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An Oklahoma city's first openly gay mayor resigned. Then came the fallout.
An Oklahoma city’s first openly gay mayor resigned. Then came the fallout.
By Danielle Paquette
July 31, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. EDT
{snip the beginning. The article starts with an incident involving law enforcement from Nichols Hills, a neighboring town.}
As someone who began a slow process of coming out in his mid-20s, Graham said he understood the toll of discrimination. Getting into politics, he said, was his way of trying to protect the vulnerable. He won a city council seat in 2018 before his fellow members appointed him mayor, a title they voted on each year. ... Graham’s day job was running campaigns for pro-LGBTQ candidates in the South. As mayor, he had declared June as Pride Month in The Village and vowed to outlaw conversion therapy, a practice still underway in parts of Oklahoma. ... His colleagues described him as cordial with law enforcement, recalling a time he’d hand-delivered BBQ to The Village’s police department.
Graham said he’d thought about apologizing to the Nichols Hills officers. Perhaps he should have stuck to recording video. ... Then the local newspaper published a front-page story: Village Mayor Interrupts NHills Traffic Stop With Verbal Altercation. ... People yelled at him during the next city council meeting, saying he was anti-law enforcement and behaving in a way that embarrassed them. Graham’s sexual orientation never came up, but the intensity of the criticism was disturbing, said Tammy Conover, 59, an artist in The Village.
“If he was a straight man, nothing ever would have been said,” Conover said. “All the time people are saying, ‘We’re Christians,’ but we are so hateful. So mean.” ... Graham told the city council that he did not want to comment. Privately, he felt the meeting had gotten too heated and worried saying more could fuel the fire.
The next week, he said, he discovered a four-inch gash in one of his tires. He suspected someone had slashed it. But Symes’s comments kept him from seeking a police report, he said. ... After that, he noticed a man in a plum-colored Toyota truck trailing him one evening while he was walking {his dog} Ralph. Graham said he motioned for him to pass, he said, but the man just silently stared at him. ... “I felt shock,” Graham recalled, tears welling. “To be followed while walking, I felt very vulnerable. I should have called somebody. … I just didn’t feel safe. I just wanted it to go away.”
{snip}
danielle.paquette@washpost.com
https://www.facebook.com/danielle.paquette.58
https://twitter.com/dpaqreport
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arcio/rss/author/Danielle-Paquette
By Danielle Paquette
July 31, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. EDT
{snip the beginning. The article starts with an incident involving law enforcement from Nichols Hills, a neighboring town.}
As someone who began a slow process of coming out in his mid-20s, Graham said he understood the toll of discrimination. Getting into politics, he said, was his way of trying to protect the vulnerable. He won a city council seat in 2018 before his fellow members appointed him mayor, a title they voted on each year. ... Graham’s day job was running campaigns for pro-LGBTQ candidates in the South. As mayor, he had declared June as Pride Month in The Village and vowed to outlaw conversion therapy, a practice still underway in parts of Oklahoma. ... His colleagues described him as cordial with law enforcement, recalling a time he’d hand-delivered BBQ to The Village’s police department.
Graham said he’d thought about apologizing to the Nichols Hills officers. Perhaps he should have stuck to recording video. ... Then the local newspaper published a front-page story: Village Mayor Interrupts NHills Traffic Stop With Verbal Altercation. ... People yelled at him during the next city council meeting, saying he was anti-law enforcement and behaving in a way that embarrassed them. Graham’s sexual orientation never came up, but the intensity of the criticism was disturbing, said Tammy Conover, 59, an artist in The Village.
“If he was a straight man, nothing ever would have been said,” Conover said. “All the time people are saying, ‘We’re Christians,’ but we are so hateful. So mean.” ... Graham told the city council that he did not want to comment. Privately, he felt the meeting had gotten too heated and worried saying more could fuel the fire.
The next week, he said, he discovered a four-inch gash in one of his tires. He suspected someone had slashed it. But Symes’s comments kept him from seeking a police report, he said. ... After that, he noticed a man in a plum-colored Toyota truck trailing him one evening while he was walking {his dog} Ralph. Graham said he motioned for him to pass, he said, but the man just silently stared at him. ... “I felt shock,” Graham recalled, tears welling. “To be followed while walking, I felt very vulnerable. I should have called somebody. … I just didn’t feel safe. I just wanted it to go away.”
{snip}
danielle.paquette@washpost.com
https://www.facebook.com/danielle.paquette.58
https://twitter.com/dpaqreport
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arcio/rss/author/Danielle-Paquette
