Kansas City Council approves new LGBTQ Commission after winding process
Kansas City officials will get policy advice from a newly-formed LGBTQ Commission, the City Council decided Thursday.
Members voted 11-2 in favor of legislation sponsored by Councilman Eric Bunch and Councilwoman Andrea Bough to establish the commission, composed of community members appointed by the mayor and council.
“It’s really going to help elevate our queer voices in this community,” Bunch said following the vote.
Proponents said the commission will give lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender queer residents a voice in City Council decisions and an opportunity to work on policies. It’s meant to advise the City Council on issues affecting the LGBTQ community, including economic opportunities, health, safety and quality of life.
Justice Horn, a community activist and a former University of Missouri-Kansas City student body president, supported the legislation. He said the commission could discuss solutions to problems facing the LGBTQ community, including murders of transgender people.
“We have yet to hear any policy, any conversation on the rate at which transgender individuals are being murdered in our city,” Horn said.
Seeing the legislation to fruition has taken proponents down a winding road. The city’s Human Rights Commission voted not to recommend the proposal to the City Council.
The legislation sat in the city’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee for weeks, where the vote was delayed several times.
It passed out of committee Wednesday after Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, 4th District at-large, offered an amendment to instead create a task force under the Human Rights Commission. Shields, who chairs the finance committee, did not allow any public testimony on the issue.
Following criticism for that, Shields said if the legislation needed more public input it could go back to committee. But an effort to send it back failed on a 10-3 vote.
She argued the commission should be housed under the Human Rights Commission and accused proponents of “disparaging” the group.
But Bunch and Horn argued the new commission was meant to advise the council, whereas the Human Rights Commission investigates specific instances of discrimination.
Horn said on Twitter Wednesday that he was in “awe that something that calls for more representation, more diversity and more seats at the table is being challenged.”
“A (compromise) is not in the best interest of the queer community. We don’t compromise on LGBTQIA+ representation and rights,” Horn said. “Ever.”
Bunch supported Shields’ amendment Wednesday because he worried the legislation would fail on a 3-3 vote. But he offered an amendment to revert it to his previous version on the City Council floor Thursday. That amendment passed 9-4, and the legislation passed 11-2.
Shields and Councilman Lee Barnes, 5th District at-large, voted against the legislation Thursday. The other 10 members of the council and Lucas voted for it.
