Lacey City Council gets an earful about anti-Pride flag comments, Chick-fil-A sponsorship
Note: The Olympian intended to show all of Thursday night’s public comment via a city of Lacey video, but the archived video, as of Thursday night, only showed a small portion of public comment before it was cut off.
The Lacey City Council received sharp public comments Thursday night about flying the Pride flag and Chick-Fil-A sponsorship of a city event, and even an accusation that the city tolerates homophobic comments in the workplace.
Linsey Fields, a city of Lacey employee who identifies as queer, stepped up to the podium during the public comment portion of Lacey City Council meeting to address two concerns: recent anti-Pride flag comments made by a city colleague and previous comments made by council member Ed Kunkel about the city’s flag policy being divisive because some flags represent “special interests.”
“I am not a special interest group,” Fields said. “We are people who deserve respect and kindness. I will not be bullied or shamed into being less than I am, nor will I be shamed back into the closet.”
Fields then accused the city of tolerating homophobic comments in the workplace. In her first five months on the job, she said an employee who was known to make harmful statements showed her a graphic about how some values were more virtuous than others, including gay marriage, which the graphic identified as “deviant.”
She said she raised concerns through the proper channels, and she was offered an apology from the city’s human resources department, but the employee who showed her that graphic faced “zero consequences.”
Fields told the council she has a copy of that graphic.
Fields also took on an employee who spoke out against flying the Pride flag at a Sept. 15 council meeting. Fields expressed her disappointment that the city did not address the situation or offer an apology.
“I ask the council to apologize and make amends to all community members and employees who were harmed by these comments, and to make a special apology to the Nisqually and Squaxin people,” Fields said. The tribes were named by Kunkel as special interests.
After she spoke, Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder thanked Fields for being an employee and said the city manager will follow through on her complaint to HR.
“I want you to know how much I appreciate you and your work for the city of Lacey, and I’m sorry you ever felt anything but welcomed and accepted in the city of Lacey,” Ryder said. “And I hope you never feel like that again.”
The council also heard from people disappointed that Chick-fil-A, the popular but controversial fast-food chicken restaurant, had sponsored Lacey’s Children’s Day at Huntamer Park on Oct. 1.
Meghan Hall said the business has a long and tragic history of advocating against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community through donations and statements made by executives.
“The name is synonymous with corporations that oppose equal rights for LGBTQ people,” she said.
Hall acknowledged that around 2019, Chick-fil-A announced it would stop donating to organizations opposing gay rights; however, she cited a story by The Daily Beast last year that said an executive with ties to the company was funding efforts to derail the Equality Act.
She called the sponsorship ill-conceived and that more needs to be done to prevent hurtful actions like it.
“I want all children and their caregivers to feel welcome at Children’s Day,” Hall said.
Anna Schlecht of Olympia heaped praise on the city, saying she does her shopping in Lacey, she visits the city parks and singled out the Lacey Senior Center as a good example of what a senior center can be.
And yet she was saddened by the Chick-fil-A sponsorship of Children’s Day, saying it sends a message that some families are welcome and some are not.
“I have great faith and trust that you will look hard at this issue and do the right thing as you always have done,” she said.
Mayor Ryder said the concerns about the sponsorship were a good example of why the city needs an equity commission not only to advise the council but to advise the city on issues where traditional inequities have existed.
He said the city planned to refer the topic of sponsors to the parks board and equity commission, so that “all of our corporate sponsors are following the values of the city.”
“On the one hand I feel embarrassed; on the other hand, we’re trying to do the best we can and sometimes we do fall down,” Ryder said.
This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
