Copperas Cove Has Tense Meeting Over LGBT Proclamation

KDH News' own Copperas Cove reporter and editor Erik Walsh goes into detail about a meeting over the discussion of a proclamation held at a recent Copperas Cove council meeting. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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SPEAKER_02 0:25

Welcome to the Inside Clean podcast brought to you by KDH News. I'm Kevin Limity. I'm the local government reporter for KDH News. Today I'm joined by Eric Walsh, who is the Coppers Cove editor and reporter. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Kevin. Of course. Eric's name starts with ends with a K. So just in case you so you don't want to get that confused. Sorry, Eric with a K. So the thing that we're going to be talking about today has to do with a couple weeks ago, there was a meeting in Coppers Cove, the Coppers Cove City Hall, and it had to do with a the big controversy at the meeting was that there was a proclamation that they that some people wanted Mayor Dan Yancey to sign that had to do with Pride Month. And Pride Month, well, it was June, so I'm not really sure exactly like what happened with that. But can you explain, Eric, what that meeting was like and what ultimately came of it?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, yeah, sure. So the the background to the meeting was there is some residents that came to city council and said that they were uh it was during June, and they said they wanted to have a proclamation for Pride Month and that they wanted to get something on the agenda for it. So that happened at the beginning or middle of June. And then if a couple weeks later, it finally made the agenda, which was the first week of July when this happened. So before the meeting, social media was kind of going crazy. People were talking about it all over the place for it, against it. People were being, you know how people are in social media, they can be pretty nasty. You know, you see the worsts of people whenever you go on social media. So there was a lot of uh kind of bad blood, you know, really beforehand, and people were expecting the worst coming into it. And so I arrived to the city council meeting just a little bit before it started, you know, about five minutes before the council meeting started. And as I was heading in, I saw one, I saw a city count, uh, a city employee look at me. He was outside taking a smoke break, and he was, he said to me, It's a he said, it's a zoo in there. So, you know, I opened the door, and what I see is the most packed council chamber that I've ever seen in Copper's Cove. There was a lot of people that came in there whenever the street maintenance fee was going on in discussion for that. A lot of people came and showed up for that. But this took the cake. Like the place, I couldn't hardly even make my way through. You know, so it was like standing room only. You know, every seat was full and people were packed just standing on the sides, and you can hardly even get through there. And they were there in support or against the idea of this uh proposed proclamation for Pride Month. So the folks that wanted the proclamation, they said that they wanted the city to make a proclamation saying that to recognize Pride Month in Copper's Cove. And so that's what the discussion was about. So we had before the meeting, they had the uh public comments. I guess that's technically during the meeting, but before the uh the action items, they would have public comments, and this is whenever people would talk in support or against it. And we had so many people sign up that they had to extend the time. Usually up to 45 minutes is allowed for public comments. Well, they we gave extra time because we they wanted to give everybody a fair shot. And so people from both sides, more more people from the pro side showed up by a pretty good amount. I'd say three to one. It was people that were pro-Pride Month proclamation showed up, and they just gave their their takes, you know, why is this important to me? Why, why should we have this? Why shouldn't we have this? And they went through all kinds of people giving their opinions.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Was there something specific that they were saying during the citizen comments, or is it called public comments in Copper's Cove? It it could be either one.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

I don't I don't recall. It's the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Were were any of them like sharing any like personal stories or like saying anything that like kind of oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

For sure, yeah. I I I think most of the more personal stories came from the pro side, I think by far. You'd have there so there's like a business owner that can't that was sharing that you know, people that were in the gay community come into the store or vital parts of the community, you know, a lot of more personalized things from that point. We had other folks just saying, listen, you know, I don't feel represented. I just be I want to be recognized. That that was yeah, that was like the pro side of it. A lot more personal takes and passionate takes. Yeah, I would say from that side. Now on the the other side of it, that was probably the most uh memorable one. There was like an official statement from the Coral County Republican Party. They had a representative there that you know gave his his take. And you had just other people that just mostly it's like it's like uh they they would put it, they would they would say they were against it on like moral or religious grounds.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

That would be their their opposition to it. And the people for it, they would say, well, we're you know, we're important part of this community, we're not doing anything wrong, you know, we we we're contributors, you know, we we help we were good parts, we're we're a net positive for this place, we just want to be recognized.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

That's understandable. And what was Mayor Yancey's uh logic or reasoning when he decided not to issue the proclamation?

