Guest Editorial by Allen Lanning

I have been more focused on national and international affairs lately, but this is LGBTQ History Month, so I’m going to weigh in on an issue in the Great Falls mayoral race.

There is a meme circulating on social media about kids looking at a Halloween costume labelled “Homophobic Mayor of Great Falls” which is clearly intended to represent our current Mayor, Cory Reeves. Cory is offended and disappointed, asserting he has never been homophobic, period.

But here’s the deal. Prejudice occurs on a spectrum, or slider, from mild, unconscious biases to intense, hostile attitudes. Prejudice against LGBTQ people is called homophobia. People like Cory consciously or unconsciously push the slider in their mind so that only the most egregious and open conduct qualifies as homophobia to them.

Granted, if you narrowly define homophobia that way, Cory is not homophobic. I believe he would never gratuitously physically attack an LGBTQ person, he would never call someone the “F” word, he would never join in bullying or making crude, hurtful jokes about LGBTQ people or fire someone just because of their sexual orientation.

But his definition of homophobia is too narrow. It’s wrong and misleading. Homophobia at the low end of the spectrum is still homophobia and is still hurtful.

When you take official action as Mayor out of a desire for LGBTQ people to remain invisible in the public eye and the public record, that’s homophobic.

When you change the City’s longstanding policy or practice of issuing proclamations or flying celebratory flags to avoid having to make a Pride Month Declaration or to avoid hanging a Pride flag on public property or to avoid publicly acknowledging the history of oppression and harm LGBTQ people have suffered, that’s homophobic.

When you assert governmental neutrality between oppressed LGBTQ people and the people who would oppress us, that’s homophobic. We see it. We know it for what it is. And we remember it.

I have always had polite communications with Mayor Reeves. He is generally friendly and accessible. I recognize that he has done positive things in his private and his public life. But homophobia doesn’t change its nature because it’s manifested in subtle ways by genteel people. And polite regard for one’s friends and family members who are part of an oppressed group does not excuse actions taken to further that oppression, even small ones.

So yes, if you judge Mayor Cory Reeves by his mayoral actions on LGBTQ issues, he is homophobic, despite his protestations. It’s fair to describe him as mildly homophobic. But it is not truthful or fair to allow him to slide himself out of the label entirely. Obviously, this is but one aspect of this race. But if that is an important issue to you, and it should be, remember that when you vote.