has been so important and I don't think we would have gotten here without all of you speaking up and saying what you needed to say and being your authentic selves. I appreciate you and I appreciate you doing what we needed you to do to get us back here. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And especially thank you to all of our volunteers and people who have worked so hard to put this event together. been at this event every year since we started and it's a lot of fun and I think honestly I think this year will be the most fun it's ever been and I think that we're gonna have a great time it is going to be wonderful and we want to do more right we want to do more and we could only do that when we have more volunteers and more manpower and more woman power and more they power to get it all done because we have to work together to do that and I can't thank you all enough for being here today and for your advocacy. And please, join a board or commission. Apply for a board or commission. We need more people on all of them. And even if you're not an official member of a board or commission, volunteer to help with some of these things, because many hands make the light work. So we appreciate you. Thank you.

OK, thank you. Councilor Gerrard.

So I have to tell you that I'm always happy to follow Emily because she is so wonderful at how she phrases things. So I often just go ditto, which I'm going to do this time because ditto.

Thank you for all of that.

The other thing I would like to say that as a council, I think we've learned a very hard lesson this week in the last two weeks in terms of how we need to move forward in communication and working together and anticipating things. So it's not been a good lesson. I mean, it's been a good lesson. It hasn't been an easy lesson. But like Emily said, I'm here for you. I'm excited about Sunday. So thank you for being here.

OK.

Thank you. All right. And once again, I'm last. But again, I want to thank everybody that showed up today. I appreciate every single person and every single comment that was made. I really do. I prepared just a very short statement that I wanted to, because I want to make sure I don't miss anything. And especially when you're up here under pressure, you tend to miss things that you wouldn't normally do or you're slower or hesitation. So bear with me for a quick moment. It won't take, it won't take much time. But I wanted to say that, you know, obviously today we did reconsider our vote regarding drag weed and storytime at this year's art and pride event at civic center park. I want to begin by acknowledging the hurt, the disappointment, frustration, that our earlier decision caused for a lot of people. For that, I'm sincerely sorry. I am. Since that vote, there has been extensive collaboration among community members, city staff, the Human Rights and Equity Commission, and the Arts Board. Through thoughtful dialogue and a shared commitment to finding common ground, an agreement was made and reached on how drag queen story time can be included in this year's event. I'm grateful to everyone who participated in that process. While there were differing perspectives, the conversations remained focused on how we can best serve our community and ensure that Arts and Pride continues to be a welcoming and successful event. Our responsibility as elected officials is to listen, to learn, and to make decisions that reflect both our values and the diverse voices of our residents. Today's action reflects that commitment. And it recognizes that collaboration and continued dialogue and how it can lead to better outcomes. My hope is that we move forward with respect for one another and with a commitment to building a community where everyone feels welcome, valued, and included. There is no tolerance for hate. Choose kindness. Thank you. At this time, we'll adjourn the meeting at 2.34.