SPEAKER_03 6:46

That's right, that's right. So in Copper's Cove, it's the mayor's sole decision, it's just up to the mayor for these kind of things. I don't know how it is in other other cities if it cleans the same way, but the mayor gets to gets to decide about these things.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, I think that's broadly true, like pretty much everywhere. Um the mayor is the person that makes that decision because it's always uh something that is signed by the mayor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Well, he he was he was basically tasked with what he called, it was just basically like an impossible, almost an impossible choice. He said what what he said was he's in a no-win situation, is how he phrased it. Because no matter what he did, people were going to leave upset. He was gonna upset uh one, like I'd say smaller but very vocal member part of the community, are upset like like a larger, may probably more established part of the community. You know, Coral County is a conservative community, and either way, he was going to upset somebody, and it wasn't somebody was gonna walk away there not happy, you know, with him. And so it wasn't it wasn't really a good situation for him, but in the end, he decided not to do the proclamation. He it in the quote he used was I do not feel such proclamation provides benefit to the greater good of the community and will not issue the requested proclamation. That was his quote. So in the end, he felt that the uh the community at large wouldn't benefit benefit from doing that. And the way I see it was there's a there's so many moving parts, and it's a conservative place, and it would just rock the boat too much. It would be too big of a swing. Yeah, and you know, the co the community and cove just isn't receptive or ready for that. So he said he said no.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah, and I have no doubt that that's correct. That if he had decided to issue that proclamation, he would have gotten a lot of heat for it, and it would have probably I mean, I would imagine that would not be the political solution that would please, like, like you say, Coral County Republicans who are and Capaskovi is a very Republican area, so but at the same time, this uh pattern has been repeated elsewhere. I'm not sure how familiar you are, but like a few couple years ago, during the Bell County Commissioners Court, there was a point in time where like the major majority or at least half of the commissioners walked out during like a presentation on Pride Month. And you know, there's also been like a little like I wouldn't say that there's any like controversy here per se, but Kaleen and Harker Heights, I actually recently sent them an email asking them if they had honored Pride Month in any sort of way. Houston Johnson, the spokesperson for Harker Heights, told me that he he did not see anything like that. And I haven't heard back from Colleen yet, but my guess is that there was probably nothing on that, also. And this is like, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

The so one of the comments there, one of the people said that Nolanville made a proclamation. Oh, is that true? That well, I don't know if it's true, but I know that that's what they said.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Huh, that's definitely worth looking into, if true, because Nolanville is an interesting little community they've got over there. And um, it would it would be interesting if that's if they did do that. We're gonna have to look into that. But yeah, as far as the as far as the other ones are concerned, yeah, I haven't heard or seen anything about that, like from Harker Heights or Clean or elsewhere. But anyways, do you think what was the reaction to the people who were pro the proclamation after he announced that decision? Did you like hear anything or see anything regarding that?

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Well, honestly, there wasn't, you know, there wasn't much reaction from either side, which was you know, I I I felt that some people were disappointed, but no one like were clapping and were celebrating. You know, it was more just people just filed out and left. You know, like there wasn't there wasn't uh a big hoopla afterwards, you know, it was like pretty much people just went home.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Yeah, I mean, and and the mayor made a you know, he also made a statement about he was like thanking everybody for keeping things civil. You know, the dig he said uh the decorum everybody uh showed was top-notch. He said he made he made you know copper scope proud. Everybody made Copper Scope proud for the way they handled themselves through their disagreements, which is a positive thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yeah, no, it is positive. And certainly this issue is very touchy for a lot of people, as you alluded to. And I think in Texas, there there are other factors that maybe certain parts of the country don't necessarily like experience as as like uniquely as Texas is. And stuff like that, like like for people walking and stuff. And and I'm pretty sure those are gone now because of like the law. Recently, yeah, yeah. So so you know, I mean, I mean, I don't want to want to tell people what to think or feel, but like I would imagine that that the reason why this is such a sensitive topic for for people who fall within the LGBT spectrum is simply that they see like acknowledgments of who they are being erased in a it by by by local state governments and stuff. Maybe that's why it's so controversial. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

