Not everyone is on board after Ocean Springs mayor signs LGBTQ Pride Month proclamation
Ocean Springs Ward 6 Alderman Mike Impey wants constituents to know he had nothing to do with the “LGBTQ+ Pride Month” proclamation Mayor Shea Dobson signed on Monday.
With the proclamation from the mayor’s office, Ocean Springs became the first Mississippi Gulf Coast city to issue a Pride Month Proclamation. But proclamations are handled only by the mayor’s office and not approved by the aldermen, and in this case they were not aware Dobson had signed the proclamation until after it had been delivered to its requestor.
“The City of Ocean Springs did not recognize Pride Month,” Impey wrote on Facebook. “This was a mayoral proclamation and did not come before the board before being issued.”
Impey did not respond to a phone call and text message seeking comment.
Dobson, a Republican like all of the aldermen, declined to comment after issuing the proclamation on Monday. In the past, however, he has talked about his support for LGBTQ rights and equality. Last year, he personally changed the lights at City Hall to approximate the rainbow colors of the pride flag. The lights are up again this year.
Advocates and LGBTQ community members called the proclamation a sign of change in a conservative town where, 30 years ago, 100 police officers stood guard as a Pride parade (reportedly Mississippi’s first) traveled six blocks downtown.
Impey’s post highlights how the proclamation may be more a reflection of one young mayor’s views than of a broad and deep shift in attitudes.
Diana Schmied, who requested the proclamation on behalf of the group Ocean Springs Pride, said she viewed Impey’s post as a message any complaints about the pride proclamation shouldn’t be directed toward him.
“Being an alderman is a hard job,” she said. “Because they catch flak for everything that they do and everything that they don’t do. So I can’t really blame him if he feels the need to distance himself a bit. It’s sad that he feels like he needs to distance himself, but you know, whatever, he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do.”
Shifts in Republican views on LGBTQ issues
On Tuesday, Gallup released a poll showing 70% of Americans now support gay marriage, the highest figure since 1996. And, for the first time, a majority of Republicans (55%) backed gay marriage, too.
Dobson, who was 31 when he won election in 2017, is similar to many American Republicans his age in support for gay rights. Back in 2014, the Pew Research Center found 61% of Republicans under 30 said they supported gay marriage.
But among Ocean Springs Republicans, he may be something of an outlier. Impey’s post got at least one supportive comment from a woman who said she lives in Ocean Springs.
Ward 2 Alderman Rickey Authement said he also had not known about the proclamation until it was public, and some of his constituents contacted him with questions.
“I don’t know if it’s really good or bad,” he said. “I’m sure there’s people that are on both sides of the fence on it, that agree with it and some disagree with it. Like most things, you know.”
Ward 4 Alderman Ken Papania said he had no comment.
“I told [the mayor] he should have left that alone,” Papania said.
“My job is obviously to pave streets, pick up garbage, dig ditches and things of that nature,” he continued. “The big social and national issues, I’ll let (state Rep.) Hank Zuber... and those guys kind of wrastle with that.”
Other aldermen did not return phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
What will the next mayor do?
As for whether the city will issue such a proclamation in the future, Authement said he couldn’t say.
“It’s gonna be up to Kenny,” he said, referring to Mayor-Elect Kenny Holloway.
Holloway said he hadn’t read the proclamation and could not comment on its substance or the process by which it was issued.
“People and their sexual preference, that’s up to them,” he said. “I’m a Catholic, and I believe that a man and a woman is, like the Bible says, that’s the way it should be. Now if somebody else has a different opinion of that, that’s fine, that’s their life, they can lead it that way. But as far as I‘m concerned and the way I lead my life, I go by what the Bible says.”
Holloway will be sworn in on June 30 and take office on July 1.
“We’re trying to deal with a lot of issues, and sexual preference is not one of them that we’re dealing with as far as the city and local government,” he said.
Schmied said she hopes that if she submits another proclamation request for Pride Month next June, Holloway will sign it like Dobson did.
On Wednesday morning, she was strolling downtown and shopping with visitors from Austin, Texas, and Tennessee, whom she said had been “so excited” to see the proclamation on Monday.
“Someone who is business oriented is going to know that it’s good business if the city is a welcoming place to everyone,” she said. “That is just simple good business.”