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SPEAKER_03 15:23

Well, I think it's I I think it's just because I see other places that the you know the gay community's made so many strides. And you know, I'd say in the past 20 to 30 years, it's like a completely different world, you know, for the gay community than it used to be. And you know, you're not gonna be really content until you have what you consider, you know, equality, I suppose. And uh I think in a conservative town, I think that they, you know, probably have a few more steps to go, you know, to get what they would consider, you know, equity.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, and I think looking at it from the other perspective, I think a lot of people who are conservative like just kind of feel like stuff like that is sort of being like displayed constantly, like without I guess their consent, or like they kind of feel like maybe it's being shoved down their throat a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Yeah, yeah. There's well I think the prevailing perspectives on that is like they wanted their city to stay out of it, you know. They just want, you know, a lot of the most like logical conservative responses I hear is you know, people can live their it would say, you know, you live your life however you want. That's your decision. That's just keep it out of our city government, let's keep it private.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Yeah, and yeah, that does seem to be the prevailing argument, like you said. But you know, I do I do find the conversation to be interesting because you know, so much going on. I and I think that there's also another factor that we haven't really touched on yet, is that and you see this on social media, like like it's like almost impossible to escape. There seems to be like some sort of like I guess you would call like indignation about like about trans related issues, which LGBT that's whole spectrum kind of falls under.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

There's actually so many letters to it. I don't I can't even tell you. Can you say the whole thing?

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Well, you can. I mean, I always just to be honest, ever since I worked in upstate New York, my I always just use like LGPT as the catch all for everything, you know, because I I think what you're alluding to is correct. There are like way too many. I believe like you could go L G P T Q A I plus. I think that's like that that is is like probably the most you can get.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

I think the AI was the new part to me. I don't think I ever heard that until the other day.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Yeah, A is I believe A is asexual. Yeah, yeah. And I've known people who who were asexual, and you know, it's I I think I think they kind of identified with LGBT stuff, so that's kind of why it was it was included in that acronym eventually. But for a lot of people, people just look at like that those words, they're like, huh, what is this? Like, that's weird. I don't I don't want anything to do with that. Yeah, what about the I?

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Do you know what the I stands for?

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Oh, it could, it couldn't, I think it means intersects, but I'm not 100% sure. Like, and you know, I mean people can look that up if they're curious. Yeah, maybe I should.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

Anyway, we got a little off topic there.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

No, no, I think it I think it's perfectly reasonable to address that because it's just little things like that. And I think that for a few years there, there was a lot of like this talk of like, oh, we're going to include everyone, and we're gonna focus on diversity, and we're going to, you know, yeah. And and I think that changed.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

I you know, I I think though that actually what I was saying about the all the the the naming convention, I think that actually does kind of play a part in some people's pushback.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

Because it's the people don't identify with it unless you're in it. Yeah, I mean, I guess there are if you have friends or family in it, you you're gonna think it's foreign. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's gonna be like a different, a completely different lifestyle than that you're familiar with.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Yeah, people often are frightened by things that maybe they don't completely understand. And I also think that there's also a uh position that many people have that they are sort of being that people who are quote unquote normal and you for the benefit of the listeners using air quotes here, uh there's like a prevailing opinion that they're kind of being pushed aside for like for in in like the name, I guess, of DEI or something. Yeah, of like diversity and that sort of thing. And you know, I mean, and I think that's when Trump, when President Donald Trump won his re-election bid, I think that there was kind of a sense, and by the way, just for the record, I am this is just an analysis of the situation. I'm not 100% saying that this is necessarily the truth or not. It's just my opinion. But I think that there was a a kind of retreat from like DEI related stuff because of how because of the fact that Trump Trump won, because of the fact that the the government is now not friendly to that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Yeah, yeah. I think I think that there was a uh a bit of some people felt like it went a little too far. You know, the the the the DEI stuff. People felt like it just went a little bit too too far. And so there's been the pushback against it, you know, and people have kind of rallied with with the president and you know, that ideology a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, I've I am in in agreement with that. And I think that truth be told, there is always some sort of like I guess a period where like that people will go through to adjust to certain changes in society. I would prefer that we not go backwards in terms of that. I would prefer that we kind of kept progressing forward, but I also realized that that's not necessarily possible. That for a long time I always felt that we were just in an inevitable progression, that things were just going to continuously get better for people as the years go on. I think I don't think so that anymore. I think that that eventually, like given like certain circumstances, like things, things can change, kind of go backwards and set the clock back a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

So yeah, for sure. It can happen. Yeah. Just look at Nazi Germany.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

I mean, that is a very extreme example. But I mean, you know, I mean, some people would say that though. Yeah. I mean, it's I mean, a lot of people compare like Trump to Hitler. I mean, whether that's a fair comparison to people depends entirely on your like politics, basically.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Yeah. I mean, but but getting back to Copper's cove, you mentioned that there was it was sort of like a little bit of a yawn, the reaction towards like not really a yawn, but a like a muted reaction towards the decision. What do you think? Did you talk to anybody after that about the situation? What did they have to say?

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Well, uh actually what I what I took what I talked to about was what I was most interested in was the policy moving forward about proclamations. Because one of the city councilmen, Dale Trotaway, he he mentioned that maybe that there needs to be a policy on on what you need to do to even have a proclamation. That way that's fair for everybody. You know, instead of just being like mayor says yes, mayor says no. Well, let's have some let's have some criteria on to what what makes a what how you can get a proclamation. Yeah. So he uh it was more of just like he was just coming up with the idea, they haven't advanced anything on this, but I'm very interested, and actually think it's a really good idea to have some kind of guideline when it comes to this of making a policy. So I talked with him about that briefly. And kind of I'm looking forward to seeing to where that goes to see if the city adopts some kind of of some kind of guideline for for accepting proclamations and and naming them. I think it would be just really good for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

You know, that way if you meet the criteria, you can know ahead of time. You know, be it leave people from being disappointed, you know, and it would give a path for people seeking that.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Yeah, I think you're right. I think it would head off some of the criticism, at least. I mean, speaking for the city of Kleen, I know for a fact that they've the mayor, the previous mayor, and probably the current mayor have issued proclamations regarding stuff like prayer, prayer day or prayer week and National Day of Prayer. That's it, yeah. And they've issued proclamations about other things as well.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Um that came up in our in the meeting too. Uh one of the people that was we you know was talking, you know, pro-proclamation, they they said, listen, you guys give proclamations for all kinds of things. You give more recognition for drinking lemonade, talking about lemonade day, uh-huh. Than you do for a then a segment of of people.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

You know, and you know, and regardless of like what you believe about that, you have to just take a moment and think about that. You know, there there have been proclamations for lemonade and recognizing lemonade as being an important part of the community, but people that live there that contribute don't get a proclamation. You know, it's it makes you think. You know, I think he made a good point. You know, it's something to add to the pot. You know, you need to think about all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Yeah, I would agree that that person probably made a very good point. I mean, it almost seems to me that like Mary Yancey may have declined to make that proclamation just based on the fact that it was controversial alone, which, you know, if you look back through history and think about all the controversial acts and things that that have come about, you know, it's always been there's always going to be people that are that are upset when you when you do something like that. And but at the same time, I don't necessarily blame him for coming to that decision because Coppers Cove is not like like the the great seat of power in like Texas or the United States. It's a small town, there's a lot of veterans there. And I and you can correct me if I'm wrong about this, but it seems like it's the type of place where people sort of kind of are friendly and keep to themselves and that sort of thing. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

So maybe city built for family living.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, and and so I just so maybe so I I almost can't blame him for for his decision, but but still, even with that said, I still think it would have been nice if he had made the proclamation because you know, people might have been upset in the beginning, but it would have gone away and it would have been what I would consider a natural progressive step or progression of step.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

So yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it would go away. I mean, I think it would come up again, at least in the short term, because people that have uh like strong convictions, you know, religious convictions, you know, they don't want to see the they don't want to see those things go to the wayside, you know. Yeah, yeah, and some it's really important to it's really important to them. So I don't know. I think I think you're right though. I think I think he did the best he could in a tough situation. I think you know, I think it was the right decision for the time. Yeah. And you know, I don't know what the future holds, but I think moving forward, uh you know, the the gay community that wants a pro this proclamation, I think their path is unfortunately gonna have to wait at the mayor, you know. As long as it's his call, he's gonna say no. Uh but he's not gonna be there forever. Yeah, and there can be another mayor. Who knows? But also, we have this I this the new idea of getting the uh uh qualifications to make a proclamation, you know, the the path. You know, that now who knows? Maybe maybe that's a that's a that's a way for them also. Maybe maybe there maybe there'll be an avenue if if you have to just you know check the right boxes to get a proclamation, then maybe they could check the right boxes. We don't know yet.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Yeah, well, I guess we will just have to see what happens in the future. I I would imagine the gay community has like about at least another year or two, like to try to try to maybe figure something out. But like you said, maybe they just have to wait for Mary Antis's term to expire. I think that's likely right now. That's what it appears.

unknown 29:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Eric, I really want to thank you for coming on. I really appreciate you talking about this and your reporting about this. You've done a wonderful job. Thanks. This is Kevin Limity with KDH News, and this is the Inside Clean podcast. It's produced by Himita Botchway. And thank you all for listening and have a great day.